Schistura mahnerti acclimation

[mpeterb]

Hi all,

I just purchased some schistura mahnerti - they arrive Friday. They're going into my river tank, a 40 gallon long, with a river manifold and 3 maxi-jet 1200 powerheads. I turn off the 3rd one about half of the time, because it brings the temp up to about 79 degrees F if left on, but as it is, it stays at 75. There is sand, driftwood, smooth rock, water sprite, java moss and java fern, and 9 glass cats and 1 4" bamboo shrimp.

I just set up the manifold and sand last week, but all of the plants, wood, rocks and sponges are from the old tank which was running for about 7 months.

The schistura mahnerti were being kept in medium hard water, ph 7.4, at 78 degrees.

My tank is gh 50, ph 6.4, kh 20 and 75 degrees. Ammonia and nitrites are 0, nitrates are about 20.

This is my first time with this species and the first time I'm getting fish in the mail, so I'm a bit nervous. I had a disaster once when trying to acclimate fish to this tank. That time was probably just because those fish had been bagged for too long, but still, I'd like to do my best by these guys. How should I go about acclimating them?

Any advice will be much appreciated.

[Doc]

If the fish themselves are in a large volume of water when you get them then I would personally go with drip acclimatization. Put the new fish and their water into a water tight container large enough to hold the bag and twice the volume again and that has some degree of insulation. Using some 4 or 6mm airline and either an airstone or airline clamp to restrict the flow begin a syphon from the water in your main tank into the bag with the new fish in. You want to get a flowrate of a 4-5 drips a minute ideally. It may also be an idea to add a separate airstone to aerate the water in the bag at the same time.
Test your pH etc in both water volumes before you start and test at 10minute intervals until they are evenly matched. The process should take about 40minutes to an hour.
I do this with all my new additions and it does work well and is less stressful to the fish than the old bag floated in the water method.

[Emma Turner]

I'd be very wary about switching off that 3rd powerhead for any real length of time. Loaches do like to investigate tight nooks and crannies, and the outlet nozzle leads straight to the impellor.

Good luck with your new additions.

Emma

[mpeterb]

Thanks.

So I plan a slow drip acclimation, with an airstone and ammo-lock. (can't be too careful)

I'll also find something to cork the outlet on the 3rd powerhead, at least until I just hook up a fan over the tank.

That should be good, yeah?

[Diana]

Test the GH and KH of the water in the bag. With a pH that different I will suggest that the water might also be significantly harder, too, and higher TDS.
It is much harder for fish to adapt to softer water, especially lower TDS than they have been accustomed to. I would set up a quarantine tank that matches the water in the bag. Then drip acclimate. No matter how carefully the Q-tank is set up the water will be a little bit different. Minimize the differences that you can measure (GH, KH, pH, salinity, TDS, whatever other tests you have), then drip for the other things you cannot measure.
If the difference was the other way, fish from moderately softer water going into slightly harder water it is usually OK. The fish can usually handle a small difference in that direction.

[mpeterb]

Test the GH and KH of the water in the bag. With a pH that different I will suggest that the water might also be significantly harder, too, and higher TDS.
It is much harder for fish to adapt to softer water, especially lower TDS than they have been accustomed to. I would set up a quarantine tank that matches the water in the bag. Then drip acclimate. No matter how carefully the Q-tank is set up the water will be a little bit different. Minimize the differences that you can measure (GH, KH, pH, salinity, TDS, whatever other tests you have), then drip for the other things you cannot measure.
If the difference was the other way, fish from moderately softer water going into slightly harder water it is usually OK. The fish can usually handle a small difference in that direction.

Okay - That is worrisome. The readings I gave for my tank are pretty much the same as my tap water, except the nitrates are zero and the ph is something like 6.8. What are some ways I can get this to a higher gh and kh, ( in one day) and is this added benefit worth the risk of quarantine in a new, unseasoned tank? ( I can add a sponge, or even a HOB filter, from a mature tank, gravel and even plants and decorations, but 1- I'd rather not grab too much gravel from one of my established tanks and 2- the tank will still be un-settled)

Thanks for your attention and any more I get in the future.

[lotsoffish]

Don't acclimate them at all. Just float the bags about 10 minutes and let them out. They will be fine. Trust me.

[mpeterb]

Don't acclimate them at all. Just float the bags about 10 minutes and let them out. They will be fine. Trust me.

You know, I was pretty sure you must be on this forum.

You got it, I'll do that.

[adamrf1126]

Don't acclimate them at all. Just float the bags about 10 minutes and let them out. They will be fine. Trust me.

i hope that was a joke...

i have never tried the drip method, i float the bags and add about a cup of tank water to the bag every 10-15 mins for 1 hour, then i just net them out of the bag and put them in the tank.

[Mark in Vancouver]

I assume this was a joke. Just for clarity's sake, that's a piece of very bad advice, lotsoffish.

[grizzlyone]

One of the first things I'd do is throw some Prime or ammolock in there...once you open the bag, you'll probably get a big ammonia spike once exposed to the air.

Either the drip or the cup method has worked for me, mostly its just giving them time to adapt to the new water chemistry.

Kevin

[lotsoffish]

With all due respect those are my fish I am sending him. When he gets them they will have been in the bags at least 48 hours. Acclimating them will only stress them out. These are rock solid strong fish I have babied for months. They will eat within 5 minutes of him letting them go. If he attempts to acclimate them it's highly likely the dang things will jump right on to his floor. These fish do not need acclimating, they are used to people, eating aggressively and they should be released out of their shipping water ASAP. mpeterb asked me what water conditions were before I sent them. After 48 hours in the bags none of my starting parameters other than hardness will even be close so why waste time letting them sit in that sewage they are now in?

[Mark in Vancouver]

Well that would work fine if you can guarantee that the pH, GH and temperature are the same in both tanks. If they were mine, I'd want to make the process more gradual. Osmotic shock sucks.

[Emma Turner]

When fish are shipped for any length of time, they should not be fed for at least 24 hours beforehand to minimise waste produced in the bags. Many shippers will also use a small amount of zeocarb in the bag too. Despite being in transit for 48 hours, those fish will be going into different water conditions and will require proper acclimatisation. I would float the bags, roll the tops down and use a jug to pour in a small amount of aquarium water. The first jug should contain a very small amount of ammo-lock or similar. Then just add small amounts of water over the next 45 mins or so, after which time the fish can be released.

Emma

[Doc]

Mark and Emma are absolutely right. Whether the fish are floated in the bag and gradually introduced to the differing water parameters or drip acclamatised they still need a while to acclamamtise. To just release them more or less straight away will stress them further and cause much more damage than another 45-60 minutes in a larger volume of water before they go into the main tank. The water parameter difference between the two tanks is huge in comparison with each other and you don't know the final chemistry of the water the fish are in when they arrive hence the tests to check this.