Acclimating Loaches

[Wendie]

Normally I would float the bag for 40 minutes and then add water slowly to the bag over the course of a couple hours. However, since I am getting ready to upgrade to a larger tank I am wondering if I might be better off putting them in a bucket and doing a drip type of change over. I plan to use about 5 - 10 gallons of water from the original tank plus new water. Do I use one of those little air regulators to control the rate of drip? I've never read anything on this method so if anyone knows of any written information could you point me in the right direction? Thanks. I don't want to stress them out too much.

[mikev]

Do I use one of those little air regulators to control the rate of drip?

You don't have to. You can simply tie a knot on the tube and control the rate by tightening it appropriately.

IMHO, drip is the better choice if you do two acclimations at the same time...otherwise, I prefer to do it the usual way.

Why do you need to float for 40 mins before changing water? This only equalizes temp (which may be already about the same!) and stretches the procedure.

hth

[Wendie]

Habit I guess. I know it doesn't take that long, but I just do it.

[mikev]

Habit I guess. I know it doesn't take that long, but I just do it.

I would not do this at all when moving between my own tanks at about the same temp; being in a small container (bucket or bag) is already stressful. I would rather stretch the water acclimation part (my new bad habit is 2 hours which is really too much, but it is better to err this way, especially with new kind of fish).

BTW, did you ever notice how Petlands do it?

[Wendie]

No, I haven't seen them add any fish to the tanks. I've seen them clean the tanks and set them up for new arrivals. I'd probably get nervous.

[mikev]

No, I haven't seen them add any fish to the tanks. I've seen them clean the tanks and set them up for new arrivals. I'd probably get nervous.

I did a few times. They are real efficient: they open the bags and dump the fish into the tanks. No acclimation, no quarantine, the entire procedure done in minutes, then they check the floor for the fish they dropped. (I've seen this in two stores but suspect that all follow the same procedure.)

In reality, this is not quite as awful as it seems, since they assume that the neutral Ph (7.0) is maintained both in the distribution center and in the stores....(not that I ever saw them checking Ph...)

Anyway, watching this once was enough to cut down my Petland purchases to the minimum...I don't mind buying food or hardware from them, since it is cheaper, but with live fish it is just not certain how much damage they do.

[Wendie]

It's the Petland Discounts that I deal with here in Riverhead. They are more on the ball than Petco which is up the road. Half the problem is keeping help apparently. She was upset with the employees for putting certain fish together. She made them move everything until they were all compatibile. She's very careful to include sand in the loach tank. The tanks are kept fairly clean - perhaps you might see a dead fish in one or two tanks after a delivery but not later in the week. Petco is not that careful. I told one kid that he had two dead bettas on display and he had the nerve to tell me, "no, they're just sleeping".

[NancyD]

For what it's worth,I've read that some people use the bag dumping "technique" for fish that have been shipped long distances &/or spent a long time in the bag. The idea is to get them out of the waste polluted & oxygen depleted water ASAP. This is not the same as taking fish home from the store.
Nancy