Awrighty then! Update number two!

[dave green]

A week after rescuing my friend's fish... they've all passed on to fishy heaven... all in quick time, too, within the same 24 hours or so.:aww:

The emperor angel left a note saying "So Long,"
The Coral Banded shrimp said "and Thanks For All The Fish.":jk:

Curiously, though... all of the guys who were there when they all went in are doing really well!:up:

So the tank is back to where it was before last week... a clown, a yellow tang, a 6-line, a dragon goby, a foxface, a bunch of crustacean, live rock and cleaners.

Now for the question: :whistling:

How is it that it's only the new additions passed on, instead of all the fish or a mixture of fish? :confused2:

 

[cameron]

New fish don't always acclimate and start eating properly. I would certainly check the params though. I would guess it is bad params, poor acclimation technique or just plain bad luck.

 

[dave green]

Let's focus on the acclimation technique... (since what I've gotten from Cappucino Bay and Optimum Aquarium is all still alive and well in the tank)...

I'm pretty sure that although my acclimation technique is better than no acclimation at all but at the same time, it can't be the best way to do it:

1: Put fish and water into a container
2: Add splashes of water from my tank every couple minutes for an hour or until the volume of water inside the container has doubled
3: Dump water through net into a bucket, catching the fish in the net
4: Release fish into the tank

Soooo.... what's the right way to do it?

 

[cdub]

drip acclimate

 

[cameron]

I think your acclimation should work well enough, but drip acclimation is better and easier IMO. I personally use air line tubing, airline valve and a plastic chip bag clip. Total cost is about 50 cents with most of the cost in the chip bag clip buy you can but one of these which is a bit nicer:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=16100&Nty=1&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=All&pc=1&N=0&Ntt=acclimation&Np=1">http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=16100&Nty=1&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=All&pc=1&N=0&Ntt=acclimation&Np=1</a>

or you can stop by and I will give you the tubing and the airline valve.

Anyway, I simply clip the chip bag clip to the top of the aquarium holding the air line tubing in the main tank, stick the airline valve onto the other end of the tube, create a syphon, drop the end of the airline tubing in your acclimation container. Adjust the drip rate using the air line valve. Check back every 15-30 minutes to dump off excess water. After an hour or so, put the fish in the tank.

It is a gentle acclimation and pretty hands off. That said, again nothing really wrong with your manual acclimation. I am guessing just a bit of bad luck. A huge percentage of livestock never survive the tramatization of transport and by the time you get them they are often really weak. Putting them in the main tank they may have gotten harrassed for this reason as well.

 

[george]

I would add that unless you keep your house at a nice balmy 78-80 degrees, the separate container for dripping or the method you used can experience a significant drop in temperature. If you can't place the container in your tank or sump while acclimating, be sure to keep an eye on the temperature. A few degrees isn't a big deal as long as you re-equalize the temperature first before introducing the fish.

 

[cameron]

Good point George.

 

[flyingarmy]

I use a 5 gal bucket with airline tubing and a valve. About a drip every second seems to work well. If I am going to aclimate them over a long period of time I use a small 15W heater and airpump/stone to keep the water temp and oxygen levels up. One thing to remember is not to put the water from the aclimation conatiner in your tank. So you need to make sure you have extra SW made up to account for the loss of water that you are dripping.

 

[dave green]

Barbara, all of the new additions went down. D'OH!

The skimmer looked a little on the low side, but I'm going to keep my eyes on it.

 

[dave green]

Cool.... I will try those techniques out on any new fish that come into the tank. I appreciate everyone's input.