Tough night for new fish

[Sharkey18]

I purchased a few new fish tonight. 5 green chromis for my DT and 2 firefish for the frag tank.

Unfortunately I forgot that I had set them up to drip acclimate and about an hour later remembered.

By that time one the firefish was swimming (barely) on his side and one of the chromis sank right to the bottom of the tank.

 

I watched hopefully, waiting for them to recover. The firefish was being tossed by the current and the chromis, well I watched as it drifted closer, closer darn! right into the coral banded shrimp (a large one). Unfortunately (for the firefish) that got me thinking.... i was considered euthanizing the firefish in an ice bath... or I could feed it to the nem! and that's what I did.

 

My nem gets pretty excited about pieces of frozen shrimp but it's reaction to a live meal was insane.

 

Expensive feeding tonight.

 

Laura

[Boret]

You should really consider setting up a Quarantine Tank. A simple 10 gallon will do. I think I have seen some being offered for Free in the For Sale section.

It will help you avoid introducing pests in your main tank and will give time to the new fish to strengthen before you introduce them in the aquarium.

 

I am trying to figure out how drip acclimation resulted in lack of water.... When you drip acclimate you normally will end up with more water inside the bag, not less.

Here you can find a pretty decent Acclimation Guide.

[capsfan]

I don't see where he said that he had less water during acclimation, but you are right.

[Boret]

I guess you are right Capsfan. Something about swimming sideways... I guess made me think that it run out of water.

What I don't understand now is how 1 hour of drip acclimation will do that to the fish. I drip acclimate before I put in the QT tank for well over 1 hour.

If you follow the guide I linked it can take well over 4-5 hours to properly acclimate:

 

-- Begin a siphon by sucking on the end you will be placing into one of the styros. Start by having the knots tighter, then loosen to achieve desired flow (2-4 drops per second). You want the water volume in the styro to double in 30-60 minuets. Remember it is better to fill slowly than to fill too fast.

 

-- Keep an eye on things so that nothing spills onto floor and you can adjust flow if needed

 

-- Once water volume doubles, discard half the water from the styro and then repeat process. If you plug the end of the tube and put it into tank with the other end, it should keep its siphon. For the next round- make sure it

[Sharkey18]

Hey, Sorry I wasn't clear.....

 

I thought perhaps that they got too cold since i was drip acclimating into a bucket. There is also a back story in that i got stuck in major traffic on the way home from the lfs so they were also "bagged" for much longer than I would have liked.... In any case I had two unhealthy fish by the time all was said and done.

 

I also do quarantine... in a 29 gallon..... the coral banded shrimp is in the qt because he got big and eats too many hermits and snails and steals all the food from the coral....I pulled the dying firefish from the QT to euthanize in ice water and decided instead to feed to nem in display. the remaining fish are swimming happily in the QT

 

But thanks for the info.... I am not sure why the two fish did poorly. Looked fine in lfs.

 

Laura

[reefmontalvo]

Sorry to hear, but its a learning experience. The best way I acclimate my fish I place the bag in the water then about 15 mintues later I open the bag and pour some tank water in the bag then let them sit for about 20 minutes. Then I take the bag out of the tank drain the water from the bag (not all the water) then pour the fish and water in the tank.

[davelin315]

You just defeated the purpose of QT by feeding the dying fish. Whatever you were trying to keep out through QT (unless you use QT as simply observation and fatten up time) is now introduced into your tank if it was on the firefish. Also, I would give it more time to recover if I were you next time. Fish can go through shock and pull out of it, although typically they don't. I have a royal gramma that laid on its side drifting in the current for a week before it recovered after being in a tank that caught on fire and then was doused with a fire extinguisher. It's still in my tank today, a few years later.