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I will be purchasing Amano shrimp for my 10 gallon aquarium and had a question on acclimation. All the videos I’ve watched had the schrimp outside the tank but the issue I have is the aquarium is located in the basement that is not insulated or heated and to keep the shrimp in a separate container would create a situation where there would be a 15-20 degree temperature difference. Could I acclimate using the bag or container and drip the tank water into it while it floats in the tank water??

What's the official word on how to do this? Do any of the companies who make them post acclimation instructions? (I've been looking and can not find any yet). As usual, I read conflicting information one the internet about how this topic, like "don't float, you'll suffocate fish", "don't float the bags are toxic to the existing aquarium environment" to "I float therm all the time no problem". Like I said, can anyone link me some reputable information, like info from the manufacturers themselves? EDIT - I don't want to start a fish acclimation flame war here. I'm just hoping someone stumbled across something from Kordon, etc. that addresses this topic.

I think my 15 gallon planted tank is cycled. My betta, Phinneas, has been hanging out in my 5 gallon quarantine tank for the last 4 weeks while I have been setting up his future home. I am wanting to move him to the larger tank this week but I don’t know how to accomplish that without causing him harm due to very different water parameters despite all of my water coming from the same source. The Fluval Stratum substrate and the plants have significantly altered the parameters of the larger tank. See the chart below for additional information. Additionally, I noticed the water in the 5 gallon tank has been sitting at .5ppm ammonia every time I’ve tested it in the past week despite water changes. After a 50%ish water change last night to try to lower that number, then seeing the same number today I decided to test my tap water. Found the problem! My tap tests at .5ppm ammonia. As a result of these numbers, I’m looking for advice for two questions: 1. How do I safely transfer Phinneas to his new home? 2. How concerned should I be and how do I combat the ammonia that occurs in my tap water? Thanks in advance for any insight!

Hello. I am new and have been working on my fist 20 gallon tank . It’s been up almost 3 months . Was adding 2 of the last 4 fish I ordered . Like a fool I didn’t know about or have a quarantine tank. One of the new fish died and the other looks to have the same thing. Looking to treat the whole tank with kanaplex but I still have 2 other ordered fish coming in 24-34hrs and no where to put them. I want to treat the tank but was wondering about acclimating new fish in the middle of a treatment. Should I start the treatment or wait for new fish and do it ? Thank you . I have done some salt treatments in the time being.

Hi Nerms! I've been patiently waiting an entire year to get some neos for my 5g. Ironically, I decided to pull the trigger and forgot to order a drip acclimation kit. 🤦 Any prayer that I can successfully acclimate them without one? My parameters: Ph: 7.6 Ammonia, Nitrite: 0 Nitrates: 5 Gh: 12 Kh: 4 Temp: 78 Tank parameters coming from: Ph: 7.4 Ammonia, Nitrite: 0 Nitrates: 20 Gh: 9 Kh: 5 Temp: 74

After acclimation guppies and fish are in the tank how soon should they be fed? Should first feeding be a light one or more regular one with maybe brine Shrimp. TIA

Hey all I’m curious on people’s process for acclimating fish you bought online. Now when I get fish from my LFS I just float the bag then plop and drop but I ordered pea puffers from across the country and don’t know if ph or anything is different from my water so would it be smart to drip acclimate them ? Or does it not matter?

Hello all! I'm having a bit of trouble with a batch of Japanese rice fish/medaka/Oryzias latipes, and I was wondering if anyone out there who's more knowledgeable than myself could give me a hand. I took a break from fishkeeping after moving cross country, and this is a bit of a disheartening foray back into the hobby. Parameters: 20 gal tank, about a year old, other occupants are 15+ RCS and a handful of snails, pretty well planted pH 7.2, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates <5ppm Water temp is 76F The situation: Ordered a group of 8 "blue sparkle" medaka. Shipment arrived on time, but the bag was leaking and HOT when it arrived. The fish were shipped in a styrofoam container, but the interior was really warm. Still, all 8 fish were alive and active. One fish was missing an eye, but it didn't appear to be a new injury. Day 1: Drip acclimated the fish, kept them in a breeder net for 24hr to observe. They all seemed active, alert, and acclimating well. All of the fish were eating and swimming well through the end of Day 2. Tested water levels and did a small water change in the afternoon of Day 2. Day 3: One of the smallest fish seemed to be breathing quickly/swimming near the surface at the end of Day 2. It declined quickly overnight and was dead on the morning of Day 3. The next smallest fish followed a similar trajectory and was dead by the end of Day 3. Day 4: The largest fish, a female, got stuck in some algae near the back of the tank. I've had a bit of a hair algae problem in the past. Things have been much better, but I guess I missed a clump in the back. I gave the algae a bit of a nudge and she quickly swam free, but she's been hyperventilating ever since. She hasn't been eating, has been swimming near the surface, but also has bursts of energy where she swims around the tank. At the end of the day, I noticed a small red splotch on her back. The remaining 5 fish seem to be doing fine and are eating and swimming well. Tested water levels and did a small water change. Day 5: Today. Big girl seems to be struggling even more, the red splotch is bigger, and she's drifting nose-up. I gently scooped her into a breeder net (with some plants for cover) for closer observation. One of the other fish is still swimming normally, but he seems to have popeye in one of his eyes. Another fish is swimming near the top of the tank like the others were before they died. Three appear to be doing okay. What am I doing wrong here? Aside from ordering fish during the summer (which, really, I should've thought of beforehand), I can't pinpoint what's going wrong. Is it a delayed reaction to the shipping/acclimation? Am I missing something? Any input y'all have would be much appreciated, and I'm here to answer any questions. Thanks! --Plants, a frustrated fishkeeper

Hello! Seen a lot of conflicting information on acclimation processes lately, and as I'm getting a shipment on Wednesday of some fish, I was curious as to what the nerms are doing to acclimate their fish. My process so far has been to pour the shipment bag out into a container, and slowly replace the water with my tank water by filling it up, emptying half, etc. since I don't have a good actual drip acclimation method. For this upcoming shipment, I was thinking to add all the fish (3 different species) into one larger bucket with an airstone, add Stress Guard/Prime, and repeat the same process. My concern would be: 1) Is there harm in adding water from different bags of fish together, even if they came from the same facility? 2) Is the slow acclimation process worth it, or is it more dangerous to leave them with their bag water? 3) What is your current favored method for more delicate fish? There are Blue Neon Rasboras and Reticulated Hillstream Loaches in this shipment. Thanks y'all!

I sent an order off to Aqua Huna on Tuesday (using the link on the Coop page so they get some payback) and the fish arrived today. Not bad. I ordered six albino cory catfish, six panda cory catfish, and ten cherry shrimp. Everyone was alive when they got here. One albino cory cat was barely alive, but seems to be improving. He's now sitting upright and moving occasionally. He was curled up and apparently dead on his side in the bag, but is looking better now. Kind of interesting in that you see no gill movement for several minutes then about ten seconds of rapid breathing, then back to nothing for a minute or two. Everyone went into a breeder box after being acclimated so I can feed them more intensively and keep an eye on them for a few weeks. As anticipated, all are quite small, but that's not a big issue for me. The photos on Aqua Huna show the fish relative to the size of a penny, so I knew what to expect. Small fish tend to disappear in a bigger planted tank though, so by keeping them in the breeder box for a bit I can better monitor them and fatten them up. They aren't competing with the horde outside for food in the box and they're not crowded. The breeder boxes circulate water from the tank through the boxes so the fish are essentially in the big tank, just outside it in the breeder box. Each breeder box is attached to the tank the fish will eventually go into. The albino corys are on the thirty high, the panda corys are on the twenty high, and the shrimp are on the ten gallon tank. The cherry shrimp were interesting. They were very pale with essentially no color until they hit their breeder box that has a clump of java moss with lots of algae on it. The box also has a lot of algae growing on the walls of the box. It was like someone hit a light switch. Within ten seconds of being put in that box they were colored up and feeding. They've also got a piece of cholla wood in with them for more shelter. These are my first shrimp and they're pretty impressive little critters. They're very active. Eleven of the twelve cory cats are doing great. The twelfth guy is improving. Going from apparently dead to not dead is an improvement. The ten shrimp all look great. I was surprised the shrimp came in a breather bag and wasn't sure about floating the breather bag to temperature acclimate so I ended up hanging it half in the water and half out. The bags were all 74 degrees when they got here and my tanks are about 76 so there wasn't a huge difference anyway. I followed the Aqua Huna acclimation instructions (though I really wanted to plop and drop the albino cory who wasn't looking good.) So far anyway, I'm very happy. I'm still half expecting to lose the one albino cory, but corys are tough little fish, so we'll see. One good thing about getting fish small is there's little to no impact on the bioload. Each breeder box of fish has maybe the same bioload as one of my swordtails.

Okay, so I ordered some shrimp and they look amazing! All active and hopping and alive! I am going to be drip acclimating them for a few hours. Big question: is this specimen container going to be safe to use for drip acclimation, or should I use a five gallon bucket? I know they jump but I don’t know if there’s enough water in the bag to cover the bottom of a bucket with any amount of depth.

I have a 10 Gallon fish bowl that I would like to use for acclimating my fish when I get them or possibly as a fry tank. It is pretty dirty so I would need to clean it but I don't know what I should clean it with. Should I just do water or can I use soap with it? It won't be used for a couple weeks.

My rice fish have spent their time indoors unheated at 68 during the winter when I got them and now its 75 indoors and going to be close to 80 today in the seattle suburbs. I want to get them in the tub pond but that water is still 53F. Is there a good way to get them acclimated? or is the temp difference too much? I could use boiling water to bring the pond up to say 60-65. Tonight will bottom out at 50 and then it'll be cloudy and 50-60 in a week, but we've got 5ish days of sun coming up.

Do you acclimate your fish?

If you know a nurse, this is a great way to recycle IV drip regulators. When I was nursing I would bring a few home just because I knew I could find a use for them somewhere. They will fit on aquarium airline and work great for drip acclimation. Better than tying a knot in the line as some Youtube's suggest.. The blue plastic clip is simple and works well.

I have been reading, watching multiple theories on this. I did it once, but most of the time I float my bag in the tank 45 mins, and put them in. The opinions are VERY strong with this one. I don't even know at this point what is right or wrong to do anymore. The fish I actually did acclimate died anyways so its hard to determine the underlying cause. 1) Acclimate from a LFS 2) Acclimate fish/shrimp from online purchase 3) Drip acclimation or 1/4 cup every 15 minute method? I would REALLY appreciate some experienced feed back. I am really doing my best to do the right thing. Education and knowledge is the only way I am going to get over this hump. All in the hopes of having more than 3 fish in my aquarium.

Hello! I just got my super delayed fish shipment from Aquahuna. The local PO called me immediately when they received it and I drove in to pick it up, but it had been in the mail for 8 1/2 days. All but one bag of fish is alive and looking relatively good. A few very skinny dwarf chain loaches, but other than that so far things look okay. I decided to plop and drop since they'd been in transit so long and ammonia levels were at least 5 ppm (I just dipped a tetra test strip...haven't done the API test yet, and that's where the test strips max out). Here's the thing...AquaHuna's acclimation instructions CLEARLY say to dump the bag water into the tank. I haven't done that yet at this point. It's only a 10 gallon QT tank, and if I dump a gallon of 5ppm amonia water in there....ew. But their water is acidic (as low as the test strips will go at about 6.4) and mine is very alkaline (8.2). Their water is also softer with a lower kh and gh than mine. So, do I add the nasty bag water? Do I try to lower my ph to let them gradually adjust? Do I just cross my fingers?

If I get a new bag of fish with 10 fish in it, but I want to put 5 in one tank and 5 in another, how do I do the acclimation process?

I am considering buying my next batch of Amano shrimp and some CPDs from Aqua Huna. I saw that the acclimation process he outlines is different than what others say and do. He specializes in shipping fish and must have reasons for his process, but it does seem like it might not be ideal. My notes in brackets [like this]. Acclamation AQUAHUNA.COM Acclimation Proclamation FACT: Fish are 99% water. Water has an enormous effect (good or bad) on all fish. FACT: Fish are quite resilient. They can tolerate gradual changes, and can adapt to a variety of living... #1- Float all new arrivals in your tanks for up to 15 minutes. This helps the water in the sealed bags slowly equalize in temperature (become the same as) the surrounding aquarium water. [others say NOT to float these gas permeable bags] #2- After 15 minutes, make a cut in the bag just below the clip. Be careful not to cut off the “tail” (the portion of the bag above and including the clip), you will need that later. Open the “new Hole” you have created with your fingers and dip the bag down into the tank, thereby adding an inch or two of aquarium water in the bag. Use the tail of the bag to anchor it at the surface of the tank by closing the lid of the tank on it. [Others say this will cause toxic ammonia levels. The ammonia in the bag is high, but the pH is very low which reduces toxicity. When you add new water the pH goes up and that ammonia now becomes far more toxic.] #3- Wait 15 minutes- repeat step #2 (adding tank water to the bag) at least twice, more if time allows. By mixing “tank water” into the “bag water” you help your fish acclimate (adjust) to their new environment. [This might make the toxicity worse and exposure time higher] #4- Finally, pour the fish with the water from the bags into the tank. Make sure the water from the bag is poured directly into the tank, even if the water is discolored. The fish NEED this water in order for them to adjust to their new home. [I'm not sure how 500mL of water in a tank of any size will make that much of a difference. Not to mention how so many say not to pour the new water into the tank...especially with so much ammonia.]

Do i have to acclimate shrimp? If so which method is the best? Im getting amano shrimp.

We see everywhere how you have to acclimate fish to the temperature of your tank by flaoting the bag, and how they can be shocked and die with sudden changes in temperature, but my question is, how much difference is needed to shock a fish? I guess it's different from the type of fish but any general idea? 3, 4, 5 degree difference? Or are we talking 10+? I wonder this because I do not remember where I heard it, but someone said fish in the wild are always moving from one pocket of temperature to the next one, let's say they swim arround in an area of the river where direct sunlight is shining on it, temperature there might be 75F-79F, but then a fish might get scared, or it might just want to relax and he will go below some rocks, a sunken peice of driftwood, or perhaps a natural little cave, where the sun barely reaches, and the temperature is way cooler, perhaps 70F-75F? Can you imagine fish dying left and right in the wild due to temperature shock? I've made little experiments with my molly tank, and have made water changes with increasing number of difference in the water. I started with 2 degree difference, then 3, then 4... today I did a water change of 50% with water that was about 87F. It mixed with the other 50% in the tank that was at 79F, and the final temperature was about 84F. I have never seen signs of stress or have lost a fish, not even fry. Not even discolored due to stress, however I am afraid to go any further, I do not want to abuse my pets, certainly wouldn't do it in the blazing heat of the summer days in here, where tap water comes out at 100F+. So what's the deal, has anyone made such an experiment? How much of a temp. difference can a fish take?

I want to get endlers soon and put them in my 5 gallon planted tank that I use for quarantining before I move them into my 20 gallon planted tank. My normal tank parameters are 7.4 pH, 3 dGH, and 3 dKH. For my best chances of success, should I raise all 3 to higher levels and slowly bring them down over a few months before putting them into my normal water in the 20 gallon? What products should I use to do this? And how high should I get them? Thanks everyone for the help!

The question came up earlier about matching your tank parameters to the parameters of the fish arriving by mail. I'm curious what everyone does in that case? Do you worry about? what experiences you've had good and bad? I personally just float to temperature, then "plop and drop" discarding the water

Hi all! I was recently watching Cory's videos on outdoor tub ponds and felt inspired! So I set up a little something on the balcony (perfect because my one bedroom apartment doesn't have a lot of space for tanks 🙃) Now I am at the point where I need to stock it, but I'm afraid! The temperatures seem so drastic! For example, I have my happy, established tank that sits at like 78/79*F all day and night. My outdoor temps right now are 85* high and low of 56*. I have been monitoring the temp today and it has risen from 58* this morning to 66* (which is less of a change than I expected- I thought it would get hotter.) It seems like such a temperature swing! How can I put fish in there?! Cory's video also said he was thinking of adding mystery snails- but it seems too cold! I am located in Northern California, and usually it is a bit hotter right now. Should I avoid the livebearers I was planning on and go with cloud minnows? But what if it heats up? Am I too late in the season to start? Oh my. Such uncertainty with outdoor ponds! Lol Advice appreciated, especially if you've had any experience with outdoor ponds. Pond is a 20gal tub with sponge filter and airstone, hornwort, a dying something or other plant, and rotala.