Need advice. Getting fish in the mail for the first time on Thursday

[KittenFishMom]

I'm getting fish through the mail for the first time. They should arrive on Thursday. I have set up email and phone text alerts so I know when they get here.

I have never gotten fish through the mail and would love advice, tips, and tricks to help the fish arrive and settle in here.

I am dropping off 27 male guppies Wednesday which will open up a tank as a quarantine tank.  It has been cycled and running smoothly for months. I know the seller fasted the fish and they will arrive hungry, and will not have seen light since Monday. I am going to start a batch of brine shrimp eggs tonight. 

Any advice on what to feed them, how much and how often as they settle in? There will be 6 4-month old, female flagfish.

Should I add anything to the tank before I open the box? I have "Complete", "Stress Coat" and "Ultimate" on my shelf.

Should I float the fish in their bag before opening it? 

The tank has a sponge filter, an HOB and an extra air stone. It also has some algae and snails in there.Some hardscape, not too many plants because I moved them to the 55 gallon tank. I could move some back into the tank because they are not all planted yet.

All thought are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

[DiscusLover]

On 11/29/2022 at 5:55 PM, KittenFishMom said:

I'm getting fish through the mail for the first time. They should arrive on Thursday. I have set up email and phone text alerts so I know when they get here.

I have never gotten fish through the mail and would love advice, tips, and tricks to help the fish arrive and settle in here.

I am dropping off 27 male guppies Wednesday which will open up a tank as a quarantine tank.  It has been cycled and running smoothly for months. I know the seller fasted the fish and they will arrive hungry, and will not have seen light since Monday. I am going to start a batch of brine shrimp eggs tonight. 

Any advice on what to feed them, how much and how often as they settle in? There will be 6 4-month old, female flagfish.

Should I add anything to the tank before I open the box? I have "Complete", "Stress Coat" and "Ultimate" on my shelf.

Should I float the fish in their bag before opening it? 

The tank has a sponge filter, an HOB and an extra air stone. It also has some algae and snails in there.Some hardscape, not too many plants because I moved them to the 55 gallon tank. I could move some back into the tank because they are not all planted yet.

All thought are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

The float and drop method should be fine and it should not harm the fish. For the quaratine tank there is no need to cycle in my opinion, most medications used for the quaratine kill the bacteria so aeration and daily wc should help. I also do not recommend feeding them the first day they arrive, they might be a bit stressed so I recommend feeding the next day. There is also no need to add anything into the tank keeping it bare is more simple and easier to clean.

[mynameisnobody]

@KittenFishMom plop and drop should work fine. What kind of fish are arriving? The only main concern I’d have is are the fish packed in breather bags? If so, do not float the bags or you will suffocate the fish. Not many use these, but some do. Mainly, enjoy the excitement! I still get really stoked when I have fish arriving, I literally turn into a child. Enjoy and good luck! 

[Guppysnail]

As others have said float to temp and drain into a net and plop the fish in the tank. Do not open or puncture the bag. As soon as air hits the bag water the ph rises and turns any ammonia more toxic. You also do not want that water in the tank. Do this with room lights dim and tank lights off.  to keep the fish from excess stress adjusting to seeing lights again. 
I recommend not adding any chemicals. The fish already need to adjust to new water and trying to adjust to chemicals makes it even harder for them in my opinion. 
 

Once I drop my fish in the tank I offer a small amount of live food right away. It might be silly but my brain says it makes the fish think “oh hey this new place might be ok there are yummies here”. All shipped fish for me usually start eating within 10-15 minutes. In my experience the ones that don’t more often than not have issues that reveal themselves in quarantine. 
 

I feed very small amounts every 2-3 hours or so the first day varied foods.  If the fish arrive late in the evening I feed a moderate amount until morning then begin the every 2-3 hours very small amounts and a moderate feed before lights out. Day 2 I feed moderate amounts 3x a day. I continue this until the fish have nice filled out bellies with full age appropriate coloring.  I then feel they have recovered from shipping so move on to my normal routine. 
It’s probably not necessary to do the small frequent meals but I know their digestive tract has been inactive and feel it’s an easier gentler way to wake them up. Kind of like people and animals who have  been starved they say very small meals and not to eat large portions at first. 
 

Congratulations on your new fish friends. I still sit pins and needles every time I order fish in the mail until I open the box and see live healthy fish and feel the flood of relief that everything went well. 

Edited November 30, 2022 by Guppysnail

[TOtrees]

Agree with those above. DO float the bags to match temps, DO NOT open or puncture bags, and DO NOT drip-acclimate, but rather just pour the fish into a net, then plop and drop, and discard all water from the bags. 

I’m on the fence concerning feeding right away, I prefer not to but I certainly see logic in @Guppysnail’s comments. If you feed it should be small/fine food, in small amounts.

Personally, I don’t medicate, unless there is a clear reason to, i.e. I know what I’m trying to treat. If the fish arrive and settled in well with no signs of disease, I would avoid meds if possible.

Edited November 30, 2022 by TOtrees

[Cwsignu]

I usually float the bags when they come in for 20 minutes or so bc of all the traveling they have gone through. A cycled tank is always a plus! Once they have floated, plop and drop the fish into the tank and that's it. Let them get used to tank for a day or so then medicate them and feed them. I usually don't feed new fish until I get them settled in, which is a day or so.. I also keep lights off while they.are settling in.  Good luck!

Chris 

[NOLANANO]

I have come to learn recently that unless your water parameters are vastly different than where the fish came from then the best thing you can do is to get them temp acclimated and into you tank as quickly as possible. I have started temp acclimating for 25 minutes doing one scoop of my tank water in the bag for 10 or so minutes and then releasing the fish and I haven't lost any fish right away like I used to when I made acclimation last over an hour.  The theory behind this being that the fish are more stressed from being in the bag than any parameter difference would make them.

Now the fact that these are mail ordered could mean the parameters are way different and then my whole theory is worthless and you'd need to drip acclimate.

[KittenFishMom]

@NOLANANO I asked the seller for their water parms and and bringing the quarantine parms to match the sellers. Then small water changes will give the fish time to adjust to my new RO water with Equilibrium.

Edited November 30, 2022 by KittenFishMom

[MattyM]

I found this helpful, in particular pouring the bag into a bin and netting out vs pouring into a net: 

 

[KittenFishMom]

@Mynameisnobody 6 female flagfish are arriving.

@Pepere My well water has a KH of 286.4 and a pH of about 8.4 and no calcium. I can do a well water change, mixed with some spring water. The KH is off the scale on some hardness tests, and the lack of calcium gives a hardness of 0 on other tests. I was confusing for a while until I got all the API extra tests, and cut the well water 1:1 with distilled water to get readings. All my hardness is magnesium. If you measure hardness with calcium my water is completely soft.  If you measure hardness as the total of calcium and magnesium, my water is off the hard end of the scale.

The seller said the water was very hard well water with a high pH, but did not give me numbers.

[Guppysnail]

On 11/30/2022 at 11:45 AM, MattyM said:

I found this helpful, in particular pouring the bag into a bin and netting out vs pouring into a net: 

 

I wanted to say thank you for posting this. I got fish in today and used this vs pour into a net. It definitely seemed gentler on the fish. More coming in tomorrow and this will be my new method of transfer. 

[EVoyager31]

On 11/29/2022 at 8:55 PM, KittenFishMom said:

I'm getting fish through the mail for the first time. They should arrive on Thursday. I have set up email and phone text alerts so I know when they get here.

I have never gotten fish through the mail and would love advice, tips, and tricks to help the fish arrive and settle in here.

I am dropping off 27 male guppies Wednesday which will open up a tank as a quarantine tank.  It has been cycled and running smoothly for months. I know the seller fasted the fish and they will arrive hungry, and will not have seen light since Monday. I am going to start a batch of brine shrimp eggs tonight. 

Any advice on what to feed them, how much and how often as they settle in? There will be 6 4-month old, female flagfish.

Should I add anything to the tank before I open the box? I have "Complete", "Stress Coat" and "Ultimate" on my shelf.

Should I float the fish in their bag before opening it? 

The tank has a sponge filter, an HOB and an extra air stone. It also has some algae and snails in there.Some hardscape, not too many plants because I moved them to the 55 gallon tank. I could move some back into the tank because they are not all planted yet.

All thought are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

I got flagfish in the mail once, plop and drop went fine but if you’re worried then set up drip acclimation! They ate within 2 hours of me dropping them in, I gave frozen brine shrimp