I need guidance on how to get new fish into a mature aquarium.

[Zadie]

Hello everyone 😊

I have set up a new freshwater aquarium and I am excited to start adding fish. I have read how important it is to properly adjust new fish to avoid stress and maintain a healthy habitat. But I am unsure of the best way to get them to my staying tank.

• Could you please share your tips and knowledge about adding additional fish to an existing community tank?
• How should I handle the adjustment process; taking into account water conditions and compliance with the present tank people?

Also; any suggestions on identifying and managing potential dedicated during the initial period would be greatly valued.Thank you in advance for your guidance. 🥰

[Tanked]

Welcome to the forum Zadie.

Opinions on how to do this vary.  First of all, how new is your aquarium and is it cycled?  The aquarium should have an established cycle before adding fish.  If your aquarium is cycled, than there are two methods used to introduce the fish.  A fish in cycle is possible but requires more vigilance on your part.

After floating the fish to allow for the temperature to equalize, you can:

• 'plop and drop' just open the bag and let them go
• clip the open bag to the side of the tank or put the fish into a separate container and add small amounts of aquarium water to the bag/container over 20-30 minutes

Opinions differ, and I've done all both.  If your fish came from the LFS, than they may already be acclimated to the water in your area, but you still need to adjust for temperature.  Hopefully you have ammonia test strips and Multi test strips.  Unfortunately, they are sold separately.  Add a few fish at a time once a week.  Too many fish added at once will spike the ammonia levels and harm the fish.  Provide places for the new fish to hide until they feel comfortable.  Most fish are social and require small groups of their own kind for comfort.  I would start with a minimum of 3 

I hope this answered some of your question.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

I always recommend quarantining new fish. If you choose to do that with or without medication, that is totally up to you. Either way, if you can, you should quarantine new fish and observe them for disease, illness, etc. before putting them in a healthy tank that already has fish in it. 
 

For me, once fish have cleared their quarantine (I do medicate, and do an ~6 week quarantine) I just net them out of their quarantine tank and put them in the display tank. All my tanks are pretty similar when it comes to parameters, so moving them from one tank to another hasn’t really presented any challenges or additional need to “acclimate” them to the new tank. 

Edited June 25 by AllFishNoBrakes

[daggaz]

My local fish shop guys told me, and I have been doing since with zero problems:  

1. Poke 3 to 4 pinholes in the bottom of the bag (be careful not to stab fish, you can tip the bag).

2. Float the bag with the holes down; the oxygen remains trapped above and keeps the bag inflated.

3. Wait a good hour.

4. Clip open the bottom corner of the bag (again carefully), and gently scoot your critters out.  

 

This works with shrimp, and my tank is a filthy filthy naughty swamp who keeps lighting the grail shaped beacon and must be punished, but I digress.  

[Kalamadi]

Hi 
I don't use medications myself, but I usually try to keep new fish in quarantine for about a month. I use a heated and filtered quarantine tank, and I monitor the fish closely for any signs of illness

[NOLANANO]

On 6/25/2024 at 11:14 AM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

I always recommend quarantining new fish. If you choose to do that with or without medication, that is totally up to you. Either way, if you can, you should quarantine new fish and observe them for disease, illness, etc. before putting them in a healthy tank that already has fish in it. 

It appears that the fish they are adding to this aquarium will be the first fish added to this aquarium ever so the display tank can be used to Quarantine the first batch at least.  Obviously Quarantining is best practice and should be done if possible but I don't think it should be a beginners biggest worry since they likely don't have a second tank and don't really know what to look for anyway.

 

As for adding fish, unless they are known to be super sensitive fish I would just plop and drop. This mean, float the bags in the tank for 20 minutes so it can temperature acclimate and then pour the fish into a net (making sure none of the fish store water gets in your tank) and then dropping the fish in the tank.

The theory here is that being in the bag is stressful for the fish so getting them out of the bag as quickly as possible is best.  I am not going to say the method other use don't work but I have not lost a single fish upon release into the tank since switching to plop and drop 3 years ago.

Edited June 25 by NOLANANO

[daggaz]

Weird.  I dont know any humans who dont rise to the bait of, having gone through the trouble of posting a thread, and having gotten responses from other humans, immediately responding and trying to build a connection.  Why, you haven't even liked a single post here, let alone quoted one and responded in a rational manner.   And yet, you have posted several other threads since this one..  Isn't that ODD?  Weird.  

Edited Thursday at 07:35 PM by daggaz

[JettsPapa]

On 6/27/2024 at 2:25 PM, daggaz said:

Isn't that ODD?  Weird.  

It's not at all odd, if OP isn't human.