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Acclimatisation
Introducing new fish to your tank.

Fish are wonderful, but sensitive creatures. This is an important aspect to remember when introducing new fish to your tank. The effects of sudden changes in lighting, water temperature, hardness, acidity/alkalinity, O2 and so on can be significant enough to kill a fish through stress.

By properly acclimatising fish to their new environment, the amount of stress caused can be dramatically reduced. There are several main points to consider when introducing your new fish:

Lights
Fish do not have eyelids and therefore are not well suited to dealing with bright lights and sudden changes to lighting conditions. Your first step should therefore be to turn off your tank lights and dim any room lights.

Temperature
The temperature of the water inside the fish bag is most likely several degrees either side of that in your tank. You will therefore want to get the bag temperature to the same as your tank, but slowly so that the fish can adapt at a suitable rate. The best way to do this is to float the bag in the fish tank. The temperatures can be monitored with a thermometer, but usually the water will settle at the tank temperature within 20 minutes. If you have spent more than an hour getting home it is advisable to open the bag briefly to allow some fresh air in.

Water
Once the water temperature has equalised you should introduce small amounts of tank water to the fish bag. This should be done several times over a period of 10-15 mins to allow the fish to adapt to the new water conditions. You should aim to introduce the same amount of water as that of which you started with (in the fish bag).

Introduction
Use a fish net to carefully extract your fish from the bag and place them in to the tank. Avoid adding water from the bag as it may contain undesirable pathogens. Give your fish some quiet time alone before putting the lighting on or fiddling with the tank.

A Note About Quarantine
It is highly recommended that you use a quarantine tank to monitor your new fish for a period of several weeks. This allows you to spot any diseases or illnesses without unduly exposing your community tank to them.		  

Article posted on 16/10/2006 by Darxide

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