Good animal husbandry in the marine aquarium hobby starts with proper acclimitization of new animals. Here are ten tips and tricks to help you help your new animals.
When you acquire a new fish or invertebrate for your system, sometimes the temptation is great to release the new arrival into the system. Don’t. Proper acclimatization is the first step in properly caring for your animals, and taking shortcuts only sets the aquarist up for failure and disappointment. Separate articles cover the specific process for acclimating fish and invertebrates, but here are ten tried and true tips and tricks to successful acclimatization of your new animal(s).
- When you initially open the box, cooler or bag in which your new fish or invertebrate was transported, make sure to do so in a partially darkened room. Sudden bright lights or sunlight will add additional stress to an already stressful situation.
- Drip acclimate all new fish and invertebrates. It takes longer, but it is the best method for making a smooth and healthy transition. Plan on at least an hour for fish and more for invertebrates.
- Quarantine new fish and invertebrates before adding them to an established system. Unless your quarantine tank shares system water with your display tank, you will need to acclimate new arrivals twice—once from shipping water to quarantine tank and again for quarantine tank to display tank.
- Make drip lines for drip acclimatization out of plastic air line tubing you probably already have. If you don’t have any, buy some—it’s cheap and quite useful around fish tanks. While you can spend a lot of money on gang valves and the like, all you really need to do is tie two overhand knots in each drip line. You can then regulate the flow of each line by tightening or loosening the knots.
- Have enough pre-mixed saltwater on hand to replenish system water after it has been siphoned into acclimatization bags or holding containers. Pour out all water used for acclimatization—DO NOT USE THIS WATER TO TOP OFF YOUR TANK.
- Do not open bags until after the temperatures have equalized and you are ready to start the drip acclimatization. Doing so could poison your fish and/or invertebrate(s).
- Acclimate new arrivals even if they appear dead—the animal may recover if you take the time to do a full drip acclimatization.
- Don’t leave the acclimatization area during acclimatization. Costly floods can easily occur if you’re not on top of the process.
- Do not mix shipping/transport water with your system water (the exception to this rule is when adding animals that should not be exposed to air such as sponges).
- Be patient! Taking your time is the best way to insure the health and well-being of your new livestock.
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Copyright Ret Talbot. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.
Ret Talbot - Ret Talbot joined Suite 101 in December 2007, and he is now the feature writer for saltwater fish—a topic in which he is both ...
