procedure for shipped fish

[arcab4]

i remember reading there is a proper way to acclimate shipped fish.

i am expecting them tomorrow so if someone can help..

[Franky099]

When I have fish shipped to me....usually from aquabid users, I treat them as I would any other fish in a bag.  Float them as normal.  Unless you notice that the water is colder than normal , then float them for a little longer, open the bags, add some of your aquarium water, then float them a few more minutes before relasing them.  MAKE SURE YOU USE A QUARINTINE TANK!!!!!

I have a book that really explains well the procedure of getting new fish. It is much more indepth than buying from a lfs. I cant remember everything right now but I will definitely try to find it. Definitly use a quarintine tank. It actually recommeded to use the same water that the fish came in the quarintine tank and then slowly replacing it with new water over 2 weeks. Reason being is that the water comes from farther away and can have remarkable differences (ie different metals/minerals etc). By using the same water and slowly replacing it over a longer period of reduces the stress much more than the procedure when buying fish from the store.

When buying the fish from the store, it is good also to use a quarintine tank but not recommended to use the same water from the store. By mixing the store water with your own tank water every 15mins. climatizes the fish because your lfs is not 100's of miles away, the water should not be drasiclly different as can be the case with shipped fish. The Book also mentioned something about keeping them in the dark, feeding them before moving them and also turning up the heat but I cant remember the exact procedure and why.

[clothahump]

Having read the previous answers,everthing seems to have been explained, I would like to add that it is best to allow light into the box slowly, I have known some fish to actually die from the sudden shock of daylight.
Fish should be starved for two days prior to shipping, this means less pollution in the bag on arrival, and therefore a better chance of the fish living.
As long as you float the bags,add small amounts of tank water,and be patient you should be OK.
We are doing this with thousands of fish at a time,IT WORKS. 8)

I think the book also mentioned increasing the heat to 80-82F to combat disease before it breaks out.

[Matt Nace]

Agreed, and Please Johnny, move those neons and make that 10 gallon a quarenteen if you dont have one. I finally a few monthes ago did this and I feel much better adding fish after keeping them in the q tanks for 2 weeks or so.

[arcab4]

okay. the package should be arriving in a few hours. hopefully they're alive!

[scrimman]

Two things...
Could you keep us updated on how the new fish are doing?  My dad and I are planning on going in together on a fish shipment.  I'd like to know how well it works.
And, what are you getting??? Hmmm?? What type of finned jewels are you going to be pulling from those bags?

[arcab4]

hey guys,

okay. here's my story.

came home at 7pm from work. but no box at my door. doh! but i did get a notice saying they tried to deliver it but they needed a signature in order to leave the box. doh! the sender forgot to check the box where it allows the postman to leave the box w/o a signature.

okay. so at this point i'm kinda worried because i didn't want to pick them up tomorrow. so i call the post office. but they're closed. so i get ahold of the corporate postoffice and they couldn't really do much for me. the only thing they could do was for me to go to the postoffice, go to the back and ring the buzzer. so i drive down there and to make a long story short, i got my fish and now they're in my tank!

the fish i got were two pairs of american flagfish. they came in nicely packaged. styrofoam box padded with newspaper. two bags containing two fishes each with about 1/5water and the rest air. water was kinda yellow but they seemed okay.

didn't get a chance to look at them much afterwards but i could tell they were starting to eat the algae!

go flagfish go!