Death during acclimation

[Kadina]

I picked up 8 marbled hatchetfish on my way home from work last night to finish off my stocking plan on my new tank. Two of them died during acclimation and I found another dead this morning. I tested the water last night and this morning and it is fine (0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, 5 Nitrates).
I have no idea what caused them to die but I am worried I will get home from work and find more stuck to the filter intake.

[Sharon]

How exactly did you acclimate?

[fins_n_fur]

How exactly did you acclimate?

And how long a trip was it from the lfs to home?

[Kadina]

I used drip acclimation in a bucket with a heater about for 2.5 hours. I checked on them after about 90 minutes and all seemed well. I went upstairs to play with my daughter and get her to bed and when I went back down two were floating. The fish store is 20 minutes from my house.

[fins_n_fur]

Strange, not much else that I can think of, unless the water was too warm/hot with the heater in the bucket.

[Lady Hobbs]

Or there was no oxygen.

[Kadina]

Or there was no oxygen.
I should of put an airstone in there? I didn't think they could run out of oxygen so fast. :( I do run an airstone in my tank when the lights go off, so could the one that died overnight have had lasting effects from the acclimation?

[KoKoPuff]

were all 8 fish in the same little bag when you bought them from the store? If so, that's probably the problem.

[riot]

8 fish can run through some oxygen pretty quickly. Luckily the majority survived. Good luck.

[Lady Hobbs]

I should of put an airstone in there? I didn't think they could run out of oxygen so fast. :( I do run an airstone in my tank when the lights go off, so could the one that died overnight have had lasting effects from the acclimation?

Sorry, but you are talking to a person who acclimates all of about 20-30 minutes. (Still longer than the fish stores do it.) :ssmile:

[riot]

Sorry, but you are talking to a person who acclimates all of about 20-30 minutes. (Still longer than the fish stores do it.) :ssmile:

Same here and I have yet to have a death due to acclimation.

[Lady Hobbs]

I've had two in 4 or 5 years.

[Wild Turkey]

Ive never had oxygen problems acclimating over 1-2 hours which is typically how long i do it for. In a large measuring cup usually no bucket.. I doubt it was oxygen, in theory the dripping itself will break the surface and create some oxygen, and the water being added contains oxygen. Also never had fish die during the actual drip acclimation process, the days following sure, once or twice

Were the fish a new addition at your lfs?

[Northernguy]

I would go back to the store and see if theirs are still alive.When did they come in at the lfs?
It could have been too many in the bag.
I would think that water flowing into the bucket would add some oxygen but not much.
Hmmm Weird!

[Kadina]

They arrived at my lfs on Monday morning. The fish room supervisor actually ordered them for me specifically but because it is a large store (That Fish Place) he must order at least 100 at once. They were placed in the sale tank on Tuesday morning and I purchased them after work. They are covered by a warranty but I am thinking I should just get a refund and not replacements. If there are any left on Sunday I may purchase more then. I have a really bad feeling about the 5 I have left and am anxious to get home from work.

[Wild Turkey]

Yea in that kind of situation its best to let them sit at the lfs for a week at least, so if there are any major problems your lfs deals with them instead of you.
Your fish made two rough trips in 2 days, and that alone is enough to kill them easily

[Lady Hobbs]

You should really have a quarantine tank for new fish to go in anyway. No point in introducing ick to your tank. Stress is a big killer. They should go in a tank that is dark and totally left alone until the next day with no food for them. If going in with other fish, feed those fish before adding new fish.

Check their water temp. If it's quite a big difference from the tank, you need to warm them up slowly. You certainly don't want to put new fish in 65 degree water and drop them in a tank that has 80 degrees.

I think there's a huge difference in buying fish in your area, half an hour away than getting fish that's been in a bag for 3 days being shipped. There's also a huge difference between the acclimating of saltwater and freshwater. You have to do what works for you, what gives you the least loss and you definately have to consider what kind of fish you have. I definately take more chances with a $6 fish than I would with a $100 fish.

Eight fish in a bag was way too long for them.

[terrapin24h]

i take 30 min to 1/2 hour to acclimate mine. Never had a loss. I think you just had some really stressed out critters. Most lfs hold new fish for a week or so before placing them for sale

--chris

[Kadina]

The only problem I have with letting fish sit in the lfs for a week is that they tend to sell out in a weeks time. I am going to risk it with these hatchets though and wait until at least Sunday before buying anymore.

I did put extra biomax in my filter when I cycled this tank with the intent of having it available in the future. I do have an spare ten gallon tank that will be my quarantine tank but I need to buy a filter for it yet. Since this is a new setup there wasn't much need to quarantine since ALL of the fish are new. For future reference, what is an acceptable quarantine time frame?

On the plus side, at least these fish were only 99 cents each!!

[Cameron]

i take 30 min to 1/2 hour to acclimate mine. Never had a loss. I think you just had some really stressed out critters. Most lfs hold new fish for a week or so before placing them for sale

--chris


30 minutes and a 1/2 hour are the same, lol sorry i had to say this.

[AABatteries]

30 minutes and a 1/2 hour are the same, lol sorry i had to say this.

Noticed that too. :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange:

[Lindsey]

Yeah, I would think it was too many fish in one bag if you had eight together.. They might have been on their way out already when you got them into the bucket. Employees at my store are supposed to only put one type of fish in each bag, and only one or two fish per bag if they're bigger than like 4 inches. We don't really have a rule on how many small fish (neons etc) per bag, but I don't usually do more than 4. They excrete a ton of ammonia from being netted and transported, and the more fish per bag, the faster they'll stress each other out.

[Kadina]

When my husband got home from work he called to tell me that 2 more had died for a total of 5 out of the 8 I bought. I stopped at my lfs on the way home with the three dead ones from yesterday and a sample of my water. It tested fine for them as well so they gave me credit for the 5 fish. The three that are left appear to be ok, but who knows at this point.

[Dixie]

I'm glad the store gave you credit. Good luck with the 3 that are left.

[Lady Hobbs]

This is a very high mortality rate. I believe I'd have to be doing water testing. Something just isn't right here. When was your last water change?

You can get perfect test results and still have stale old water.

[Kadina]

This is a very high mortality rate. I believe I'd have to be doing water testing. Something just isn't right here. When was your last water change?

You can get perfect test results and still have stale old water.

This is a new tank that finished a fishless cycle over the weekend. Sunday I did a 90% water change to dump the high nitrates and 2 hours later I added 10 Bloodfin Tetras and 7 Panda Corys. The hatchets had not arrived at my lfs yet, so I got them on Tuesday instead. All of the tetras and corys have survived so far, its only the hatchets that have died. I have been testing like a mad woman.

Sunday: 3 times - Before 90% WC, After WC, and 5 hours after I added fish
Monday: 2 times - Before work and after work
Tuesday: 3 times - Before work, after work while the hatchets were acclimating and before bed after 2 hatchets had died
Wednesday: 2 times - Before work (1 more hatchet died overnight) and after work (2 more hatchets died during the day)

Ammonia and Nitrites have been zero every time and my PH has stayed at 6.2 - 6.4. As of tonight my nitrates are at 20 so I was planning to do a 50% water change tomorrow.

Can you think of anything I am missing Lady Hobbs? This is the first tank I have ever done a fishless cycle on and I am really trying to do everything properly, even though I'm getting funny looks from friends and family when I go on and on about my bacteria colony!

[umdaquarist09]

They arrived at my lfs on Monday morning. The fish room supervisor actually ordered them for me specifically but because it is a large store (That Fish Place) he must order at least 100 at once. They were placed in the sale tank on Tuesday morning and I purchased them after work.

The fact that your lfs sells fish immediately after receiving them is amazing to me! The lfs I go to in MD quarantines all new fish for 2 weeks before selling them. I love that they do it that way, and I have yet to lose a fish or need to quarantine before introducing them into my main tank.

[Lady Hobbs]

Kadina, everything you are doing sounds perfect to me. Could be hatchets are a bit more sensitive, as well.

I'm not a bit surprised the fish are sold as soon as they arrive. Stores want their fish to move out because in a week, another supply is delivered to them. They make no money on fish they are babysitting and feeding for a week and stores only have so many tanks to house them.

Like the others, I think shipping 8 fish in one bag was way over the top and them being in that bag together for that long was too much for them. And you had a heater in that pail, too, and that could have caused the water to get too warm for them.

[terrapin24h]

Noticed that too. :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange:

What can i say? it was a very hard day :)

I meant 30 minutes to 3/4 of an hour. :)

now where's my bottle of JD???

--chris

[Kadina]

When I got home from work today, 2 more hatchets were dead. That leaves me one lonely hatchet left in my tank out of 8.

[fraggle]

Will they credit you for the 7 of them?

None of my LFS's quarantine fish, I've seen them with they styrofoam boxes on the floor, they pour the fish out of the bag into a net in a bucket (at least they aren't sticking the shipping water in the tank!), then stick them into the tank, then 5 mintues later net one back out for a customer! I'm very wary now, I usually wait for a couple of days to a week before getting any (depends on the LFS as to how long they'll "hold" them for me)

[Kadina]

The last one was dead when I woke up this morning. I took the rest back to my lfs over lunch today and got store credit. I looked at the tank and only 12 of the original 100 were left. I have no idea if they were all sold or died at the store. Regardless, I am not buying any more.

[Sharon]

I'd say a bad batch of fish...

[Tamara]

The only problem I have with letting fish sit in the lfs for a week is that they tend to sell out in a weeks time.

Couldn't you use maybe an online store to circumvent any store stock issues?