Let's first understand what happens when a fish is put into a shipping bag for a 48 hour trip into the country. Once the bag is sealed, the shipping bag contains all of the oxygen that it will contain for the entire trip. No more oxygen will be added or let into the bag until the bag is opened at its destination. So, the oxygen content of the bag is going to be continually depleted or lessened throughout the course of the trip as the animal "breathes out" out the oxygen from the shipping bag and replaces it with carbon dioxide. This shift in composition of the gases in the shipping bag will have a number of effects. Most importantly, the rising level of carbon dioxide in the shipping bag will cause the PH of the water to drop. This lowering of the PH happens slowly. The drop in PH is not detrimental to the fish being shipped because the fish has time to continually acclimate to the low PH environment. That said, understanding how to acclimate fish from a low PH environment once the fish arrives and the shipping bag is opened to a normal PH level is the most critical aspect of acclimating fish with minimal stress.
While PH decreases in the shipping bag because oxygen is depleted and carbon dioxide is increased, the ammonia level is also increasing in the bag. With no biological filtration in the shipping bag, the ammonia that is released by the fish during the time in transit starts to increase the total content of ammonia in the shipping water. While it is the case that ammonia is toxic under all circumstances, it just so happens that ammonia is less toxic under low PH conditions than it is under high PH conditions. This is the reason that it is important to never shift the PH in your system more than .2 in a 24 hour period because the residual level of ammonia in your aquarium (there is always a little) can ionize and become extremely toxic. So, our job as "Pro" acclimators is to extract the fish in the shipping bag from a low PH, low oxygen, high carbon dioxide and high ammonia environment without stressing the fish. It's a trick to do, to be sure, but it is the single most important aspect of delivering high quality fish to hobbyists and, at RHS, we take it very seriously.
Most wholesale operations simply take a short cut to good acclimation processes and bypass a number of critical steps of a good acclimation process. Their shortcut is to acclimate the fish into hyposaline conditions or water with a low salt content. While this meets the wholesalers need to handle a large amount of fish in a short period of time with the minimal amount of man hours, this is a short cut that can severely stress even healthy and strong fish. Wholesalers take their losses with this rough method of acclimation.. Consumers take their losses as well. Many of the fish that undergo this relatively crude acclimation method will not show signs of problems for 5-10 days after importation and long after they have left the wholesalers facility. As long as the wholesalers are making what they need to on the shipment then that is fine for them. At Reef Hot Spot, we believe each and every fish is important and should be treated with care. We've brought them all the way from the ocean to our tanks and as hobbyists, ourselves, our goal is make sure that they are strong and healthy when they get to your aquarium. To do this, we have combined multiple methods of acclimation in order to decrease the stress on the fish as we bring them out of their shipping water and into our treatment and assessment system.
The first thing that needs to be done is to prepare acclimation water for the new arrivals. In order to prepare acclimation water properly, we measure the PH of a sample of the shipping water that is in the bag with the newly imported fish. This PH level can often be as low as 6.3 while normal seawater is around 8.0. So, we need to match the PH of our acclimation water to the PH of the shipping water. This is accomplished by using distilled white vinegar. Distilled white vinegar is available at most grocery stores. Adding distilled white vinegar to our acclimation water will lower the PH to match that of the shipping water. After we've lowered the PH then we add a little bit of Prime or Ammonia Lock. These products strip out or make inert the ammonia which is present in the shipping water so that as we raise the PH of the shipping/acclimation water slowly to that of a normal aquarium, the ammonia still present in the acclimation/shipping water will not ionize and become toxic to the fish. Next we add to our acclimation water Methylene Blue. Methylene Blue is a chemical which increases the ability of blood to carry oxygen. This aids the respiration of the fish during the shift from a low PH environment to a normal PH environment. Additionally, Methylene Blue in high concentrations acts as a sedative for fish. The sedative features of high levels of Methylene Blue also helps the respiration rate during acclimation because the more calm the fish is, the less oxygen the animal needs to up take for respiration. Finally, we use a broad spectrum antibiotic bath during the acclimation process. This decreases the possibility of bacterial infections that can start during acclimation but not be seen on the fish until 5-7 days after delivery. So, now we have our low PH acclimation water with Methylene Blue, Ammonia Lock and broad spectrum antibiotics. From here, we simply use a drip line to drip the fish in the acclimation water and dilute/spill-off the polluted shipping water. Once the fish has been removed from the shipping water and is now stable and calm in the acclimation water, we can then raise the PH back to normal aquarium levels by "blowing off" the low PH of the acclimation water. This is accomplished through vigorous aeration with a high pressure air pump and multiple air stones. This method of raising the PH of the acclimation water back to normal levels is a very gradual and gentle way of raising bringing the fish back to normal PH levels. Once the acclimation water along with the fish have been raised back up to a normal PH level, the fish can be placed into our treatment and assessment system and the acclimation water is discarded. We have experimented with many different acclimation methods, but this method, by far, has shown the best results with even the poorest of shippers.
The acclimation of newly imported fish is not the same as acclimating fish that you will receive from Reef Hot Spot. We've already done the heavy lifting for you by properly acclimating new imports with care and attention to detail. Fish that are received by our customers are only in the bag an average of 14 hours from pack out to delivery. Additionally, we pack fish with pure oxygen so the decrease in oxygen content of the shipping water is minimal. That said, what you can take away from this article is a familiarity with some of the chemicals and processes used in proper acclimation protocols as they are extremely helpful to the hobbyist and this kind practical information is hard to come-by. For instance, Methylene Blue is a great chemical to have on hand. Methylene Blue is a mild cure for bacterial infections, parasitic infections and fungal infections. For instance, it is common for hobbyists to fresh water dip fish to treat parasitic infections. Well, next time you do a fresh water dip, dose the freshwater with Methylene Blue. It will allow your fish to remain more calm during the dip and that allows you to dip for a longer period of time thus making the dip more effective at killing parasites.
Our goal at Reef Hot Spot is to delivery high quality saltwater fish and corals to our customers while providing top level customer service and assistance to help our customers achieve a successful and balanced aquarium.
