One Critical Step When Adding Tropical Fish To Your Freshwater Tank!

"One Critical Step When Adding Tropical Fish To Your Freshwater Tank!"," Maybe you would just like to add a few more tropical beauties to your existing tank.
 When adding new tropical fish to your tank, it is important to acclimate your fish first or problems may occur.


Tropical fish are wonderful additions to any aquarium, but they are also quite fragile.
 If you don't take the right steps which allow them to adjust, you may find that they fail to thrive or even die.
 How can you go about it? First, you need to ignore improper advice from well-meaning staff at the store! You may have been told when you purchased your fish, all you need to do is float their bag in the tank for about fifteen minutes.
 This advice is dangerously wrong, and can end up giving you negative results! All it will do is bring the different temperatures of the water in the bag and tank closer together.


What is the right way to acclimate your new fish? The key to remember is not only does the temperature of the water need to be similar, but its chemistry as well.
 This should include the nitrate and nitrite, ammonia and pH levels.
 The greater the difference in the values between the two sources of water, the longer you will have to acclimate your new tropical fish.
 It is both easy and effective, so this is an excellent choice! The first step is to get your fish home as quickly as possible, to avoid letting ammonia build up in the water.
 Then, replace this water with an equal amount from your aquarium.
 This will bring the temperatures together slowly, and let your new fish get used to their new aquatic environment.
 However, be sure not to dump any water from the bag into your tank! It can contain harmful parasites or diseases which were in the tanks at the store.


The second method is very similar, except that you add a clean bucket as well.
 Why is this a better approach? It ensures that no water from the bag leaks out into your tank, infecting your other fish or aquatic creatures within.


The last choice you can use for acclimating your fish is the drip method.
 However, you can use it for freshwater tropical fish as well, though it is a bit more complicated.
 Put one end of the tube in your aquarium and then clip it to the side of the tank.
 Once you get the suction going, your tube will have water flowing from the other end.
 Place the dripping end into the bag of water, and you're finished! You simply need to wait about an hour, to allow enough tank water to mix into the bag and acclimate your fish.
 With differences in pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate amounts, suddenly dumping them in can cause a shock to their system! Think of it like slowly introducing a new student at school - you don't ask them to speak in front of the class on the first day.


Giving your tropical fish time to acclimate is a critical step, one which will produce great results for you.
 So, be sure when you bring that new brightly colored fish home next time, that you use one of these methods.


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