Friday, January 22, 2010

Adding and Acclimating New Fish


Adding the Fish

You don't want to add all the fish to you aquarium all at once. Even though you've let the aquarium acclimate and build up good bacteria, you want to add a few fish at a time so that you do not upset the biological balance of the aquarium.

Depending on the size of your aquarium, you'll want to add about 3-5 fish to start. Let the fish live and build up more good bacteria for about three days, and then you can add 2-3 more fish.

Then every 3-5 days you can add your fish until your tank is complete.

The key is that per every one gallon of water you have one inch of fish, so when choosing your fish, you'll want to check the adult size of the fish. Basically, you can't count the baby size of the fish and just keep adding fish.

The more fish you add, the more ammonia they produce, and if you have a small tank with an equal balance of good bacteria, the bacteria can only breakdown so much ammonia and waste.

On average you can put 8-12 fish in a 10 gallon tank, 12-15 fish in a 20 gallon, 15-20 fish in a 30 gallon, and 20-30 fish in a 55 gallon aquarium.


Acclimating the New Fish

As soon as you purchase your new fish, you want to go straight home as the bags they are packed in are meant to last just a few hours, if properly bagged. When you get home, you want to float the bag, unopened, for about 15-20 minutes so that they are allowed to adjust to the new temperature. It may kill your fishes if you will not follow these.

When you go to let them free, it's best to try to avoid letting any of the bagged water into your aquarium. This is where a net comes in handy.It will take a few days for the new fish to adjust to the new environment. Try not to mess with them during that time, as you want to minimize the stress level.

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