Receiving a shipment of fish
by Sean Furney, of Oklahoma City
Reprinted with permission. Sean is well qualified to write about this subject, since
he sells African cichlids (mainly) through his website www.theaquariumexchange.com
Aquarticles
There are a number of theories when it comes to receiving a shipment of fish. I will
explain my methods, from preparation of the tanks to feeding in the days after the
shipment.
First let us start with preparing the tank. I do approximately 20% water changes on the
tanks that are going to receive the fish the night before the shipment arrives. I also try
to keep some fish in the tank until the night before, to keep the biological filtration
working well. One of the most important things for receiving fish is well established
biological filtration. I personally use sponge filters in all of my tanks to accomplish
this. It is important for the pH to be stable. PH fluctuation can be a great shock to a
fish that has just been shipped. I use a carbonate based sand to accomplish the necessary
buffering. I check each tank to make sure that all the tank conditions are correct the
night before I receive the fish.
Now let's move on to receiving the fish. It is important to get to the airport as
quickly as possible to pick up your fish. Air Cargo people have been known to forget fish
boxes outside in the heat or cold. Make sure you know the hours of operation for your
local office. Most of the time if a shipment is going to arrive outside of these hours,
arrangements can be made to ensure that you can pick up your fish. It is important to
treat the Air Cargo representatives well, since they can be the difference between the
life and death of your fish.
Once you get your fish back to your house, make sure that the temperature of your tanks
is still good and keep the lighting dimmed if possible. Once you have checked on your
tanks it is the time you have been waiting for - opening up your boxes and seeing your new
fish. Take one bag of fish out of the box, check for DOAs, and then cut the bag and net
the fish out and put them directly in their new home. Avoid handling the fish as much as
possible, and try to keep any of the bag's water from getting into the tank. Make sure to
only open one bag at a time, because once exposed to fresh air ammonia builds up quickly.
Your fish are going to be carrying quite a bit of ammonia into the aquarium and that is
the reason for the importance of a good biological filter. Once you have gotten everyone
into their new tanks take a look and make sure everyone is alive and well. It is important
to remove any dead fish as quickly as possible to avoid any additional ammonia build-up.
Now that your fish are starting to settle in, it is important not to stress them out
anymore than necessary. I personally don't feed any of my new fish until they have been in
their new tanks at least 12 hours, depending on how they are doing at that point in time.
The initial feeding should be very light, to see how they respond. Feedings should
gradually be increased until they are at normal levels. Sometimes fish lose a substantial
amount of weight during the entire shipping procedure. I try to increase feedings beyond
my normal one time a day feeding schedule, for fish that come in skinny. Once your fish
get comfortable in their new environment you can try turning on the light. They will
probably not like it at first and so you need to make sure that the fish have settled in
well before turning on the light.
If you follow these steps you should have happy healthy fish that recover quickly from
the stress of shipping.
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