How long do u acclimate new fish? & SAD story to follow.

[StirCrazy]

Van,

I occasionally acclimate fish, but that consists of floating the bag and adding 1 scoop of tank water to the bag waiting 5 min. most of the time I don't with fish.. just equalize temp and pour it into a safe strainer and put them in the tank. For snails I take them out of the water for 5 to 10 min then plop them in to the tank and I can say I have a lot better success rates with the snails this way. as well as I hear a lot of places are starting to ship snails moist also.

for corals, they get a fresh water dip then right into the tank, only ever lost two and they were severally stressed be for I got them and we didn't expect them to make it.

Having said that the fish I have bought come from a local store where I know the tank water conditions are very similar to mine so I feel the temp drop during acclimatization would cause more harm in my case.

I do agree that as a store that is selling the critters should be doing all they can to ease the stress on a fish that has been boxed for 24 to 72 hours to ensure they are selling a top notch product. I don't think it is as server when we are talking about a 15 min car ride to water that is almost the same as the stores if not better. you aren't going to kill a fish by removing ammonia fast are you if all other parameters (Ca, Alk, PH, and Temp) are similar?

Steve