What About Temperature Acclimation?

Temperature acclimation, in fishes, typically takes 10 days or more. That means that whether the temperature of the water a fish is increased slowly over a period of 20 minutes to 1 hour or is done almost instantly, the fish still requires several days to acclimate to the temperature change. It is also a fact that rapid temperature changes which occur in a fish’s environment are stressful.

In a shipping bag all kinds of stressful changes occur. First, the temperature typically changes, and often, by more than just a couple of degrees. Secondly, the fishes excrete ammonia (NH3) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from their gills during respiration. Thirdly, the pH changes; typically it drops, and solid particles from feces can accumulate. The water in the shipping bags is polluted by the inhabitants.

Also, due to the fact that there will always be small amounts of dissolved and suspended organics in the bag water there will also be an increase in the bacterial count. Many, in not most, of these bacteria can be pathogenic (disease-causing).

EECHO Systems uses NovAqua and AmQuel (or ShipRite a dry product which has all of the properties of both plus an antibiotic to reduce the pathogenic bacteria count in the shipping water) to relieve the physical stress the fishes suffer when netted prior to packing and to replace any damaged skin slime (which always happens when fishes are handled with nets) and remove ammonia from the water during shipping.

Given the conditions which typically occur in a shipping bag, even with proper treatment of the water as EECHO Systems does, there will still be conditions in the bag at the time of receipt that requires getting the fishes out of the bag and into their receiving tanks as soon as possible.

One should keep in mind that not floating the bag of water is not the entire story. One should get the fishes out of the bag’s water and into the aquarium environment in which the fishes will be maintained as quickly as possible. This means that dumping the contents of the bag into a bucket or other container and slowly adding water from the aquarium is not much better than simply floating the bags. Similarly, one should not adjust the pH in the bag to match the aquarium and one should not adjust the pH in the aquarium to match that of the bag.

It is, therefore, not logical to expose the fishes to the conditions inside the bag any longer than necessary. Floating a bag of fishes means that the water in the bag usually increases in temperature (especially if the fishes have been shipped during the winter months). A temperature increases of just 5ºC means that the un-ionized (toxic) ammonia level in the bag will increase by almost 34%! In saltwater that same temperature increase will lead to a nearly 40% increase in the toxic ammonia content.

Increasing the water temperature also increases the fishes’ metabolism. That means their oxygen consumption increases, their respiration rate increases and the amount of ammonia and carbon dioxide being released into the bag’s water increases.

In general, then, floating a bag of fishes simply means that the conditions inside the bag are made worse rather than better.

Other Considerations

If the water inside the bag isn’t the best, think about the “stuff” that might be contaminating the outside of the bag. Probably 50% of the boxes used in the aquarium trade are recycled. Few, if any, of these boxes are cleaned and disinfected prior to reuse. They often have water in them left over from the last shipment and sometimes there is even dirt and debris inside.

The actual bags themselves start out clean, but during the the bagging process they are set down on wet tables, laid out on the floor and handled by less than clean hands. In general, the outsides of the bags are dirty and should not be floated.

Lastly, plastic bags, even if they are not the new “breathable bags” allow for some exchange of oxygen and CO2 through the bag’s wall. This happens where the water inside comes into contact with the bag. Therefore even bags which are depleted of their original oxygen fill can sustain fishes for a period of time as long as the temperature is not too high. Once a fish bag is immersed in water the gas exchange is stopped. There, the negative effects of floating fish bags is even more pronounced when the oxygen fill has been depleted. The increasing water temperature increases the fishes’s needs for oxygen, while also decreasing the oxygen’s solubility in water.

Overall, the effects of floating fish bags can be very stressful on the fishes.

We recommend that retailers follows the steps outlined on the back of this brochure. If there are any questions please call us at 816/842-5936 for assistance.

Follow these steps; the “squirt & dump method”:

1) Don’t float fish bags! Ever!

2) Add (“squirt”) both NovAqua and AmQuel in the receiving tank.

3) For tropical fishes, be sure the water in the receiving tank is the same temperature as, or warmer than, the water in the bag.

4) For cold water fishes (e.g. goldfish and koi), be sure the water in the receiving tank is the same temperature as, or colder than, the water in the bag.

5) Remove the fishes from the bag and place (“dump”) them into the receiving tank.

6) Discard the water; don’t put it in the tank.

7) Feed the newly arrived fishes as soon as possible after receipt (usually within 15 minutes).

8) Quarantine all newly arrived fishes for an appropriate amount of time before offering them for sale (usually 7 to 10 days minimum).