Leslie, it will all work out. If I dwelt on every assassination attempt I've made in this hobby, I'd be a candidate for a reef witness protection program. Jon, I’m sorry about the dipped frags. For all the care we take, it's still too easy to have a senior moment at the worst time.
Just last week, after making my mandatory $100 weekly donation to NWA, I came home with some snails and a few scarlet reefs for my SW, and some tetras and rainbow praecox for my FW (felt guilty for not really taking care of the FW for so long, as it was so lightly stocked). So, I figure I'll do my acclimation on everyone at the same time. SW guys in Ziploc containers (love those semi-disposable containers), FW bags afloat. As I was doing both at once, I was of course using one bucket to dump the exchange water. I mean, why not, it's just waste and I don't care if I'm throwing away SW and FW water exchanges into the same bucket.
All went well. I picked up the SW crew and put them in their tank. I added the FW guys in my usual way (same for SW fish for the same reasons). I pour the bag contents through a net, catch the fish and add them. I always do this over a bucket in case a fish makes it out of the net so I can easily scoop him out. It keeps the remaining store water out, and I think is less traumatic than mashing around with a net in a floppy plastic bag trying to trap them. Now came the brain fart. I just forgot one detail. The bucket was a FW/SW mix, not just FW exchange water. Well, 2 tetras missed the net. I didn't even really think much of it for the first several seconds while I added their bag mates to the tank.
Then, it hit me. It was mixed water, not just FW they were now swimming around in. I damn near kicked the bucket over reaching in to get them, while pushing my dog's head out from his favorite water source. I scooped them out and threw them into the FW tank (at least I got that part right). They looked confused, but otherwise seemed OK. They ended up doing fine, and I just tell myself all I did was give them a mild SW dip, which was good for them anyway.
Henry