I was recently at Big Al’s in Montreal and I saw one of the saddest things I have ever seen in a pet store. The store had just received a saltwater order and their acclimation procedure is disgusting. I asked one of the employees what the acclimation procedure consisted of and this is what I was told:
"We use carbonated water to lower the PH in some of the aquariums on one of the systems to about 6.5. We then float the fish as we unpack them to adjust to the temperature of the tanks and then we cut the bags and put them right into the low ph saltwater. Once the fish are all unpacked, we turn the system water flowing into the tank back on, but at a very reduced rate. Within two hours, the acclimation is finished and the carbonic acid created when carbonated water was added is dissipated. Then, the next morning, we come in and move the fish out of the three tanks they were put in and into all the other tanks in the system."
I would like your opinions on this because I see many things wrong with this. There were at least 50-60 fish in a tank that was only 100 gallons in size. To make it worse, there were a lot of fish that should not be kept together! I asked the employee if the salinity was adjusted to that of the fish in the bags and he informed me it was not. That tells me that they are only considering PH and temperature when they acclimate. They just take the fish out of whatever salinity and put it into their system's salinity. I’m sure that this causes horrible stress. Also, the types of fish they had in there under this method of acclimation was also disgusting. They had sensitive and fish that are hard to care for like regal angels (they had four) and yellow long nose butterflies (they had about 5). These fish were all in the same tank along with about 10 coral beauties, about 10 blue hippo tangs and numerous others. I think any of us going to Big Al’s in Montreal should boycott the saltwater section and complain to the owner that we refuse to buy fish from him until he changes his acclimation procedures!
"We use carbonated water to lower the PH in some of the aquariums on one of the systems to about 6.5. We then float the fish as we unpack them to adjust to the temperature of the tanks and then we cut the bags and put them right into the low ph saltwater. Once the fish are all unpacked, we turn the system water flowing into the tank back on, but at a very reduced rate. Within two hours, the acclimation is finished and the carbonic acid created when carbonated water was added is dissipated. Then, the next morning, we come in and move the fish out of the three tanks they were put in and into all the other tanks in the system."
I would like your opinions on this because I see many things wrong with this. There were at least 50-60 fish in a tank that was only 100 gallons in size. To make it worse, there were a lot of fish that should not be kept together! I asked the employee if the salinity was adjusted to that of the fish in the bags and he informed me it was not. That tells me that they are only considering PH and temperature when they acclimate. They just take the fish out of whatever salinity and put it into their system's salinity. I’m sure that this causes horrible stress. Also, the types of fish they had in there under this method of acclimation was also disgusting. They had sensitive and fish that are hard to care for like regal angels (they had four) and yellow long nose butterflies (they had about 5). These fish were all in the same tank along with about 10 coral beauties, about 10 blue hippo tangs and numerous others. I think any of us going to Big Al’s in Montreal should boycott the saltwater section and complain to the owner that we refuse to buy fish from him until he changes his acclimation procedures!
