# acclimatizing rcs?



## hornedtoad1 (Jun 24, 2011)

do red cherry shrimp need to be acclimatized before they can go in the tank? their tank is a 5 gallon with anubias, hc, java moss, crypt. parva and amazon frogbit; air hose (no stone), no filter. ph about 7.6, moderate hard water, no amm. etc. temp 76 or so.
i ordered them today, they'll be here monday; this is the first time i've had shrimp so don't know much about them.


----------



## JohnPaul (Aug 28, 2006)

Although by shrimp standards Red Cherrys are quite hardy, nonetheless they are significantly more sensitive creatures than most tropical fish. I personally use drip acclimation whenever I am adding new shrimp to a tank, though that is probably not necessary.

Here is a good article on acclimating shrimp and here is a second one on the same topic from a different site.

Also, if you haven't kept shrimp before, you should be aware that they are much more sensitive to nitrates than are tropical fish. It is not uncommon in fish tanks to have nitrate levels at 40 ppm or higher; in a shrimp tank, anything more than 5-10 ppm and you run the risk of it negatively impacting your shrimp.

Besides the invert forum here at APC, a couple other sources of info you might check out are Petshrimp and Arizona Inverts. The first has a lot of good info from some really experienced shrimpkeepers, and you should especially check out the "articles" section and read the FAQ article and a couple of the others (like the one titled, "Why Do My Shrimp Keep Dying?"). The second website also has some useful articles but even more, has some pretty active forums with some great shrimpkeepers too, who are also quite friendly and very happy to help newbies. There are other sites I am sure you can find by searching, but those are two I have used over the years and have found helpful.


----------



## hornedtoad1 (Jun 24, 2011)

good information; thanks, johnpaul. looks like i'll learn a lot.


----------



## hornedtoad1 (Jun 24, 2011)

update on the shrimp--
they arrived yesterday and got a slow acclimatization, about 8 hours. when they hit the tank they started feeding, seemed right at home.
that's a good technique.


----------



## tokyo (Apr 23, 2010)

Glad to hear your shrimp are settling in nicely.

I just wanted to make a comment on drip acclimation. It is a very good way to acclimate usually, but when acclimating shipped fish it can be dangerous(even more so for shrimp I would imagine).

Basically, while in transit ammonia is building in the water. Which is fine, except that a drastic pH swing, which can occur in drip acclimation, can actually cause the ammonia to be more toxic(excuse my lack of scientific terms).

I don't know the science behind it, so maybe a more knowledgeable member can chime in here.

Generally when receiving fish through the mail I just use the archaic "float 'n dump" method. Just for the sake of getting them out of that ammonia faster. But whenever I buy from a local breeder or LFS I always drip acclimate.

As an after thought... It may be the case that shrimp don't put out enough ammonia for this to cause an issue. I'm not really sure.


----------



## tokyo (Apr 23, 2010)

If anyone is interested here is an article about the effect of pH on ammonia toxicity.

http://www.ca.uky.edu/wkrec/pH-Ammonia.htm


----------



## hornedtoad1 (Jun 24, 2011)

thanks for the info, tokyo; i hadn't known about the effect of ph on ammonia. 
i did add a few drops of amquel plus to the shipping bag as soon as it was opened, just to be on the safe side.


----------



## wHeEzO (Feb 8, 2006)

yea, it's always safer to acclimate anything and everything. =)


----------



## BloodWorm (Oct 14, 2011)

I prefer this site for Ammonia Toxicity with nice charts.

http://dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/AmmoniaTox.html


----------



## johnny313 (May 19, 2011)

i always use a slow drip for anything I put in my tank


----------



## wHeEzO (Feb 8, 2006)

I acclimate everything. Even if the water is similar, I would at least do the bag method, float and add half water. Most newly acquired stock and expensive stuff, I'll drip. drip slower the more expensive it is. =P


----------

