Acclimating Inverts

[Aquattro]

You always hear about drip acclimating for snails and such..

I brought a bucket of rock home from the LFS on Monday which sat on my deck until yesterday. I pulled the rock out and found a conch on the bottom in about an 1/8" of water. Temps drop to about 10 at night, up to 28 or more mid day and did this for 5 days. It rained and added FW to the mix.

I tossed it in my frag tank and 24 hours later, it's still cruising around.
I won't be drip acclimating anything again :)

[toytech]

Ive had the same , cleaned sand out of the tank set it on the deck, 2 days latter pulled some snails that dug to the top out and put them back in the tank none the worse for wear . I thing the burrowing species have no problem with getting stranded for a day or two in less than ideal conditions .

[mike31154]

I purchased my system from a lady in Richmond. Daughter & I drove from Vernon to Richmond & back in January. The rock work was wrapped in newspaper soaked with tank water. Don't recall if I set the tank up the same evening or next day, but it's surprising what came out of the rockwork once the system was going again. There were at least 3-4 crabs that survived the dry spell in totes with newspaper & who knows how many other inverts & other critters that we don't normally see, only come out at night etc.

I also usually keep a couple of buckets of old water in pails after a water change. They sit in the basement for a good 21 days or more until the next one. The two buckets have accumulated a bit of sand that gets vacuumed out of the display with the water & I usually throw the trimmings of my chaeto ball in there as well. I recall dumping one bucket into the sink in preparation for the next water change & there were still plenty of pods, worms etc. alive & wiggling on their trip down the drain! Needless to say, the temperatures in the basement where the pail sits for 3 weeks is nowhere near the tropical average these animals have evolved to survive in. And the water sits there stagnant too. Much to be said for the survival properties built into these critters.

But... not being a marine biologist & knowing the needs of each species intimately, it's probably prudent to drip acclimate most of the inverts you paid good money for. Hitchhikers are a nice bonus, or not, depending.

[Aquattro]

But... not being a marine biologist & knowing the needs of each species intimately, it's probably prudent to drip acclimate most of the inverts you paid good money for.

Ya, no harm done with that, but honestly, I haven't dripped anything in over 10 years. No losses. Maybe I'm lucky :)

[mike31154]

Ya, no harm done with that, but honestly, I haven't dripped anything in over 10 years. No losses. Maybe I'm lucky :)

Funny, I've drip acclimated most of my new additions, but never quarantined. I know I've been lucky not to have ended up with some nasty disease in my system. Plenty of horror stories of folks losing valuable livestock after not quarantining.

I do recall losing a tuxedo urchin not long after introducing it to my tank. I remember rushing the drip & always figured that may have been the cause, since it didn't last very long. I've since added another & it's doing great. Took half a day to acclimate that guy.

[mrhasan]

Words around the net always scare people, making them underestimate the ability and strength of the oceanic life form.

[Skimmerking]

Brad they neer do it for corals or anything. U often wonder that when they do there list of DOA to send in what do they actually put on there. Im not saying that everyone does this but I have seen a few do it

[Aquattro]

Brad they neer do it for corals or anything

I've never done if with corals either. Brought an aussie gold torch home yesterday, floated for about 10 minutes and dumped it in. Fully out in 5 minutes, doing great.
For acros, I'll pull them out of the bag and sit them out dry for a few minutes so they build a slime coat, then right in the tank.

[Madreefer]

I've never drip acclimated anything either. No patience.
I figure with the amount of livestock etc going through LFS I would hope that snails or corals would be alot happier in my water than LFS water.