Acrochordus Pictures and Caresheet on the Care of Acrochordus Filesnakes.

Acclimating Feeder Fish

The following procedure will work equally well whether it is used for incoming Feeder Fish into the Holding Tank, or from the Holding Tank to the Acrochordus' Tank. The main thing that may change is the water quantities. I have struggled for almost 2yrs trying to figure out a way to get minnows from the bait store at 45F to my home and into the Feeder Fish Holding Tank and then into the Acrochordus' Tank--alive and well until eaten. I've tried many different things and methods, including the "Drip-Method" and nothing seemed to work well. Its been a struggle, but I've finally gotten it sorted out.

This page is about simply acclimating the fish from water "A" to water "B", so for a quick cycling guide check out: How to Quick Cycle a Tank.

The fish that I deal with are:

Shiners--Very Difficult
Minnows--Sensitive, but not too bad
Comet Goldfish--Tough as they get

Bringing Home the Bait:

Let's start at the bait store: I bring 4 5gal. buckets with lids, a duel outlet air pump rated for a 60gal aquarium with tubing and airstones, and a converter to plug the air pump into my Aux outlet. I tell them what I want and what goes into each bucket, and I make sure that the buckets are filled up very high with water. After I haul the buckets to the truck I get things setup for the 15 min ride home. Each bucket lid has a small spot cut out to run the air stone inside. The air pump is powered via the converter which is plugged into the Aux outlet in the dash. (No more batteries!) I bring a bottle of Prime and add 5ml per bucket (10-12x dose). The Prime helps keep the Ammonia from building up too quickly while I get them home and then get setup to acclimate them. Keep in mind however that Prime will reduce the available oxygen in the water, so the air pump is a must.

So, a week or so ago I purchased about 200 minnows and about 6 dozen Comet Goldfish. The Feeder Fish holding tank was empty and the bacterial colony was nil. I now had all of these fish home in water that was probably in the low 50F's needing to go into a, now uncycled, Holding Tank. I had the minnows in 2 5gal. buckets and the Comets in 2 other buckets. First thing is to get my dual 20gal. "Acclimation" tub setup and start dipping water out of the buckets (which gets disposed of). When the buckets are reduced to ~1/2-1gal. of water each--I pour the fish into the 20gal. tubs.

5 Dozen 3-5" Comets and 200 minnows

I then add about 2gal. of water from the holding tank to each of the tubs and add an air stone, and refill the holding tank (its Auto). After 15 minutes I add another 4gals. of water from the holding tank to the tub, and I repeat this process until the tub is very, very full. Then I empty it down to about 2-3gals and start over again, but this time I add 4-5gals. every 15 mins until the tubs are full again. At this point you would probably be very safe to add the fish to the Holding Tank, but I generally go one step further. I keep the holding tank full during this process, so I empty the tubs down to 2-3gals one more time and use a 1/2" U-tube made out of PVC to fill each tub directly from the holding tank. Once the tub is full I begin to empty it down to 2-3gals again as the holding tank refills. Then I just start removing the fish from the tub and putting them into the holding tank. Now its time to visit the How to Quick Cycle a Tank Guide to keep them alive...

From Holding Tank to Dinner is Served:

Ok, so You got Your fish home and into the holding tank and life is Good. Well, not Yet! You still have to get the fish into the Acrochordus' Tank to get it fed! This is the same basic process, but with different water quantities. In this case, I acclimate usually 1 dozen Comets or Shiners, and about 3 dozen minnows at a time in a 5gal. bucket. I take the bucket to the holding tank and add about 1gal. of holding tank water. I then add the fish that I want to acclimate and transport them to the Acrochordus' setup. I then add 1/2gal. of water from the Acrochordus' tank into the bucket every 15 mins and an air stone. I do this until the bucket is full. Then I empty the bucket down to 1/2-1gal. and start over. This time, when the bucket is about 1/2 full I add a heater. I give it about 15 mins to adjust and then turn it on. Normally at this point the water in the bucket is about 79F. I check to see where the heater is turning on/off at and set it to "On" and add a few degrees (82F). Then I continue to add water every 15 mins until the bucket is full. Then I work the heater up to the 84F range and let the bucket sit and adjust to temp. When the temp is up to the 84F I leave the bucket alone for another 15 mins and then transfer the fish into the Acrochordus' tank.

Side Notes:
1) I use a Timer for the 15min and 30min intervals.

2) The Timing and water quantities are pretty important, especially with the shiners. If you wait too long--Ammonia begins to build up Fast and the Oxygen begins to deplete (w/o an airstone), and if You don't wait long enough--the fish go into shock from differences in Temp, pH, 02,, C02, etc.

3) Make sure to add the air stone--warmer water holds less Oxygen, so its pretty easy to kill a bucket of fish if you forget about them or get distracted.

4) If your tank is planted and You add C02 for the plants--watch out for the pH difference: Yes, it will kill your fish in this situation. I find that I have to turn off the C02 and allow it to dissipate via airstone from the Acrochordus' tank for 2+ hours to raise the pH (by reducing the C02 level). After I add the fish I can crank the C02 back on to get the pH back down to where I want it.

5) I use the 100w Via Aqua Stainless Steel Heaters with the External Temp Control for heating the water in the buckets.

Again, I've tried many different methods and this ultimately works the best. The gauge is really the Shiners. I find them to be very sensitive--I don't see how they are any Good for bait! Sheesh! I hope that the above is Clear. If You have any questions feel free to contact me.

Note: Over time this process has become more and more intuitive for me. In turn, I have trimmed the process down both in time and effort. I need to take the time and sort out what I am doing now and update this page. However, Often times this whole feeder fish thing is just something else that needs to get done. All that said, the process listed above should still work well for You and is a Good starting point for large quantities of fish in small quantities of water. Over time You will become more familiar with what's going on and will be able to trim down the process for Yourself. A proper, workable setup is a must!