Help please!Flame angel arrived in ammonia water- acclimate or not?

dmschiff

Member
Received my flame angel today. Water smelled funny so I decided to test. Ammonia is 1.0-2.0. I immediately added amquel, but not sure if I should continue to acclimate for 3 hours or is it safer to just add to fish qt.
I;m thinking the stress from ammonia is worse than stress from quick to no acclimation.
Please help!
 

ophiura

Active Member
This is the great debate. Any fish shipped is going to have ammonia in the water. The real question is what is the pH? What is the specific gravity, and temp? Those are concerns.
But this is why many LFS when receiving a shipment do not acclimate. The pH is probably low - so the ammonia is not very toxic, but as you acclimate the pH increases, and the ammonia becomes a problem. You will see that debated quite a lot.
 

dmschiff

Member
Prior to the ammonia test he also looked a little grey or darker around the gills. About 10 to 15 minutes after the amquel he started to swim around and be more active. His color picked up. So, I contiuned to acclimate. He is now in the QT and looks good, but has not eaten yet.
 
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