I bought 8 snails and a brittle star today. I thought I acclimated them alright, but they aren't moving. Since I can't take their heartbeat and I don't want them to foul up the tank, how will I know if they didn't survive?
thye tank a long time to acclimate to the tank, sometimes weeks, put them so the area where they come out of is on the sand, so the crabs dont pick them out.
I floated the bag for about 15 minutes. Opened it and put in a quarter cup of tank water. About 10 minutes later I put another quarter cup in there. 10 minutes later I put the snails in.
Water parameters: good enough for a coral banded shrimp and hermit crabs.
How do I know if the brittle star is dead? It's not moving at all but it's still intact.
Originally posted by Kaiser
I floated the bag for about 15 minutes. Opened it and put in a quarter cup of tank water. About 10 minutes later I put another quarter cup in there. 10 minutes later I put the snails in.
Water parameters: good enough for a coral banded shrimp and hermit crabs.
How do I know if the brittle star is dead? It's not moving at all but it's still intact.
Please read up on acclimation. It's totally different from Freshwater.
A starfish takes minimum of 6 hrs to drip acclimate.
Chances are the star fish isn't going to make it.
Research everything you buy before you buy it and you'll save yourself a lot of aggrivation and money in the long run.
Star fish are the hardest of all to acclimate and keep.
Make sure you read up on feeding habbits, Compatibily with other things in your tank BEFORE YOU BUY ANOTHER THING!
Good Luck!
How you acclimated was fine. It does not take 6hrs to acclimate a brittle starfish. If you take a snail out of the take and you are still standing you know that it is not dead. If you wake up hrs later then the snail has died. I acclimate all my fish the way you have mentioned and I have not lost one.
Keep a reefin' :happyfish
Originally posted by sailfin
How you acclimated was fine. It does not take 6hrs to acclimate a brittle starfish. If you take a snail out of the take and you are still standing you know that it is not dead. If you wake up hrs later then the snail has died. I acclimate all my fish the way you have mentioned and I have not lost one.
Keep a reefin' :happyfish
How long have you had your fish?
Why do you ask??
That form of acclimation is usually a hit or miss. I mean you might as well just toss the thing in.
You might have a situation where your water is real close to your LFS's water...
the snails that are flipped need to be flipped back over turbos cannot right themselves. i agree with sailfin as far as the acclimation process inverts take alot more time than fish unless the water params close. its a good idea to test your lfs water against yours to make sure how long to should acclimate, but on average i genarally acclimate my inverts for about 2 hr.