When we package your order, we take great care. All of our livestock are provided with the essentials for shipping. We ensure that every fish bag has plenty of oxygen and each box contains heat packs. All animals are provided with saltwater that includes stress reducing and ammonia detoxifying additives to reduce the amount of shipping stress in transit.

The darkness of the shipping box can induce lethargy so don't be alarmed if the animal appears to be lifeless and continue to follow our guide.
 

*We do not recommend drip acclimating our fish, doing so may void any DOA policies we have, see explanation below*

1. Open box and inspect livestock for immediate health condition before opening the bag. 

2. Turn off lights on your aquarium, this will reduce stress during the acclimation process. 

3. Float bag/s in aquarium for 15-20 minutes. We recommend using an aquarium magnet to prevent the bag from freely floating and blocking overflows.

4. Open bag/s and using a net, introduce your new aquatic life to your tank. Be sure to avoid high flow areas and for smaller specimens make sure they are not predated on before they find the rockwork. 

5. Always discard the shipping water and NEVER add the water in the bag to your aquarium.

6. We recommend to keep the lighting off for at least an additional 20-30 minutes to allow the fish to settle in their new home. 
7. Please  monitor their health and behaviours for the first week after being introduced.

Please note that straying away from this guide may invalidate our DOA/DAA policy. Other acclimation methods could be harmful for our live animals. 
 

New additions may hide in your rockwork until they have settled but they should accept food once adjusted.

 

An acrylic acclimation box is a great tool for introducing new fish or invert to your existing fish in safety. It also allows you to keep a close eye on your new pet to ensure they're eating well and keeps them away from any other fish that may decide to bully the new addition whilst it is stressed. 
 

Why you shouldn't drip acclimate your clownfish after shipping... 

Our fish shipped directly from our facility. Overnight, the water in the shipping bags will start to get a build-up of ammonia from the fish waste. As the ammonia rises, the pH will naturally drop. The toxic ammonia is converted to the safer ammonium.

When you introduce your tank water to the bag, the pH tank water during drip acclimation causes the pH to rise, which causes the ammonium to convert back into toxic ammonia. This can cause issues such as ammonia burns and gill flare, even in such a short amount of time. We believe that it is much less stressful for a fish to have a small shock in parameter change than experiencing ammonia spikes.