Just to update, both these fish have been back in the main tank for several days, and they seem absolutely fine now :)

Good luck, hope he pulls through!

I've just googled the dosage and read one- two drops per gallon on various websites.
eg, here Buy Seachem Prime

My water-change bucket is 9 litres, so about 2 drops per bucketful? I don't fill it all the way to the top, obviously :P

Also, it says on the bottle that if your temperature is below 30 degrees c, and chlorine levels are low, use a half dose. Now, what counts as low chlorine levels?? Chlorine in the water here is less than 1mg/ litre, according to the water board.

I just noticed that it does warn of a sulphur smell on the bottle too, sorry, should have read it properly before posting!

Good luck, hope he pulls through!

Hi,

Just opened my first bottle of Prime and the stuff stinks! I haven't used it, thought I'd check if it's supposed to smell like that first. The other water conditioners I have used haven't had any unpleasant smell.

Also, can anyone help me out with the dosing? Eg one drop treats: or one ml treats:

Thanks!
Rayemond

Okay, I just read that you should NOT use the drip method because the co2 in the bag will have lowered the pH which will prevent the ammonia from being toxic, but it becomes toxic once you open the bag. So you should just float the bag then add the fish right away. But adding Prime to the bag water would prvent this, right?

4 black widow tetra
3 harlequin rasbora
2 dwarf cichlid
6 congo tetra
4 ruby barb
2 white cloud minnow
1 hillstream loach

Hi all,

Since all my LFS are awful, I've decided to order some fish from England, after finding one who will ship to the IOM. I figure, they will come straight from the supplier to me rather than from the supplier to my LFS, who will not treat them well, then to me. But I am feeling very nervous at the thought of receiving a package containing live fish, and fear they will arrive dead or dying! But the shop seems reputable and very experienced in shipping fish, and my LFS receives new fish in the same way, then just use the bag floating method to put them straight into the for sale tanks, where a lot of them die and can be seen dead in the tanks every time I go there.

I've set up two quarantine tanks for my new fish, one tropical and one subtropical to suit the different fish. They are filled, heated, will be filtered with mature filters (I have one spare filter that has been running in one of my tanks for a few weeks, and have another new filter that I will put old filter media in), have live plants for cover, and are ready to go.

My question is, what should I do with the fish when I get them? They will obviously be extremely stressed and will presumably have a build-up of ammonia in their bags (unless shippers put something in the water to prevent this?), and poosible oxygen deprivation. There is also the pH difference between their water and mine to worry about. They are being shipped with heat packs, in bags filled with pure oxygen.

So my plan is, tip each bag of fish into a separate small container with a floating plant for cover. Test the pH of the bag water, if it is quite different from the pH of my tankwater acclimatise very slowly with the drip method. If the pH is similar, still use the drip method but a bit more quickly. Is the pH is very different, how slowly do I need to go? Actually I will contact the seller now and ask what pH his fish are kept at. I'll whack my heating up to stop them from getting cold whilst doing the drip method.

Could I add a drop of Prime to their bagwater to detoxify the ammonia whilst waiting for the drip method? I worry that it will have built up to very toxic levels whilst the fish were being shipped overnight... Or is it best to just wait for the dripping to slowly dilute the ammonia?

Anything else I need to think about? Feeling very worried now! Poor fishies :(

Rayemond

Brilliant, thanks guys, I'm deffo gonna get some then :)

I was just wondering if I can use Seachem Prime for normal water changes in a cycled tank, or is it just for when you have an ammonia/ nitrite/ nitrate problem with your tank? Will live plants still be able to use the ammonia/ nitrite/ nitrate if it's detoxified by Prime? Any other problems with using it for routine water changes?

Thanks,
Rayemond