The Puffer Forum

Hi ive recently freed up a tank to use as a quarantine and today went and purchased a raccoon butterfly fish, however i have been drip acclimating the fish for two hours now, and just checked my SG of tank water and then went to test the SG of the bag water now in the bucket.

In my tank i have 1.022, in my bucket i have 1.015 !!! i checked twice as first i thought my hydrometer done a crazy on the colaboration.

how can this be the lfs is quite a busy shop round here always rammed with people and plenty of fish, threfore i would have thought it would be more than ontop of stuff like this, however im relatively new to this hobby so maybe i have missed the obvious reaosn for it being that low, but surely to me that doesnt sound right? christ knows what it must have been two hours ago when i started the drip but i imagine alot lower than 1.015, surely that cant be good for the tangs, clowns and all the other salt water fish running on the same system aswell as my new butterfly fish??

Am i okay to continue this acclimation as possibly a lot less than 1.015 is a massive jump to 1.022 i couldn't believe my eyes when i just tested the bucket water.

Maybe they had him in 1.009 for hypo salinity crypt treatment?

I'd also double check the hydrometer, only thing I can think of is to make a gallon salt solution according to the instructions for the salt (usually a half cup to make 1.022). If it reads really low, your hydrometer might be off, and then your tank would be much higher actual salinity if that is the case.

sorry refactometer so seems acurrate problem solved i started removing cups and adding cups of tankw ater instead of the drip every 5- 10 mins they are fine now =).

was just really low SG from the LFS i didnt realise most LFS's use low salt to prevent disease apparently thats there reasoning

Awesome, good to hear. How is the racoon butterfly fish doing?

Most LFS keep their fish at a very low SG. I've tested mine as low as 1.012. I guess it's their way of doing hypo. Saves on $alt, too.