Acclimatization: understanding the principles

I am often asked about the acclimation of Aquazolla’s critters: should we proceed with acclimation for these invertebrates, and how should it be done?

First of all, I think it is important to understand what this need for acclimation really means, which we know well for fish, for example. We generally know how to do it, but we must admit that we apply learned rules without always questioning why.

 

For example, you have been told that you must gradually equalize the temperatures between the original water and the new water for a fish. Because a thermal shock could be fatal, even if it is only a few degrees.

Yet, aquarists who take their fish out in summer in a trash pond have noticed something surprising.
Indeed, when a fish near the surface sees you coming, it immediately dives, just like its kind do in the wild. Because in a trash pond, fish become wild again, to their great joy.

The temperature difference between the surface and the bottom of a trash pond often reaches 6°C. And sometimes even more in a basin. So how is it that these fish voluntarily endure such a difference in half a second, while you are told to acclimate the fish you buy? Isn’t there a contradiction here?

To understand, we must look at the notion of stress.

 

Many years ago, my job made me travel a lot. While flying had never been a problem for me for years, one day I suddenly developed a fear of flying. Off to the therapist to try to understand and especially to fix the problem.

I then learned that stresses can be positive or negative depending on the circumstances and especially on their accumulation.

In my case, flying used to be pleasant, and takeoff or landing were rather fun. A bit like people who love rides and roller coasters.

But when the sum of stresses in my life became significant, close to a personal limit, each additional stress became harmful, unbearable. And the plane, once enjoyable, became in a way the last straw.

When stress, by accumulation, becomes too harmful, it can no longer be absorbed and it makes you ill. It can kill.

Now, back to the fish.

It was the trash pond experience that made me question and understand.

My fish, to whom I offer holidays in the garden, sees many stresses disappear from its life: artificial lighting suddenly switched on and off, the constant noise of pumps, glass walls unknown in nature and ever-present humans, it discovers the wind on the surface, the rain, critters falling into the water, laying eggs there, live food, fresh, infinitely varied…

 

In short, it is happy. Its tolerance to stress is at its maximum, and fleeing at your sight must be fun for it. The 6°C it endures at that moment is even “funny”!

The fish you buy is more like me when I was unhappy at work. Every new stress is then too much.

This fish was born and lived in Asian or Czech farms, in conditions anything but natural, deciding nothing of its life, crowded at an abnormal density…
It then makes a journey, locked in plastic bags, after being chased and caught with a net. The water moves constantly.
It arrives at the wholesaler in the destination country, is picked up among its dead companions. Its life changes completely… for only a few weeks before everything starts again: off to a pet shop.
Light, temperature, shocks and movements, spatial references nonexistent in a soft bag: nothing corresponds to its abilities.

The fish you buy is not able to endure the slightest additional stress and that is normal. It has become extremely fragile, but no one can know where it stands.

 

That is why it must be treated with infinite care and spared any new shock: water parameters, temperature, everything must be gradual, its ability to adapt and “endure” being very diminished. Ideally, it should even be left in the dark, acclimated after the lights go out, in calm.

The following summer, when you see it chasing the daphnia in its trash pond in the garden, you will not recognize it! It will no longer be the same and this will show very clearly in its health.

 

This issue of stress is the same for absolutely all living beings.

Even plants, depending on the species, lose their roots (Azolla, Pistia, etc.) when moved to a new environment, in order to readapt. And this is perfectly normal.

And it cannot be otherwise for invertebrates: shrimps and other crustaceans, snails, worms, etc.

 

That is why I only collect your critters from my farms on the day of shipment. That is why your water lice are shipped with a felt pad to cling to (this changes everything for them, it reassures them). This reduces the chain of stress.

But after any journey, one must recover from the emotions. And you (like me) know nothing of the “feelings” of the living being you receive, animal or plant. What stress has it accumulated, seen through its own “eyes”?

 

Hence the caution instructions. It is therefore impossible to set absolute rules. The only rule is to understand this principle of accumulated stress, the particular (and temporary) fragility it creates in every living being, and thus the need for gradual changes to avoid “the last straw.”

 

The first thing to do, once you have checked that all is well, is to open the received bags to give oxygen back. Then possibly empty them into a glass or bowl depending on the species without strong light, letting the temperature adjust on its own. Then, according to your judgment, use drip acclimation or partial water exchange, you will see.

Later, when you change your water lice from one tank to another, you will be surprised by their tolerance.

Especially if you have given them a life… without stress!