The Skeptical Aquarist

How you treat new fish in their first hours can make a difference in their survival rate.

The most important advice I can give here: Don't add the traveling water to your home aquarium. After you've acclimated new fish to your water by whatever method, gently net them out and discard the travelling water, along with its load of ammonia and perhaps pathogens.

Though e-commerce has hit a glitch or two at the turn of the century, it's a brand-new world, one that is going to give a new twist to the current competition between your traditional LFS and the discount chain pet outlet in the strip mall. As e-commerce revolutionizes every part of economic life, many small local fish stores are going to disappear, no matter how many canister filters you faithfully purchase at full "recommended retail" price. Whether this will be a good thing, a bad thing or neutral, is a moot point.