Just wondering what are some good tips to acclimating fish to add them to a home aquarium?

Drip acclimation. I once used drip acclimation to adjust neon tetras (soft water fish) to water that was 16 to 20 degrees of hardness without losing a single one. It took five hours, but it was worth it. The slow drip lets the fish gradually get used to differences in salinity, pH, and hardness, while a final float will equilibrate the temperatures in the bucket and the tank.



Then get the fish eating by starting it off with foods similar to what it'd find in the wild. You can slowly wean it onto prepared food eventually, but the first goal is to just get it eating again.

Edited by EricaWieser, 30 April 2012 - 08:42 PM.

From my experience most native fish are extremely hardy. They aren't anywhere near as finicky as many of the tropical species. I commonly end up going to collect specimens for various small scientific projects, and find something interesting while I'm out. I don't normally have the best transport gear on me when I find these individuals, for example one darter took a five to six hour ride back in a 100mL conical tube. I was expecting to pickle it and identify it, however much to my surprise it lived. Once I got it home I dumped it into my tank, I figured the lack of oxygen was a greater concern that adjustment time. I've had the darter for several months and it's alive and well. Point being some adjustment is good, but from my experience most native fish adjust well on their own there's no reason to get too worked up over it. The biggest problem is persuading them to eat.
My biggest problem I've ran into was with a pirate perch. I could not get him to eat. I tried freeze dried bloodworms, frozen bloodworms, dried shrimp, and flake food. Finally I put in live food, which he accepted, but didn't get a chance to eat too much of. He lived in my predatory tank, and got outcompeted by the more active predators. He died shortly after I realized what to feed him. From my experience most small fish are fine on being fed frozen bloodworms, I've also heard a lot of people on the forum suggest frozen shrimp. If your fish isn't eating that and are larger than a small minnow, try switching to live food. Glass shrimps are cheap and many of my predatory fish love them, and there is also the classic minnows which work quite well.

Salt in the aquarium is helpful. Then just dump them in.

I dont think what conditions are a big deal with natives, but water temp. can be. If you collect fish from a spring creek, or in the winter and your tank is 70+, you'll want to temp to be close before adding them to the tank. Either use that drip method, or let the water sit until it matches the temp in the tank.