New tank - Moving fish around.

[paul_southend2k]

Hi, I recently took possession of my sisters Rio 180, however it needed to go where my Rekord 120 is.

I moved my 7 rummynose tetras, 4 cherry barbs, 2 Algae Eaters, 3 Red line barbs, 4 clown loach, 1 male krib and Kissing Gourmai into the 180 with half the tank water whilst i kept the other half of the water moved the 120 and then re set it up as it was before and transferred the fish back into it. (was a mission catching some of the fish as my tank is a two year old set up full of crypts!

I have now moved the 180 into position and have the 120 running alongside.

However, i lost two rummy nose tetras about an hour after i put them back and today my male Krib is on its way out. My Red Line barbs also sustained some damage to there nose's.

Has anyone any advice on reducing this problem whem i eventually move the fish (clown loaches, algea eaters, kissing gourmai and krib if still with me) into the 180?

Cheers...

Paul


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Rio 180 - new set up (currently running tank in so empty apart from some plants. (will move my big fish into here)

Rekord 120 - 7 rummynose tetras, 4 cherry barbs, 2 S.Algae Eaters, 3 Red line barbs, 4 clown loach, 1 male krib and a Kissing Gourmai, two clown plecos. (soon to have all my small fish in)

60cm tank - 2 SAE, 10 Cardinal Tetras, 2 peppered corys, 1 Red Phantom Tetra, 5 Bleeding heart tetras, 3 high spot Rasboras, 1 Male Krib and 4 cuckoo synodontis

[MatsP]

I've moved my RIO400 twice within one year, with one Bosemans rainbow lost in the process (and that was looking a bit off-colour before the move, probably due to the tank being in one place and me in another reducing the maintenance to a bit below what it should have been).

I used a "big bucket" as a temporary home whilst moving the tank around, but I kept the water in dustbins (becuase that's the least expensive per volume, water-tight, containers I could find).

My only thought on your problems might be that your new tank doesn't have the filter populated with "good bacteria" yet, and that's what's causing the problems...

--
Mats

[paul_southend2k]

Thanks for the advice it cant be the filter as the fish are in the 120 still which has got the mature filter in! (plus a mature external ecco)...

I havent any fish in the new tank yet as i am conditioning it.

[paul_southend2k]

any other ideas?

[hfjacinto]

I moved fish from a 30 gallon (app 113 liters) to a 45 gallon (app 170 liters) over 3 years ago. Here is what I did with no fish loss.

I first did a massive water change on the 30 gallon tank. I filled a large plastic storage container (used for storing blankets, wash it before filling) with the water from the 30 gallon. With only 5 gallons of water in the 30 gallon tank I moved it to the floor. I then placed the 45 gallon were the 30 gallon was.

I refilled the 30 gallon with fresh water. In the 45 gallon, I added about 20 gallons from the container; the other 5 were too low to pick up easily. I then added about 10 gallons of fresh water to the 45. I removed the driftwood and some of the hardier plants (such as elodea, java fern and anubias) to the 45. I also added about 5 pounds of gravel from the 30 gallon that I washed before placing in the 45.

As I have 2 filters, I took one of the filters from the 30 and moved it to the 45.

For 2 days I let the tank run as they were. I didn?t feed the fish during this time to reduce the chances of an ammonia spike since the 30 gallon was overstocked and underfiltered.

After 2 days I did another water change on the 30 gallon this time only 50%. I used the container to fill the 45 gallon until it was topped off. I also moved all other plants from the 30 gallon (making it easier to catch the fish).

2 more days I waited and then I moved 5 cories to the 45 gallon.

Next day I moved the rest of the catfish (1 bushy nose, 1 Peckoltia Sabaji, 1 Ancistrus (veil tail) and the 5 inch pardalis).

1 more day I waited, and then I did a 50% water change on the 45 gallon and moved over the rest of the fish (5 large rainbows and 2 clown loaches) and the other filter.

At this time I temporarily added an airstone for temporary protection against ammonia.

I then cleaned up the 30 gallon and the blanket container (need to keep the wife happy, since I used the container without asking her)

I only feed the fish after a week, and I did another massive water change after the first feeding. I feed the fish every other day for a week

This whole time I was checking the ammonia and I never saw any spikes or increase, I also tested nitrite and no issues either. 2 weeks after I started I removed the airstone.

The reason this was such a complicated move was because one tank was a replacement for another and was overstocked. If I had to do it again and the tanks weren?t overstocked I would just set-up a 10 gallon 3 weeks before, move all the fish to the 10 gallon and just set-up the other tank and let that tank run for 3 weeks and then move all the fish from the 10 gallon to the other tank.

[paul_southend2k]

cheers, my problem i think was that i moved the fish twice in a few hours which stressed them out, also that the Redline Barbs are waspy fish anyway and because they dart about they stressed the other fish... Lesson lernt.

Can i just ask, when i move the fish from my 120 to the 180 is it ok to get the temps the same and then just move them or do i still need to put them in bags like you do with new fish and aclimatise them??

[hfjacinto]

Paul,

I didn?t bag any fish, the water parameters were around the same (Temperature, PH and Hardness) as I use tap water for every aquarium. I actually use a net to move the fish to a 1 gallon (3.8 liter) plastic tank. When the fish are in the plastic tank, I cover it with the net and just dump the water into the other tank I was moving the fish into. In the case I described above I was moving fish to a new tank.

If I was moving fish into a tank that had other fish in it, I would actually move the fish into a bucket I use for water changes and then drip line water from the new tank the fish are moving into. I wouldn?t move water from one tank with fish it to another tank with different fish.

I actually forgot, but an 8 year old angel (last of a group of 6) died in the move. He was looking pretty beat up and died a month after I moved him into the new tank.

[hfjacinto]

However, i lost two rummy nose tetras about an hour after i put them back and today my male Krib is on its way out. My Red Line barbs also sustained some damage to there nose's.

Paul,

I have some concerns about a fish dieing within an hour of being put into a new tank. Even with massive amounts of ammonia, I don?t see a fish dieing this quickly unless there are some other poisonous chemicals in the water. If you didn?t already add a lot of carbon to whatever filter you are using, I would recommend you do this now. If you have panty hose, fill the hose with as much carbon as possible and rinse the carbon in tab water until no more particles flow out. Place the panty hose in the tank and leave it there for a couple of days this will quickly remove any poisons in the water.

[paul_southend2k]

hfjacinto,

Cheers for the tip about using a container, will use that method when moving them into the bigger tank, Just to remind you i havent put any of my fish in the new tank yet, i just had to move them out of the Rekord 120 while i moved it to a new position and then i put them back again. The Krib dying was prob because of the stress, they dont like being caught and get stressed easily, i had a problem in the past moving one to my sisters, it took a few days for him to settle down again.

ALl seems to be ok now so ill just use that method in future, good tip! Better then chasing with a net for a few mins to catch them!

Paul