Adjusting Fish To Higher Temperature

[m1lky12]

I've just purchased a new 100 liter tank which I'm in the process of a fishless cycle at the moment to replace my old 50 liter tank which is still holding my three remaining fish. My question is what is the best way to adapt my fish to the new tanks temperature? I'm looking to maintain a temperature of 25-26 degrees once up and running with fish but at the moment the heaters set to 30 to try speed up the bacteria growth. My current fish are in an unheated tank and have been for the last 5 years or so and have been doing well as the room temperatures warm enough, although I haven't got a thermometer in there to get an accurate reading my guess is the water temperatures around the low 20 mark so it'll be a relatively big jump to get them to the temperature in my new tank.
I currently have a featherfin catfish, a zebra loach and another small catfish that the LSF (picking up the lingo already) didn't specify a name for. I'm looking to get a couple more zebra loaches aswell as a bristlenose catfish, a couple of angels and a shoal of 6-10 small tetras or barbs so a temperature of 25ish should suit these.

So yeah is it just a case of sticking a heater in the fish tank and whacking it up a degree or two every few days until they've adjusted or is there another method? And if this is the way to go is it better to do the adjustment after they're added to the new tank or while in their current set up? Also I'd like some opinions on the potental stocking of the tank and and suggestions as to what shoal of tetra or barb to go for?

Thanks in advance.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I doubt your new 100l is going to be suitable for Angelfish long term, these deep bodied fish need deep tank, 45cm of water depth (excluding the sand) is regarded as the minimum. In addition, putting two "random" Angelfish together in any tank is known ot cause a bullying situation, they should be kept as singletons or bought as a 6+ group from which you can then identify a bonded pair that could live together.

The sooner you can upload a photo of the unknown small catfish the better, some species might not be suitable at all to keep in a tropical ~25C tank, it has obviously been quite happy with room temp to survive five years.

Bristlenose Catfish are very messy fish, they need to be kept in excellently filtered tanks, they eat a lot of vegetable matter and like most "veggies" this goes through their digestive tract quickly creating a lot of waste. For this reason 125l tanks are considered an adviseable minimum tank size. In a 100l, I would look towards a Synodontis nigriventris group, but there is no guarantee that your Synodontis euptera will accept them, it would need careful monitoring.

This leads me on nicely to my other concern here, your Featherfin (S. euptera) should reach ~20cm and will be quite a chunky fish. Despite your upgrade, you need to be careful just how many new fish you add to this tank, if it was me I would just add another four or five Zebra Loaches. That would be ~80cm of adult fish in a 100l tank, which considering the girth of the catfish, I would consider that very heavily stocked, but at least the very social loaches would have a social group (without knowing if your small catfish is a social species). Having said that, I have to be honest and say I would be much more comfortable housing these loaches and the Featherfin in a 4-foot tank.

 

[m1lky12]

Hey thanks for your reply Nobody, certainly making me think again about my stock. My new tanks a Aqua One UFO 550 corner tank and it's dimensions are L78xD52xH48 which includes around 3cm of substrate at the moment so that brings it to around 45cm of depth, I'm guessing in your opinion thats the absolute minimum an angel should be living in?

I'll try get a picture of the unknown catfish later today if I can and upload it, it's worth mentioning aswell that since we've had these 3 fish the tank was originally put in a much warmer room before being put in my unheated kitchen because of space issues, in both temperatures they all seem to be doing fine.

I have read into the bristlenose catfish and that was my one concern with it and now you've said this will look into alternatives, though like you said I don't know whether there'll be enough hiding spots to accomodate both my catfish and a group of upside down catfish, though my tank is heavily planted with bogwood and a manmade tree trunk and root type thing. Ironically enough the staff at my LSF sold me my featherfin as a UDC but after researching it I'm quite glad what she's turned out as. Really beautiful fish.

And yeah I have noticed that the featherfin has outgrown her current tank, it's funny but being young at the time and mis-infomation from the LSF I would never have thought have thought this small shy catfish i brought when it was only a couple of centimeters long and didn't see for the first year or so when originally added would grow to so big, especially in a relatively small tank, but I guess that's the learning process of keeping fish.

As for the loach it wasn't until I brought my new tank and wanted to fully research my current and potential fish that I saw they had to be kept minimum of three but a recommendation of more than 5, it has been on his own since I get it a number of years ago and has never been shy or skittish, I have read peoples experiences of keeping them singularly or in pairs as quite contrasting. Some say they never see them while others say they're happy and quite active, though I will definitely be investing in a few extra.

Thanks for the recommendations, do you have any advice about adjusting the fish to the higher temperature if need be aswell? Much appreciated.

 

[m1lky12]

Sorry didn't know how to upload photos straight to the discussion. This was the best photo I could get on my iPhone, aswell as the tank being pretty scummy it's not the easiest photo to make out. This is the mystery catfish in question if anyone can help me out. Also went and brought a thermometer today and my current tank is 21/22 degrees so looking to acclimatise the fish to around 25/26 degrees if anyone has any suggestions.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Your mystery catfish looks like a Synodontis of some description, but the photo is not clear enough to say which species, I would guess at nigriventris (which are very social, just like South American Corydoras, I have 11) or possibly the more fiest nigrita. If this catfish swims and roosts upside down pretty much all the time, except swimming the right way up to get food from the bottom, it is probably nigriventris or possibly contracta.

As regards increasing the temp in their current tank ready for the transfer, upping the heater thermostat by ~2C a day will get them ready for the move, don't forget to still acclimitise them to the new tank's water as if brought home from the fish shop (unless you use their old tank water to initially part fill the new one and then add new fresh water to it).

But it does look more likely that most if not all of your bigger tank's stocking room needs to be dedicated towards giving your Zebra Loach and this smaller Synodontis (if it is nigriventris or contracta) a decent social structure with at least 5 more "friends" of each species.

 

[m1lky12]

Definitely isn't the niogriventris or contracta, looks more like the nigrita though not 100% sure, also has the same behavior as you've mentioned but I'll get a better photo at some point so it's a little easier to identify.

Temperature acclimatization sounds good aswell, thought it would be like that but just wanted to be sure. Obviously after the cycle has completed I'll do a near enough 100% water change before I add the fish, this will include about 35-40% that's come from my original tank and rest made up of fresh water. I've never acclimatized my own fish to another tank so I'm guessing i'll be using the floating bag like that you do with new fish?

And i agree with the stocking, I had a look around a couple of my LSF yesterday and the Zebra Loach is readily available, though is there any specifics as to what size to get, same size or smaller, or will it not make too much of a difference in a social group?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I would personally buy 5 Zebra Loaches, close to the size of your existing one if possible, but not the end of the world if not. Set the new loaches up in your older smaller tank once you have moved the existing fish to the new tank, quarantining them for at least a few weeks, which will also give you a chance to ensure they are all eating well after no doubt low food levels while going through the hobby shop process. Obviously you will need a filter for this QT, pinching upto 33% of your main tank filter media, but you will still need to check the water quality daily and react to ammonia level in excess of 1mg/l and nitrite levels in excess of 0.25mg/l with ~95% water changes.

After a hopefully sucessful QT period, you have two options... You could simply acclimitise the 5 loaches to your main tank, or my personal option would be to acclimitse your old Zebra Loach to the new ones in the QT. This will put your older loach slightly on the back foot, essentially being the new kid on the block in the QT tank, increasing the odds of a sucessful integration of new and old loaches. If all goes well after a week of integration, add the whole group to the main tank with acclimitising.

 

[m1lky12]

Sounds good to me! Though would their be any negative impact of changing the original loach from tank to tank over a relatively short period of time? Could an alternative be once my new tank is cycled and up and running is to add the new group of loaches as the first fish in there, while my other 3 fish stay in my original tank before adding them a few weeks later once the new loaches have hopefully gone through a successful QT period? Or would it be better for my original fish to be the first in the new tank?