Help - How Do You Transfer Big Fish To New Tank?

[fishnovice]

Transporting large fish (plecos, goldfish, oscars) in a binliner in a bucket works OK till you get them home but how do you get them to adjust to differences in temp and PH etc to avoid shock? These biggies don't fit in normal plastic fish bags or even freezer bags, so how do you float them? Or do you just tip the big guys into new tank and keep fingers crossed?

 

[drobbyb]

Drip acclimation. What you will want to do is get a piece of airline tubing and place it into the tank where the fish is going to go. Suck on one end and tie a loose knot in it so that it slows the water flow down to a few drops a second. Every 5 mins take a cup of water out of the container, and repeat until only tank water is in the container.

 

[Tolak]

Drip acclimate. Take a length of air line tubing, start a siphon from the tank to the larger container. Tie a loose knot in the air line to adjust the flow, or put a gang valve in line.

The idea is to double the water volume in an hour, more or less. If the fish was in water that was similar to your tank water you can speed it up, if it is vastly different it usually needs to go slower. I double it 3 times, removing half the water then lettiong it continue dripping for the next hour. After 3 hours you are at around 87% tank water. If the container is uninsulated, such as a bucket, put something between the container & the floor to minimize heat loss.


***Edit To Add***

drobbyb beat me to it, same idea, slightly different approach. Either will work.

 

[drobbyb]

 

[fishnovice]

Thanks for your advice everyone. Actually needed to transfer my golden rudd into new large tank as their old one was cracked and leaking. Had to keep them in plastic crates. Followed your advice, adding fresh water to water in crates over 4 hours. Fish now swimming happily in new tank

 

[drobbyb]

Yay! Glad to hear that the move went well.