Introducing Fish To A New Tank

[KrystaK]

My big tank is all set up and cycled and im trying to introduce my fish to it with as little stress as possible. So what I'm planning is getting a clear plastic bag - ziplock basically and half filling it with water from the old tank and one of my fishies. Then Im going to place it in the new tank and put one cup of the new tank water in every 10 min or so until the bag is full, then I'll let the fish out. does that sound like an ok way to do it, rather than just dropping the fish in the tank?

As it turns out a ziplock bag half full with water doesnt float so I'll have to put the bag in my breeding trap to help it float so fishy doesnt get caught at the bottom in the bag and suffocate....But does anyone have a different,. possibly better way of doing this? (btw I have nothing other than a ziplock bag to use really... unless I use a normal plastic bag

 

[chickennuggets123]

Yeah, dont just drop the fish in straight away.
Roll the top of the bag over, and hook it on the side....
Is it from an old tank to a new one? To be sure, dont drop any old water in to the new one, incase it has any 'nasties' in it, to be safe!

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Your plans sounds reasonable, but personally I would add just a 1/4 of original tank water to the bag and then add close to 3/4 of the new tank water to it, so the makeup of the bag will more closely represent the water of the new tank when the fish is ready for release.

It is well worth buying a bit of airline tubing with a tap valve for acclimitising fish to new water, you then then pop the fish and original water into a dedicated fish bucket and then finely adjust the drip rate of new water to ~4 drops a second. Once the bucket is nearly full, net the fish and add then to the tank.

 

[Gvilleguy]

I have tried multiple methods over the past year - float bags, float bags + scoop water, drip into bucket containing new fish - but the one I have enjoyed the most success with is a heated drip method where you float the bag and drip heater-stabilized tank water from a raised bucket into the bag. Sound hard? It's really not - just requires you to buy a few small items (not much money unless you don't have a solid ladder or shelf to raise a bucket above tank level).

There is a link in my signature to a video I made showing the process. Some people have said this stresses the fish to have them in a bag for so long, but I feel the slow acclimation to the different temp/pH/water hardness is more important than having them be unsettled for a little while. I lose fewer fish this way in the long run, so I think it works.