Transferring Fish To A New Tank - Best Method?

[Hoppy]

Hi

We will shortly be moving our fish to their nice new home - our new tank.

As the topic says, what is the least stressful (for both us and the fish) for transferring them from their current tank to their new tank?

There are 6 x Neon, 1 x BN and 5 x Amano to move across.

Should we net them, put them in a bucket of tank water and then net them into the new tank or should we use plastic tubs or bags? I'm worried about the barbs on the plec if we net him as he is pretty much full grown.

We're slowly removing all of their hiding places to make catching them easier and will probably do them in three batches - neon, shrimp, bn.

Any advice gratefully received as we don't want flying fish or frayed tempers

Cheers

Hoppy

 

[minxfishy]

Are both tanks up and running? Are they close to each other?

If they are, then netting once would be my prefered method.

Drain half of the water out of the current tank as well as the removing any ornaments/wood as this will make catching them easier.

Net the fish, then transfer directly to the new tank, that way they only have the stress of being caught once.

However, if the tanks are not close enough to each other or both running at the same time, a large bucket of tank water is the best idea, net each fish, place them in the bucket, then when ready, slowly pour bucket (if possible) directly into the new tank, fish will just swim straight in without being netted again.

 

[Hawkins]

i wouldn't move them direct.. the water stats are likely to be different

 

[minxfishy]

Providing the water stats are the same, ie, no ammonia, nitrite or your using the existing filter (or running along side new filter) then I cant see a problem, the ph is likely to be the same as you are using the same tap water, the only difference would be the nitrAtes which should be lower which wont bother the fish.

Ive moved mine from tank to tank immediately and never had any problems.