Trick For Making Your Fish Happier

[CichliNoob]

I have done this trick too many times for my fish. Note: It doesnt always work and this only works for young fish. The trick is after you get your fish from the pet store put it a small tank like 10g or so for a 2in fish in my case a flowerhorn. Then after about 3 days remove the fish and put him in a tank size required for the fish and the fish should grow,eat.and trust you much more! Note:this fish is only for new world cichlids! It has only worked for me with Flowerhorns, blood parrots, and discus.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Seems an unusual way of doing things.

Can I ask what the purpose of this is for?
A type of q/t or hospital tank type of purpose?

Would be good if you can give a few more specifics and how you came across this method.

 

[LyraGuppi]

I have done this trick too many times for my fish. Note: It doesnt always work and this only works for young fish. The trick is after you get your fish from the pet store put it a small tank like 10g or so for a 2in fish in my case a flowerhorn. Then after about 3 days remove the fish and put him in a tank size required for the fish and the fish should grow,eat.and trust you much more! Note:this fish is only for new world cichlids! It has only worked for me with Flowerhorns, blood parrots, and discus.

Not to be rude but...
Why? How does it work?

 

[wrightt3]

I think the essence of what he is trying to say is that if you move a fish to a larger tank then it somehow recognises that you are helping it and will therefore be more confident around you and accept food more readily.
 
I'm not sure if there is any truth behind this or if it is just a coincidence? IME new world cichlids are typically quite personable and confident with their owners anyway so my guess would be the latter.

 

[Wills]

I think you're putting your own emotions on your fish... I'm not totally opposed to the idea of relationships of sorts with your fish especially intelligent ones like cichlids but doing this makes little sense to me, at the end of the day taking the fish from the store in a crowded 2 foot tank (roughly) into the right sized tank at home is essentially the same as what you are describing.
 
The main reason to do this would be to quarantine the fish as Charlie mentioned.
 
Wills

 

[sawickib]

Yes id have to agree with everyone on this. The only reason i could think this would be helpful is for a quarantine tank or for getting new or older fish to eat prepared foods, which is only really required with rare and oddball fish.

 

[CichliNoob]

I have no idea how it works I just came across the trick. See my friend no longer wanted his 2in flowerhorn i guess he just got tired of it so he gave it to me I had no where to put it so i just put him in my 10g fry tank for 3 days. Then i got it a 55 which is 5g less than they require and I have never seen a fish grow a full inch in half a month, so i decided to test it on a Firemouth I wanted to get for my tank he acted normally: hiding in the rocks. I then got a blood parrot and tested it out and it worked! btw i am not sure if a bp is a new world but im pretty sure it is. So i have no scientific proof i just noticed it.

I also noticed it only works on man-made fish

 

[sawickib]

How did he get bored of a 2in flower horn? He would of had it for a few days probably...
 
Whats a man made fish? Like a robot fish?
 

 

[malfunction]

Assuming this works, shouldn't the fish respond in the same way when transferred from a fish bag to a tank?

 
Whats a man made fish? Like a robot fish?

Lol

 

[JayD976]

Sorry, but this sounds like nonsense. For the purposes of quarantine that's fine. To purchase a fish from a pet store the process is stressful on the fish being netted baged and manhandled then removed and acclimated to a new tank. Now you are going to do the process all over again after only 3 days while the fish is still getting accustomed with the new surroundings. You're not making it happier you're adding more stress.

 

[sawickib]

Sorry, but this sounds like nonsense. For the purposes of quarantine that's fine. To purchase a fish from a pet store the process is stressful on the fish being netted baged and manhandled then removed and acclimated to a new tank. Now you are going to do the process all over again after only 3 days while the fish is still getting accustomed with the new surroundings. You're not making it happier you're adding more stress.

Yea, id +1 this anyone reading this and thinking its a good idea dont do it unless its a QT or your growing them, this is unnecessary stress on you new fish. Im surprised he did this with discus...

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I have done this trick too many times for my fish. Note: It doesnt always work and this only works for young fish. The trick is after you get your fish from the pet store put it a small tank like 10g or so for a 2in fish in my case a flowerhorn. Then after about 3 days remove the fish and put him in a tank size required for the fish and the fish should grow,eat.and trust you much more! Note:this fish is only for new world cichlids! It has only worked for me with Flowerhorns, blood parrots, and discus.

 
 
CichliNoob,
 
There is no research to back this up, but for this observation to be investigated a bit, you'd need to compare the fish's development to an identical fish that was placed directly into the proper tank size.  I think you are placing the success of the fish after being confined and released into the proper sized tank on the wrong thing.  The key is that the fish was placed into the proper tank before any damage was done in stunting the fish from being improperly confined.

 

[star4]

Putting a fish in a smaller tank does not make it happier.
 
However I have noticed myself similar behaviour when I have had a sick fish in a smaller hospital tank. Due to the confined space (fish cannot get away and hide) they do sometimes appear to become more "friendly" - which in the case of a sick fish you could apply the human notion that the fish knows you are helping it and therefore being more friendly. However once the fish has been returned to the tank this "friendliness/tameness" can continue for a few weeks after, but without "hands on" the fish will revert to natural behaviour.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Sorry- but this is all rubbish. There are so many variables involved as to be ludicrous. Handling fish is stressful to them and should be kept to a minimum.
 
This thread should be deleted before somebody thinks this is actually a reasonable course of action to follow.

 

[Chad]

This thread should be deleted before somebody thinks this is actually a reasonable course of action to follow.

I disagree. I feel threads like this are beneficial because they give us an opportunity to talk about a subject and provide evidence on the action one way or the other. 
 
If it's rubbish, we can teach people so by providing for them why. If it's not then that can come to the surface as well. I can think of some reasons why this actually might work based on territoriality. 
 
Also, while I agree handling fish does stress them, we need to keep in mind that most of our fish were bagged, driven to an airport for several miles, flew for at least a thousand miles on a jet, were put back on a truck or otherwise picked up at the airport and then finally make it to our LFS where they are un-bagged and acclimated. This is to say, yes, handling stresses them, but they are handled quite a bit before they ever reach us live through the experience. The OP is suggesting 3 days in a smaller tank and I feel a fish can live through that experience. Many hospital and QT's are much smaller than the fish requires. 
 
All that does not mean I agree with the methods mentioned by the OP but I'm willing to ponder it rather than dismiss it out of hand. The plenitude of variables you mention is the exact reason why I'm willing to at least consider it. Since I don't know the OP yet I will consider that I'm as likely as he is to miss some of those variables that work in favor of his method.