How to add the fish :S

[toggle]

Hi ALL!

Im new so youll probably be seeing alotta my HELP! topics

Well the tank i got (its my first) is a 4 gallon (heh i know its small to all of yours!) but when you get the fish in the bags...i read somehwere you leave them in there bags in the water for a hour or so so they get used to the temps?

But how do you get the fish out? i got a little net thingie, do i just scope it out the bag and plonk it in my tank? coz i cant empty the fish and water from the bag into my tank as it will overflow

Pleas help!,

Thank you!

 

[appleblossom]

hello toggle and welcome to the forums!

what I do personally is place the bag with the fish in into the tank where the fish is going to live so that it is floating on the surface.

I turn all the lights out so the fish dont get stressed and I use a syphon (peice of tube) to remove water from the tank until the water level is back to how it was before the bag with the new fish in was added.

Then I float the fish like that for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes I open the bag and add a cupfull of tank water to the bag with the fish in. I seal the bag and wait another 15 minutes.

I then add another cupfull of tank water, reseal the bag and wait 15 minutes.

after this time (total of an hour) I undo the bag finally, hold the opening open with one hand, and grab one bottom corner with the other, then pour the fish out into the tank.

The lights stay off for an hour after the new fish has been added.


If you add the fish with a net the change in water between the water in your tank and the water in the bag might stress it more and leave it vulnerable to disease or even death.

 

[clutterydrawer]

My tank isn't filled to the brim so it doesn't make any difference

I float the bag in the tank (open the bag and roll down the sides to allow air to the water) and add a cup of tnak water every ten minutes. I only do this for half an hour max as the fish always look stressed trying to get fro the bag into the tank, and finding they can't

I tip the water and fish gently into the tank - many people say not to add the bag water to the tank because it could add disease but even if you net the fish in, it will still have some water on it so i don't really see the point in causing so muc hstress to the fish. do what you think is best tho.

 

[toggle]

this all sounds complicated and i only want to take fish out of a bag and put into my tank!!! I see a long and daunting road of fish keepiong ahead of me, lol

why cant i just scope the fish out and put into the tank, and how can a fish get stressed! they got a brain about the size as a bogey (sorry for comparason couldnt think of anyhting that small, lol)

isnt their an easier way?

 

[sunflower]

You really run the risk of giving your fish a nice bout of temperature shock by just scooping them out and dumping them in.

They will get stressed out because they're in new surroundings, different water parameters (chemical balance) and also have new tank mates to suss out.

When the fish are stressed it can seriously lower their immune systems and they become more susceptible to disease. Sometimes the shock can be so severe that it will actually kill the fish. You'd probably then be hard pushed to get any refund from your fish store because it's your mis-treatment that has killed them and not any disease that they picked up from the store.

I hope you read this and take note. For your fishes sake!

 

[toggle]

but the methods ppl suggested seem to hard to do, isnt their an easier way?

 

[sunflower]

It's not hard at all it just required patience.

* Switch out your light
* Float the bag containing the fish in your tank for at least 30 minutes
* Add a cup of your water to the bag and float it for at least another 20 minutes
* Gently tip the bag and allow the fish to swim out (try not to hassle them out)
* Keep your lights switched off for another hour

Your could then add some food (not essential but I heard before that it makes them feel a bit better)

I know you really just want to add your fish nice and quick so you can see them swimming about and looking all pretty, but I'm sure you want to do what's best for your fish.

 

[toggle]

but then when you add the water from the shops aquriam what if that water has got deseases?
and wouldnt i need to empty water from my tank to make room for the new water? (do i just get like a cup ro summit and take water out?)

 

[sunflower]

There's not usually alot of water in the bag with your new fish so as long as you're not over your maximum level in the tank already you should be OK. If you'd feel more comfortable taking a cup of water out beforehand then by all means do.

Adding the shops water is completely your own choice. I agree with clutterydrawer, chances are that if the shop tank was infected with something anyway then your fish are already infected. This is the reason that some people keep their new fish in a quarantine tank for a week or so before adding them to the main tank.

 

[toggle]

Then how can i go about adding the fish without adding the shops water?

 

[sunflower]

You'd still need to do the turning the light off, floating bag thing and the adding tank water to the bag bit but then instead of tipping the bag opening into the tank to release the fish, you'd use your net instead and quickly scoop them into the tank.

Try not to be too jerky with this method though, the smoother trip the better for the fish! Imagine being that small and being on a roller coaster with the world flashing past your eyes, if it makes us dizzy and dis-orientated then it will scare the fish too.

 

[toggle]

ah, ill prob just do the way of putting the shop water in there aswell..

also the bacteria in that might help the cycle anyway




another thing that i was curios aobut....say if you orderd fish of the itnernet....how do they come deliverd? lol (envelope ) HAHAH seriously...how do they come packaged?

 

[sunflower]

I've never done it but I'd imagine they'd be bagged and in an polystyrene package of some sort to protect them against knocks and bumps. Hopefully they'd be marked appropriately too e.g. "live fish enclosed" or something like that.

 

[appleblossom]

fish ordered from the internet tend to come bagged up with pure oxygen added to the bag, then boxed in polystyrene to keep the temperature up and marked livestock like sunflower said. They also often arrive by courier so they come straight from the store to your door without waiting around in a post office depot overnight. If you like in the UK then www.trimar.co.uk do mail order fish.

Like I said in my previous post you can syphon some water out of the tank to bring the water level down if you need to. It is worth an hours worth of waiting (and about 2 minutes actually dealing with the fish) to save your nice new fish from getting ill and infecting your other fish then all of your fish dying...an extreme yes, but possible... and fish arent cheap if you have to replace them all every few weeks....