Question about moving fish in between tanks at home..

[marinetropic]

I'm currently cycling a 145l (40 gallon) that is going to act as a breeder for my bristlenose.

 

Currently my bnp are hanging in my 90l (27 gallon) community tank and I want to get everything right before moving them across. 

 

Both tanks are at the same temperature 26 C(78.8f) and are planted but my small tank is sitting at 7.2-7.4 pH while the big tank is sitting more so 6.8-7.0.

I'm hoping I'm not being paranoid, but this pH swing won't be enough to cause damage to them, or should I be more worried about matching up the kh and gh between the tanks? 

 

 

[Tony s]

Not going to be an issue. Acclimation is for temperature swings. 

[Galabar]

Just give that 40 gallon plenty of time to cycle. 🙂

 

[TOtrees]

IME bn are pretty tough. I move fish between tanks - well not often but often enough that it's not uncommon. I keep around 15 tanks, and use bns for algae control in most. I like to keep them medium-small for that role, so I move them in at around 1" (big enough they won't get picked on) and move them out when they get chunky. I only ever plop and drop. Some tanks are room temp, and some are heated to 77-78, they never show any sign of distress or issues even when moving from 77 tank to say 70. Parameters vary a bit, but not much. Some tanks are heavily stocked, some very light, some have sand some have gravel and some are bare, some have plants some not so much. I do think the biggest swing is temp. As I said, never had any issues. More often than that though, I move babies @ 3/4" to 1" from the tanks they were hatched in to a dedicated grow-out. The breeding tanks are heated (due to other inhabitants), but the grow-out is room temp. Net and transfer with no acclimation is the only way I go for this. Never once seen any sort of issue, have moved hundreds this way. 

Over the years I've come to the opinion that acclimation is/can be its own cause of stress. Like anything, decisions are based on costs and benefits. Or in this case weighing costs and choosing what you think is least bad, because any costs are borne by the fish, while benefits are generally to us the keeper.

[Tanked]

Why not begin swapping water between the tanks?   Swapping small quantities over a couple of days should give you identical water in both without upsetting the cycle in the home tank.

[MattyM]

I recently did something like this. I was moving a lot of fish so wanted to be extra safe. 

I put the fish in buckets with just enough of the previos tank water to keep them comfortable for an hour or so. Then, every 15 minutes I would put a couple cups of the new tank water into the bucket, and after an hour I netted them out and into the new tank - worked great. Kind of like drip acclimating. 

[Tanked]

On 1/29/2024 at 2:06 PM, MattyM said:

I recently did something like this. I was moving a lot of fish so wanted to be extra safe. 

I put the fish in buckets with just enough of the previos tank water to keep them comfortable for an hour or so. Then, every 15 minutes I would put a couple cups of the new tank water into the bucket, and after an hour I netted them out and into the new tank - worked great. Kind of like drip acclimating. 

That was basically my process.  The owner's had health issues, and had abandoned the tank.  The tank would have looked like the set of a dystopian movie if you could actually see anything other than algae..  I retained about 20 gallons for the fish and stretched the process out over 2 days to give me time to restore the tank, and acclimate  the fish to their new normal.

[Guppysnail]

@marinetropic I breed bristlenose pleco. Through hundreds of babies I relocate them to whatever tank/tanks have room to accommodate them.  My tanks I put them in range from 74 - 79 degrees and 6.8 ph to 8 ph. When juvenile or even still young I net them and walk them in the net to the next tank or a tank in the next room and very unceremoniously drop them in.  These kiddos do not miss a beat.  They hit the new tank and start searching for food.
Good luck with your new tank. I would love to see photos.   

[lefty o]

i would have zero concerns netting out of 1 tank, and instantly plopping them into the other.

[marinetropic]

Thanks for the replies all. 

Definitely giving the new tank plenty of time to cycle. Have taken media and small amounts of substrate from my current setup to build up the BB. Testing every day and currently measuring 1.5ppm ammonia and .5ppm.nitrite, so not ready for fishies yet. Will definitely put photos up once I move them across. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

I did this today. Moved probably 75 baby angels to the next tank and didn’t acclimate them at all. Just netted em out and moved em to the next tank. Also took 2 bigger Angels I’ve been growing out and plopped them into the display tank. I’ve never experienced issues with just moving between tanks in the house. 

[Whitecloud09]

I Was going to do this with a betta but he was kinda sick so didn’t take the chance but I say why not. Just like taking em from pet store and bringing them to new tank at home. A 2 tank transfer is common when getting fish.

Edited January 31 by Bigdog99

[marinetropic]

Photos of the tanks I'm running.

One with the driftwood is the 40g and the other is the 27g. 

 

Very much waiting for it to be cycled.