flash_liam

My water tests after moving them showed ammonia (0.5 - 1.0 ppm), it's the first time I've ever had any ammonia show up so I'm thinking the fishies that didn't make it got ammnia burn while in transit (very little of the water from the chilli bin ended up in the tank). I'm thinking it was probably a combination of a few hours under a strobing flourescent light, and then too many fish in a small amount of water. It's a mistake I won't be making again!! I've been doing 10% water changes each day and the ammonia level is subsiding. The fish are looking very happy now, but I think I'll wait another week or so before adding any more fish. Liam.

Yeah, I'd say it was moving them in the chilli bin that did it. On a positive note the survivors are all looking very healthy and seem to like their new home.

Yeah, I suppose I can only peg it up to experience. I don't think I'll be moving it any time soon though. Another issue that I seemed to have troubles with (and I'm sure there's an easier way) was catching them. Is there an easy way to catch small fish in a big tank? Liam.

Move house yesterday and moved the 3ft Tropical tank as planned. The day of trauma started when the starter on the flouro light failed and we arrived at the old house to discover the light flashing on and off, fish looking quite unhappy Waited for an hour or so for them to get over their first traumatic experience and then removed fish and put them in a chillibin with about 5 litres of water (and an airstone) - Was quite a drama getting them out of the tank. Transported just over half the water to the new house in plastic tanks. Moved aquarium, water, and chillibin of fish to new house (Brother was cradling the chillibin to stop it sloshing and we did the whole trip at 40-50 kph... sorry to anyone in the Leigh area that may have been stuck behind us :oops: ) Reassembled the tank, put in old water and new water (rain water so no chlorine etc) and checked pH and temp. etc. Introduced fish to their new home but quite a lot of them were looking poorly, all of the Golden barbs were milling near the surface, gills quite red, and most of the glow lights were looking quite distressed. This morning one of the Golden Barbs had died, and 9 of the glow lights. I removed them from the tank and conducted the traditional porcelain ceremony. By lunch time today all of the barbs had passed away The rest of the fish are looking ok, schooling well and swimming around. The neons seem to have weathered it quite well, but the poor ol' barbs and glow lights didn't take too well to the move. Alas poor Barbs, I knew them well... I think it'll be a long time before I decide to move the tank again!!

Thank you Fish seem a lot less circular now. It still amases me how quickly fish respond to environmental changes. Liam

Hiya, I've got 20 neon tetras, 13 glow light tetras and 5 golden barbs. Everything I've read says "there should be no food left after 2 minutes", but my fish seem to be absolute guts and after a minute they have eaten a LOT of food!! They are getting quite rotund, and the neons end up very buoyant. I've started adding the food at the filter end of the tank so the current pulls the food down into the water (I've heard that neons can gulp air while feeding from the surface and they then have issues trying to swim). I used to have 15 glow lights but I've lost two in the last week. I have checked pH, Nitrites and Ammonia levels and they are all good. Maybe they were over fed? One sank to the bottom and the other floated. Both were removed as soon as they were spotted (the sinking glow-light was removed within seconds as my brother witnessed the demise). At the moment I'd guess they get a teaspoon of Tetramin flakes each morning and every few days I also give them a wee sprinkling of blood worms. This seems like a lot for such small fish?!! Liam.

Thanks everyone for the info. I feel a lot more confident about the whole process now Cheers, Liam.

The tank is 160 litres, (3ft). It's got a Tetra 40 whisper filter (hangs off the end) and a few air stones. I don't have any under-gravel filtering but I'm wondering if I should (and during the move may be an opportune time to put it in?). The house we're moving to is all tank water so no issues with chlorine etc. in the water. I'm gussing I'd just have to make sure the temperature was ok. I've got a few large plastic containers for transporting water to the new house, so I think I'd be able to keep 50-60% of the original water. I was thinking of putting the fish into a chillibin full of the original water during the process (to keep the water warm). I could even keep the heater in the bin until they were ready to be transported (I thought I'd take them out of the tank, move the tank and water to the new place and set it all up, and then transport them to the new place and put them back into the tank). Would it be wise to do this at night? Or keep them in relative darkness during the move? Thanks for all your help so far Liam.

Hi All, Todd and I are moving into our new place in Matheson Bay in 3 weeks time and so I'm after a bit of advice for moving a tropical tank... The move is going to coincide with a water change, but I'm not sure wether I need to trasport 60-70% of the water to the new place to put back into the aquarium or wether I can do a 100% water change when I get there? The other issue is that I now have about 30 small fishies in the tank, is this going to be the same as introducing 30 fish at once? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Liam.

Cheers for that Caryl, I thought there was probably more to it than that. Matheson Bay is in Leigh (1 hr north of Auckland). Todd and I run a video production company and with technology the way it is these days we can work from pretty much anywhere and Matheson Bay has to be one of the nicest spots in NZ

Hi Caryl, Tank has been running a few months now. I've been adding the fish a few at a time (and I was lucky enough to acquire some stones from someone else's tank so I had it all running for a few weeks before adding any fish). The tank is 160 litres, I've read somewhere that you can have up to 1 inch of fish per gallon (American website so crazy imperial measurements). Not sure if Tetras count as an inch of fish though? I now have 30 fish and the tank still seems very empty...

Hiya, My brother Todd joined the other day and I thought I'd set up my own account too. The amount of info. here is amazing. I've just set up a 3ft tropical tank, so far it has 20 neon tetras, 5 glowing tetras (soon to be more), and 5 golden barbs. I really like the smaller tropical fish, although I'm sure I'll end up with another tank for bigger fish soon.... and then a tank for salt water, and then another tank for more smallies.... :roll: and so the addiction starts... Liam