Needing some urgent advice please!!!!!

[Joe]

I decided to redo the Apistogramma trifasciata tank because it was very dirty. I started yesterday. The fish were put in a very large bucket (probably about 60L or something) and I ran the filter and heater on it. I drained most of the water from the tank. The fish stayed in the bucket over night. Today I cleaned the gravel, removed all the old leaves, and scrubbed the wood as well as removing all the rest of the water and the gunk on the bottom of the tank. I fed the fish this morning in the bucket and they were fine and happy. Once the gravel had been cleaned I put it back in the tank as well as the wood. I then boiled up some more oak leaves (more than last time, but not too much) and I started filling the tank with tap water and the water from the boiled leaves and I added the leaves. I kept checking the thermometer to make sure that the temp was OK. I then replaced the filter and the heater and turned those on. I then put most of the water in the trifasciata bucket into the tank. I checked the temp, caught the fish and put them in. I then added a cap of API Melafix and API Pimafix (it says that if you do stuff that could stress the fish out to add some, and I find that it works OK for me). I had a shower and then came back to check the tank afterwards. The fish were looking very sad and were at the top of the tank right by the wood in the corner. They weren't really gasping and they were still colourful. I removed the wood, the leaves and then went to catch the fish but the halide went off because its on a timer so I have to wait for it to cool down so I can turn it back on again. I was going to catch the fish and put them in the other tank in a net breeder.

Have I done anything wrong here? Is it a good idea to put them in the other tank in a net breeder?

Also I collected leaves on the ground, not on a tree or attached to any fallen branches.

Please help. I need to deal with this ASAP.

Thanks

Joe

[Joe]

They really weren't looking good - I decided to put them in a bag in the other tank with around 60% of their water and about 40% of the other water. The bag is open and I just have the edge pegged to the glass so it doesn't tip over. I don't have the top folded over or anything like that.

Was this a good move?

[Li@m]

pH shock would be my guess. You didn't aclimitise them long enough.

-I would put the bag in there cube tank and slow aclimitise them over the period of an hour. Every 5-10 mind i would add a cup or two of the tank water to the bag.

-You also might want to do a pH test on both the bag water and the tank water and see what the difference is.

[Joe]

Awesome thanks

They spent the night in the bag. So I think I used too much oak leaves because they looked much happier when I put them in the bag which was diluted with the other tank's water. I will do a waterchange on their tank and check the pH and then acclimatise them

[henward]

you shouldnt hvae to fully clean your tank like that.

maybe get a small bristlenose to clean the wood. gravel vac instead.

[GrahamC]

Bad things come from cleaning!

Some people use an air line hose to drip new water into the holding area to slowly acclimate them.

pH is just one ion, more likely to be osmotic stress.

[Joe]

I did a water change on the tank and then acclimatised the fish for over an hour. They are swimming around and are looking very happy. I don't think it was the fact that I had stripped and cleaned the tank etc - I've done this in the past with other fish and I have had no problems. I think it was pH shock from the few extra leaves. They must be pretty potent. Also osmotic stress was probably involved too. I had saved a lot of the old tank water (which was already full of tannins from the old leaves) so this combined with the new leaves plus a few extra than last time is most likely the culprit. This would have been quite a shock for the fish.

Thanks guys for your help Everything is good at the moment.