Our salt water fishtank is now home to three fish. Our jewel damsel no longer graces our tank. It was getting too big for out tank to be comfortable. But we are nice fish owners: now it lives in the salt water tank at work, an eighty gallon tank. (vs our thirty gallon). We believe the aggressive tendencies we have observed will go away now that there is plenty of space to be had.
For the few weeks prior to the move we have been making efforts to keep our tank extra clean and happy. Water changes were stepped up a bit (we had to buy more buckets for water) and we got a bit more aggressive on scrubbing the inside of the tank. Partly to keep the glass cleaner but more to get the fish more used to us having our hands in the tank. We also picked up a few fish transport bags from the fish store. I even talked to ‘the fish guy’ at work about the best way to introduce a new fish to the work tank. (they pay him to come every two weeks or so to do regular maintenance on the tank)
The schedule was essentially this:
- 5:00 pm – feed the fish
- 5:10 pm – minor water change in our tank (advice #1: move the fish in clean water to help them be in a stress-free(er) environment)
- 5:30 pm – capture the fish, put him in the bags (advice #2: get fish bags, not regular zip-locks: they are made for this)
- 6:00pm – arrive at the office at the normal ‘bed time’ for the work fish, keep the fish light turned on, and put some food in. (advice #3: fed fish are happy and less likely to attack new fish. advice #4: do it when the fish are normally going to sleep so they will less likely to be aggressive to new fish)
- 6:10 pm – put our fish in the work tank after doing a drip line of water to acclimate them to the new environment slowly.
The reality went something like that, if a bit behind schedule. All has gone well for the last week though. Last reports indicate our fish has started eating with the others and I have seen our fish swimming around the tank. If not being sociable to other fish, at least being out and visible.
So now we are down to three fish in our home tank. Of the three, one of them might be needing a new home shortly… if we can get her healthy enough for it anyway.
Well I think that is a good solution for an unhappy fish… he had to have been unhappy if he was crowded. I am glad he seems to be making the adjustment well.
I know he is not the only fish who is outgrowing your tank. Have you decided what to do with the starfish?
That’s quite a procedure. I’m glad that you’re the kind of fish/pet owner who goes through all the steps.
And speaking of fish …. man, I wish you could have seen one of the houses we looked at last weekend. I have no idea how big the tank was. Take 2 regular TVs, side by side – this was wider. On a cabinet with 4 doors. In the living room, which had a section of carpet removed and tile installed under the tank. Pretty serious stuff.
So we thought. THEN we went into the basement.
Two fish tank areas, lots of supplies, 20-30 gallon tanks, both set up and percolating. Knowing you, I’d guess acclimation/sick/isolation tanks. Pretty cool stuff in the basement.
THEN we rounded the corner. Another tank the size of the one up top, filled with corals and plants and such, hooked up to a vat the size of a bathtub but much deeper with all sorts of tubes, bubbles, stuff, lots and lots of different vats and things leading in – looked like some pretty serious chemistry going on. And then we looked up, and this downstairs chemistry setup has at least three PVC pipes leading through the ceiling/floor into the living room tank.
Wished you could have been there. I know you would have appreciated their setup. You probably would have understood all the things they were doing, too, which I certainly didn’t. But it was impressive, and upstairs, it was beautiful.
OMG that is AWESOME!!! are they um… leaving the tank?? you could move in there and probably have just about whatever tropical fish you would want.
actually the 20-30 gal tanks could be isolation tanks, but if they are hooked up to the other stuff in the basement, it’s probably a sump (basically a place to have more water circulating for filtering/cleaning/extra water to increase total water volume/refill tank … they keep their filters outside of the tank(s) for aesthetics…and the more powerful ones for big tank are that way.
i am jealous. someday when we have a house and money and stuff
It was three completely independent tanks – the huge connected ones upstairs & downstairs, with the bathtub chemistry set, and then two independent, small (30 gal?) other tanks. And they were independent, even visually isolated, each with their own lighting areas. It was wild.
And a very nice house, still on our short list. But I kind of hope someone gets it who’ll appreciate and maybe even use the setup (I get the feeling they’ll be taking their tanks with them)
What type of bait would work best; worms or lures? How many of the little ones constitute the legal limit and do you need a license to go fishing in your own tank?