any tips on moving an arowana?

[bksze]

I will be moving my tank soon. Fortunately for me, I'm moving from one phase of my condo to another phase. However the last time I moved my aro, he passed away the next morning. Not sure what was the cause as he was the only guy to go out of the bunch so that leaves me a bit wary.

Aside from that fact, this will be the first time where I'm moving the fish and original tank. Prior to that, I had the luxury of transferring fish from an old tank into a new tank, which in my opinion is definitely a lot easier.

So I will be moving my 260 gallon tank stocked with the following:

2 rays (10" - 12")
6 clown loaches (4" - 5")
1 pleco (5")
1 aro (11")

The tank is drilled with 4 holes in which I have 2 FX5s. Heater is an external one that connects to one of my FX5. Stand is just a plain iron stand with skirts. No canopy, just glass and 2 t5 light fixtures.

Any tips?

Thanks!

 

[Marius]

A wild guess, but the other time you moved your aro you kept your filters off for more than 15-20 minutes and than you just plugged them on the new setup?!? That, if you indeed did so, wiped out your bacteria in the filters resulting into a massive ammonia spike.

If you have the possibility save the bio from the filters in a bucket or rubbermaid container and just add a powerhead with an air source. The fish you can either transport them in buckets or rubbermaid containers. Just make sure you have an air source on them, or the time spent in the containers is very short.

Once you setup the new aquarium (make sure you've rinsed your filters thoroughly) connect the filters add the bio (which has been kept aerated) and than add the fish. If you added the heaters to the main tank add some water in the buckets/containers with the fish to bring the temperature/parameters closer to the one in the tank. Proceed to add your fish into their new home.

If you have any other questions, or you need something to be clarified please feel free to ask.

Good luck.

 

[bksze]

It had nothing to do with the filters as I was moving from an old tank to a new tank. The new tank had been cycled for 5 weeks and then had been running for a month with rays and loaches in it prior to the arowana going in.

Before the fish went in and after I found him the next day, I checked parameters and all was fine.

I have 2 theories into what happened.

a) The fish ended up being in the bag for a lot longer than anticipated. Close to an hour as I was moving in the winter here in Calgary and we encountered some traffic along the way. When I put him into his new tank, he was showing signs of gasping. However he did swim around and seemed fine before I went to bed.

b) The aro had previously been raised without any tank mates. Putting him into a new environment, as well as with a bunch of skittish loaches and the rays may have caused him to attempt to jump out of his tank, knocking him out in the process.

Once again, these are just speculations so who's to know what really happened.

Thanks for the reply, I didn't know the bio would die within 15 - 20 minutes. I will have to keep that in mind for this move.

 

[Cirrus]

It had nothing to do with the filters as I was moving from an old tank to a new tank. The new tank had been cycled for 5 weeks and then had been running for a month with rays and loaches in it prior to the arowana going in.

Before the fish went in and after I found him the next day, I checked parameters and all was fine.

I have 2 theories into what happened.

a) The fish ended up being in the bag for a lot longer than anticipated. Close to an hour as I was moving in the winter here in Calgary and we encountered some traffic along the way. When I put him into his new tank, he was showing signs of gasping. However he did swim around and seemed fine before I went to bed.

If the fish was swimming around after being put in the tank it was not the lack of oxygen that killed it.

b) The aro had previously been raised without any tank mates. Putting him into a new environment, as well as with a bunch of skittish loaches and the rays may have caused him to attempt to jump out of his tank, knocking him out in the process.

Yuppa, on this forum, lost a beautiful Xien Leng SR many years ago that broke its neck when it dashed against the tank side at super high speed when startled. I once lost a large Pbass the same way. Maybe your fish did the same thing?

From the sounds of it, you did everything just fine last time you moved your fish (except with the filter media); thus you may just never know what killed it.

When I move large fish overland I always use large rubbermaid garbage cans and transport the fish with as much original tank water as I can. Asside from slowly introducing the fish to the new tank, I'd also turn off the tank lights when the fish is first introduced. Also, don't feed the fish for a day or two before the move.

Good luck!

 

[EEYY]

Do you have any tank in the new place this time? If not, by what you listed out (in terms of fish), a 4 by 1.5 by 1.5 could be used for a temp. tank.

This time, I would suggest:

- add heat packs.

- keep using the existing tank water

- add Seachem stability and prime, especially stability for new tank environment.

- arowana in new environment would like to jump a lot, pay attention to the top part of your tank

Hope my 2 cents could help!!

 

[bksze]

From the sounds of it, you did everything just fine last time you moved your fish (except with the filter media); thus you may just never know what killed it.

Last time I didn't move any of the media as I was moving from my old tank into a already established tank so probably not likely.

That being said, what actually kills the bacteria colony in 15 minutes time span? Lack of oxygen? or moving water? temp? combination? I was under the impression that if kept in water, the bacteria colonies would live for several hours.

The FX5s are canisters filters. My original plan was to move them with water still in the can. Figured they would be off for about an hour at room temperature and plug them in as I get the tank filled.

My LFS has offered me the use of 45 gallon rubbermaids so I will be moving most of the original water.

Do you have any tank in the new place this time? If not, by what you listed out (in terms of fish), a 4 by 1.5 by 1.5 could be used for a temp. tank.

When setting up a temp tank, it would probably be in my best interest to set up the tank at the new location eh?

Thanks for all the tips. Will stay posted! Just looking for a warm window in the weather to organize the move.

 

[Marius]

It's the lack of O2 that kills the bacteria. Canister filters are sealed up so once they are unplugged more or less 20-30 min bacteria will start dying off. If you end up just plugging in the filters like that you'll have an ammonia spike that can wipe out your fish. That's why I suggested you to save as much bio and run an air pump on it (battery operated, or whatever's easier and doable for you).

Good luck with the move.

Theo underlined a very important aspect: no food for the 2-3 days period before the move.