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hi guys

sad news.

before i got to move my trops into my new 55g tank i lost one of my keyhold cichlids today

i'm a little worried that i might lose more before the new tank has cycled. i dont know the cause of death what should i do?

leave them in the old tank until its cycled.
or risk it and move them slowly now. into the new tank..

Hi Stu, sorry to hear about the loss of your fish

My advice would be to find out what caused the fish to die before you move anyone into the new tank. If it was a disease, you don't want to have it spreading to the new tank. And if the fish are already stressed from illness, they shouldn't be exposed to the extra stress of cycling.

What size tank are they in at the moment?
What's the total stock of the tank?
Did the keyhole show any symptoms before it died?

What size tank are they in at the moment?
35g i did remove most of the substrate. and i removed the HOB filter. but left the UGF going. the tank was dirty.
after an ammonia test it came back at 0.25 one square off 0 and nitrites were 0 nitrates 10ppm

What's the total stock of the tank?

13 fish..

Did the keyhole show any symptoms before it died?

no

hmm... well it sounds like you've already disrupted the bacterial colony in the old tank and it's cycling anyway, so it's not going to make much difference whether the fish are cycling in your old tank or your new tank.

So I vote for putting the fish into the new tank, and adding some kind of starter culture like Cycle or Bio-spira. This should kick-start the new bacteria and hopefully reduce the impact of the ammonia and nitrite on your remaining fish.

So make sure the new tank is properly prepared - water temps and perameters matched, etc. Don't clean anything else from your old tank. Just transfer all the "dirty" stuff directly to the new tank, because that's where your bacterial colonies will be. If necessary, put them in the new tank in a mesh bag or whatever to make them easy to remove when the new tank has finished cycling.

Also maximise the aeration in the new tank by turning on all your bubblers and filters, leave the lights off for now, and generally try to reduce the stress on the fish.

Good luck

AmmoLock might not be a bad idea too. The ammonia is still present, but kept "out of harm's way" as far as the fish are concerned.

Oh, another good tip I can give, thanks to those nice people at Practical Fishkeeping, is this. Tow plant species, Amazon Frogbit and another called Phyllanthus fluitans, directly absorb ammonia as well as nitrates. Which makes them ideal for helping to keep the fish as stress free as possible. Only thing is, if you toss a small quantity of each into the tank, you'll end up removing enough to feed cattle once the cycling is complete!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

thanks guys.

i did use about 30% of the old tank wate r when setting up the new tank.. so i'm sure its cycling. i'll slowly move the fish in over the next days

thanks!

I recently moved my tank 20 km away to my new residence. I used 20 % new water in a big plastic cotainer while shifting the fish. Before putting the fish in the container I used a bubbler for 20 min to aerate the water.
I kept the filter medium in a small container with the old tank water and just poured the dirty water in the new setup. The tank is still cycling and there aren't any casualties! so I am lucky so far. One more important thing.. I starved my fish for 3 days before moving so they pooped very little during transit.

A note: one may obtain Amazon frogbit here.