moving from bag to tank + plant question + ip treatment

[cfl1974]

So, my fahaka will be shipped to me, and I need to know the best way to get him from the bag to the tank. My area of "expertise" is cichlids. With them I would not want to get any bag water in the tank, but I believe I need to keep the fahaka from puffing air, so how should the acclimation/move go?

Unrelated question, but didn't want to start another thread: will the fahaka chew up plants? This tank has 2 monster swords in it, and I wasn't planning to move them out, but will if the puffer is going to chomp them up & make a mess...

Last question (for this thread anyway): should I automatically treat for ips, or wait for symptoms? I have some prazipro on hand. That's my favorite for treating cichlids that stop eating. What do y'all use for treatment?

[nzac]

I took mine from bag into a 5 gal bucket, drip acclimated the bucket with his quarantine tank, used a large plastic cup to scoop him into tank. I didn't worry about the bag water as it was only a cups worth of mixed tank and bag water and was only going into quarantine tank. If it is the only fish a tiny amount of bag water shouldn't hurt anything since that is what he is in anyway.

not sure on the plants, all fish have different attitudes, I have a rhom that eats plants, just because

I always treat my wild caught fish for IP's just for precaution... most fish in the wild have some type of parasite or another. I will be starting mine with prazi-pro treatment tomorrow, I wanted to let it get settled for a week and be sure he is eating before I started it.

[RTR]

For general practice, I would not want shipping water in an existing tank. For puffers however some residual shipping water is generally still not diluuted out prior to the move to the tank, as I always transfer them fully submerged in water.

Large mature Sword plants have massive root systems. In their case whether or not they are at risk depends on the size of the Fahaka and the size of your substrate. If in gravel they are likely safe from disturbance. In sand the situation is iffy. Mature swords which have been undisturbed for 2-3 or more years are quite likely to have anaerobic pockets in and under their root mass. This may put the fish at risk. If they are moved out, the tank water need repeated partials before fish are added if there are any such pockets disturbed in the move.

Depending on the fish, I tend to wait a bit with close observation before treating for IPs.

HTH

[cfl1974]

Thanks! He's here!

the swords were bought massive. They've only been planted in our tank for a few months. They are planted in pots, in plant substrate, while the substrate around the terra cotta pots is a shallow layer of white sand.

Transferring him wasn't bad. i'm sure there's bag water in the tank, but not much, and the tank is 120 gallons, so it's very diluted by now.

How long is normal for a puffer to stay stressed from shipping? Again, my experience is with cichlids, and some shake it off in a couple hours. Larger cichlids, like an oscar, might pout about it for a couple of days....

Finally, the ph range i saw on the fahaka profile was pretty broad. What is their preference. We have soft water & have to work to keep the ph up. I can get some holey rock for the tank, if they perfer harder, more alkaline water. It's at ~6.8 right now.

[RTR]

They are tropical riverine fish, so they are highly adaptable as to water chemistry. In the wild the water is soft and acid in the flood/wet season and harder to alkaline in the dry.

In captivity I prefer neutral to somewhat alkaline tank conditions for best stability. But I also don't like doing water mods unless I absolutely must. If you are compulsive and do not ever let your tanks get dirty and/or in danger of crashing, stick with what you get from the tap. The easiest path is likely the most followed path. If you let your tanks get near the edges, you may be safer with simple water mods.

HTH

[cfl1974]

That does help, and matched my basic philosophy of cichlid husbandry. Unless there is some tricky breeding project underway, I think that stability is more important than matching very specific tank parameters. makes sense to apply that to the puffer too, unless they are unusually specific about ph/gh.

I am a pretty compulsive water changer, but I think I will add some holey rock, just because our water is SO soft, I don't want to risk a crash. I'm not sure how well a scale-less fish would stand up to that.

[bertie 83]

You are absolutely correct as long as you are not a million miles out stability is key. Fluctuating water is much more detrimental than being a little off

[RTR]

Yup. Especially for FW puffers. If we ever breed SAPs, we may need calcium and/or magnesium-free water, but other than special cases like that, stability is key to many puffers IME.