I will be digging my pond deeper in a month or 2. Anyone have any good info on how to move the fish with the least amount of stress to them? The fish are small (8 of them), 4-6 inches in length. What to keep them in, etc. Thanks for any information.
This message was edited Tuesday, Mar 20th 3:39 PM
What to do with the fish?
Janice
Mar 21, 2001
When I did some work on my pond I filled a baby pool with the pond water and placed some of the plants in it and placed the fish inside.
They seemed happy enough.
Hope this helps some.
Janice
AJC
Mar 21, 2001
Hello Lorie, janice's idea is good, if its hot when you do it, make sure you put in the shade, and cover it up, because those pools get very warm, and the fish will jump out, if it going to take a few days, use something to take out the water in the pool, than poor it back hard into water, to make as many bubbles as possible, this will keep the water well oxygenated, warm water does not hold much of that, it may be nesessary to do that a couple of times a day, good luck.
Alan.
Would an aquarium airstone help with the oxygenation in the water temporarily? It should be easy to set that up if for only a day or two.
Another question comes to mind, how do I acclimate the fish to the "new" pond water ?
AJC
Mar 21, 2001
Lorie, Yes it would, i use one myself when the need comes, the easy way to acclimatise fish is in a polythene bag, half filled with water, tie a knot in the top and float it on the top of the new pond for about 20-30 minutes, dont stuff the bag full of fish, they need a little room to move, so if nesessary use two or three bags, the water that you are going to put in the bag would benifit a minute or so with the air stone in it before you add the fish, after they have floated on the new pond, cut open the bag a gently tip in the fish, job done, i hope this is of use to you.
Alan.
Alan.
Alan,
Thank you for the wonderful information. Can't wait to put it into practice.
I would also use a test kit to measure PH. Try and get the PH the same in the new pond and the swimming pool. You could also add water from the pond to the pool just before the transplant. This should help achieve a closer temperature match.
T
Here is what I and the pond club that I belong to (and an aquarium club I used to belong to) recommend. This would apply to any fish new or old being added to a pond or an aquarium.
1) Take the fish(es) from the pond that they are in and put in a small container or fish bag which is half filled with water that they are coming out of.
2) Slowly over about a half hour add water from the new pond to the container that the fish are in. There isn't really any need to float the fish on the new pond because they will become acclimatized to the temperature of the new water while you are slowly adding it to the container.
3) You do step 2 until the new water is more than the old water. Then you slowly put the container into the pond and slowly tip it until the fish(es) can swim out on their own.
Floating a bag on a pond in the heat or sun will kill the fish and just tipping the fish out of the container of old water they are in into any container or bag of onlly new water will likely kill the fish from Ph shock. It is the water conditions not the water temperatures that they are becoming used to.
The above steps should be done in the morning or evening if the weather is warm and/or sunny. If it is done in the middle of the day make sure that the fish are in a cool spot while they are in the container or bag.
I hope this helps and if anyone has any questions I would love to answer them.
Brenda