Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

I'm moving houses and thus need to relocate my silver perch also as I don't fancy leaving them behind.

I've had a few deaths when transporting larger fish between tanks before, so I was wondering what the best way to catch, transport and then acclimatise the fish to their new premises would be?

Thanks in advance!

Pretty tough to do this without stressing them. I like using a rounded container (like a cooler) so the fish can't jam themselves into a corner. The rounded containers slosh a bit less as well. It's a good idea to aerate the water during the trip (I use an inverter hooked to the auxiliary in the car and an air pump). I'd make the trip as short as possible and have the water in the new tank ready to go and already salted to 1 ppt with salt to help them with stress and any hiccups in the new system. Might want to adjust the new system to where the pH and temp aren't too far from the old. Feed lightly or not at all till they settle down (a few days or longer isn't going to hurt them).

The transport water can get pretty nasty so I like to get the acclimation over fairly quick. Ammonia in the transport water can become toxic as the temp or pH goes up.

There are probably some things I left out and someone else may have a better way but hopefully someone else will fill in the blanks.

I've moved a few silver and jade perch although they weren't big ones at a bit less than 300 grams - and only about 20 mins drive. Used same transport technique as Scotty435. The fish seemed fine... they were back on the pellets the next day.

I had real strife netting them out of my tank until I found out about clove oil on this forum. Buy it at any chemist... I got my dosage from http://www.juvenilefishid.com/sampling.htm but I didn't dissolve in ethanol... just agitated the water in the tank. I started out with half the suggested volume and gradually added more till the fish got "sleepy"... somewhere between one and two drops for every hundred litres of water works for me (but suggest starting with less at first).

All the fish recovered well... I made sure they were only exposed to the effective concentration for a few minutes before I returned all the water I'd siphoned out in advance. It was a bit of a hassle but fish almost let me pick them up by hand so well worth it.

I should say that the clove oil was only used to slow them down so I could catch them... they were transported in unadulterated system water with an airstone.

Have used the clove oil about three times now including when catching some for the table.

Thanks guys,

The clove oil sounds like an excellent idea, I tried move some from one tank to another with a net before and the fish became very stressed, this sounds like it will help greatly!

Thanks for all the other advice also guys!

you could sell them to me