At what age/size would be considered safe to move fry into new water?I'm gonna be moving some Rivulatus fry from a 2x2x18 into a 4x2.5x2 which is cycled. It won't be for a fair while obviously but don't want to risk losing fry by moving them too early. Any info or advice much appreciated.
Cheers,
Bryce.
You can move fry at virtually any size, but the key is patience. The best way to go about it is.
Catch the fry with as much of their tank water as possible, and float in new tank.
Very slowly add water from the new tank to the fry receptacle( Water must be at least aged if not cycled)
Once you have doubled the amount of water the fry are in, pour half out and double again.
Then release fry into new tank.
This whole process should take around half to one hour depending on size of fry.
I have moved microscopic fry like this with virtually no fatalaties.
Tjeo
start doing water changes with the water from the tank you'll be putting them in untill all there water is from the other tank. they'll get used to that water and should be fine to put them straight in after that.
Bryce
I would think it should be alright at 2cm, I have done it before with Rivulatus at that size.
When you move them, why dont you do a waterchange in the 4 footer with all of the water from the 2 footer, that way it will be like doing 50% water change, something that you can quite comfortably do with fry that size.
Michael
Thanks for the reply fellas. I ended up having to give it a go way earlier than I thought I would. The missus had about 200 Jewel cichlid fry become free swimming yesterday morning in our display tank so I had to siphon them out last night and wack them in a 2x2x18. I ended up doing it slowly, about 2 1/2 hours in all as I was in the middle of other stuff as well but no fatalities so all is good. Thanks again fellas.
Cheers,
Bryce.
Theo is spot on.
I do the same, size doesn't really matter, takes about half an hour, I've never had problems.