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Bagging fish
Your fish will spend hours in a bag: in the car, on a table, in somebody else's car. How you bag them decides how they arrive.
The days before
- Stop feeding two or three days before. Less food in, less ammonia in the bag.
- Bag early, if you can. Catch the fish the night before and put them in an open bag with a slow airstone. In the morning, change the water and close the bag.
Bagging
- Fill the bag a third full with clean water from their own tank. Never more than half: the air on top matters more than the water.
- Don't crowd them, especially big fish.
- Fill the rest with oxygen if you have it. It lasts much longer than air.
- Twist, fold and band the top. Use proper fish bags, not zip-top bags.
| Spiny fish: corys, loaches, plecos | Double-bag them. Spines go through a single bag. |
|---|---|
| Corydoras | Some release a toxin as soon as they're caught. Net them into a small tub for a few minutes, then net them into the bag with fresh tank water. Throw the tub's water away. |
| Big fish | A bucket with a lid, not a bag. |
| A lot in several bags | Tape the bags together so they stay one lot. |
Breather bags let oxygen in and carbon dioxide out, so the only worry left is ammonia. They cost more. A bit of carbon or filter pad in the bag soaks up some ammonia.
Travelling
- Carry the bags in a cooler. It keeps them from getting cold, or cooking in a hot car.
- Keep them dark. Fish in the dark stay calm.
- Label the bags before they go in the cooler. Lot labels has how.
Getting new fish home
Three things can hurt new fish when they go into your tank:
- Temperature. A change of more than a few degrees is a shock.
- Different water. Big changes in hardness stress fish, and kill shrimp.
- Ammonia. In a sealed bag, carbon dioxide lowers the pH, which keeps ammonia fairly harmless. Open the bag and the pH rises, and the same ammonia turns toxic. Don't leave an opened bag sitting.
Float, then net
Float the closed bag 15–20 minutes so the temperatures match. Net the fish out; pour the bag water away. Good for cichlids and other hardy fish. Never float a breather bag.
A little at a time
Open the bag and add a splash of tank water every 15 minutes for an hour. What most shops do. A tiny dose of dechlorinator, well diluted, helps with ammonia.
Drip
Tip them into a bucket and drip tank water in through airline tubing, a few drops a second, for hours. For shrimp and sensitive wild fish. Keep the bucket warm and aerated.
Not sure which? Ask the seller. They know their fish, and their water.
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