Forced to move a tank stack... but not without problems.

[Wulfonce]

My parents are coming to visit for 3 weeks from the other side of the country. Living in an 86'x16' trailer there Isn't alot of space for them to sleep. My only option is to put them in my spare room. But I'll have to move the stack of tanks in there to my room. Its a metal stand with a 20 on the bottom and a 25 up top. The 20 can be drained as its just a hospital tank. But the tank on top has a 4-1/2" male convict with about 80 fry.

I'll have to drain about 3/4's of the water just so my brother and I can lift it. But the tank + gravel + decor + water + stand is still going to be estimated over 100lbs. I'm worried about the water sloshing around and freaking the convict out. I herd if they feel threatened or unable to defend their fry they'll eat them? True?

Anyways I would guess netting out the convict would have a similar effect. He'll probably eat the fry upon being reintroduced to the tank. Same goes for netting out the fry. What happens when I put them back in the tank?

Any ideas or impute would be greatly appreciated. It took alot of work to find a compatible female of size and to get them to breed. The female died a few weeks back so if I lose these fry I'll be back to square 1. I'd feel awful if the fry ended up getting eaten. What a waste of months of work that would be.

 

[rdx1555]

I would empty the 20 then temporarily fill it with some water from the 25 and throw the male con in there. Fill a bucket with some more tank water and throw the fry in there. Fully drain the 25 move the stand to your room. Reset the 25 plop the male back in there. Setup the 20 and plop the fry in there.

Moving the tank with water and deco in it would be too risky and could possibly bust a seam of the tank. You're better off separating the fry anyway if you want to ensure survival.

 

[Toby_H]

I definitely would not move the tank with water in it... the sloshing will probably stress/scare the male more than temporarily relocating him...

My advice is to net the male and put him (alone) in a bucket... then drain the tank and move the fry into a different bucket...

Move all the (empty) tanks and the stand, set them back up... put the fry back in the tank... give them a few minutes to settle in... then drop the dad back in with the fry...

 

[Wulfonce]

Thanks for the advice but I'm going to wait till they get here and see if they can tolerate "sleeping with the fishes". They can hardly tolerate each other with all the snoring and whatnot so I'd imagine two filters running wouldn't be a problem.

If not I could probably just unplug the filter and air pump. I really don't think a single 4-1/2" con would produce a noticeable amount of ammonia in a 25 over night?

 

[yogurt_21]

orrr you could just buy them some earplugs and call it a day. lol