Need advice on moving a huge silver

[DubaiPond]

Morning all,
I have adopted a Silver Arowana from a guy who in leaving town. The fish is 80cms long. The largest arow I have handled was about 60cms long and that was a struggle so I need some advice. If you look at the pictures below you'll see that the tank has quite a lot of braces across the top, is about a metre deep and two metres long, maybe 70 cms wide. So it's not just a mater of getting a big net and scooping him out. I suppose one way would be to have him jump out of the tank and catching him in a container but I doubt that would work.

Can anyone give any suggestions on how I should get him out and also, I have moved smaller arows in a large plastic garbage bin with a lid but this one is so long that i don;t think it would fit!

I am thinking that he will need to be sedated but there are other fish in the tank. If sedation is the only way what do you recommend using? I have not seen any commercial fish sedater for sale here but I've read posts mentioning clove oil. How does that work?

Thanks in advance

 

[Knowdafish]

A wet pillow case would work or even a plastic trash bag. How far do you have to move him?

 

[Dovii dude]

You cant remove those braces??

 

[Circa4190]

that tank looks pretty nasty..

 

[prskiller]

that tank looks pretty nasty..

Most likely tanins from the driftwood. Mines used to look like that several months ago. It goes away with time.

 

[johnptc]

if you wrap him up in a large wet towel turn him upside down as in belly up dorsal down you will be able with a helper to move him between the braces. eyes covered and upside down the fish will remain the calmest ime

 

[hbluehunter]

I think i'd have to use the pillow case method too, that way you can hold onto him and hopefully he won't get too messed up by all those braces..

 

[Juxtaroberto]

that tank looks pretty nasty..

It's just tannins. It's actually good, since it lowers the pH and mimics their natural habitat.

If you can't remove the top braces, I recommend you sedate.

Go to the top of this website and click on "Articles", and look for the one where someone had to move a big arapaima. In that article is an explanation of how they sedated that big fish.

Good luck!

 

[johnptc]

the towel provides much more protection than a pillow case.

i used tricane s to move the pima

 

[duke33]

It's just tannins. It's actually good, since it lowers the pH and mimics their natural habitat.

If you can't remove the top braces, I recommend you sedate.

Go to the top of this website and click on "Articles", and look for the one where someone had to move a big arapaima. In that article is an explanation of how they sedated that big fish.

Good luck!

I'm sure the article is from johnptc. He's here now, telling the guy how.