Would this be too stressful for them

I am setting up my 20 long this weekend and plan on putting my darters in it (though I am still debating whether they all should go in it or not). I have a plan too, first remove all the hiding places from my 55 gallon to make netting them easier, then give my 55 a good vaccume now their is no cover to hide the dirt, then catch and move the darters to the new tank.

Would this be too stressful for my fish?

Also should I move my more timid fish like my troutperch and suckers? would moving my madtom keep it from hiding in one place all the time or would it keep that habit in a new tank.

If you are talking about vacuming with the other fish in the tank, I would suggest that you take all the fish out before vacuming. Back long ago when I kept tropicals, I vacumed the tank, and it resulted in a very large fish kill. Hope this helps!

I and just about everyone on this forum will gravel vacuum their tank and change some water every week or two--with fish in the tank. Removing your fish would be unnecessary and would be more likely to cause problems than anything else.

Taking items out of the tank and putting fish into a new tank should be fine...I've done it hundreds of times. So long as you don't drop them on the ground and step on them, your natives are quite hardy.....I am assuming you are cycling your new tank? You will want to transfer some gravel, a filter bag, or even some water from your already established tank to your new one to aid in cycling. Then you transfer only a couple of fish for the first two weeks. Or, (as others here will tell you) you can cycle the new tank without fish by using liquid ammonia....which I usually don't do but also don'd discourage.

Your madtom is probably going to hide regardless of what you want him to do. If you don't give him any hiding spots, he might be seen more often, but will probably just hide behind your filter intake or something like that. The behavior is natural to them and is really not something you can "break". You could also use a lower watt light bulb or just not turn them on as much. This will also get them moving around and out in the open for you.

The best way to vacuum gravel is to do a section at a time at water change time. When I started out, I vacuumed the whole tank every water change. That's just not necessary. It doesn't hurt anything, but it isn't needed. If you haven't done it in ages, there will be anoxic areas here and there. It's best not to disturb them all at once, that could kill fish. Take some stuff out and clean a quarter of the tank or so. Leave the fish in, just shoo them away from the area you are working on. Then next water change time, clean another quarter of the tank.

Edited by schambers, 15 August 2009 - 07:00 PM.

I vacuume from time to time, usually once or twice a week for water changes, but usually do not move structure around when I do it. But what I mean on stress is doing all these activities (removing structure, vacuuming, moving fish) as one big evebnt.

I vac mine out usually once a week with water changes. I don't move the larger rock structure, I just do the open area.

I vacuume from time to time, usually once or twice a week for water changes, but usually do not move structure around when I do it. But what I mean on stress is doing all these activities (removing structure, vacuuming, moving fish) as one big evebnt.

It should not be too stressful. The main thing will be to make the water temperature and chemistry as similar as possible between the old and new tanks. Chemistry shouldn't be a problem, as I assume you use the same source for water for both tanks. Just make sure the temperature is within 5 degrees or less.