Tank transfer

[FollyFish]

 

 

I moved everything in my tank from a 25G cube to a 50G long and added extra rocks. I have a pistol/goby pair who have been together for 3 years. When I moved them I was able to get the goby but I could not find the pistol. I thought he might be in a rock because I when through the old sand handful by handful and he wasn't there. The problem is that was 2 days ago and since then the goby has been swimming along the tank walls, near the surface, and going in circles, but without going to any possible burrows and I haven't heard the pistol. Now i'm worried about both of them and think I may have messed up not my goby in the upper left hand corner. All the other fish are stressed and not eating yet. I will try to feed again tonight with garlic food. 

 

[Tired]

How sure are you that the pistol was alive to be transferred?

 

Did you put all the old sand in the new tank? How deep was it in the 25g? 

 

You need to test your water, the fish should have been eating by now. 

[FollyFish]

I am very sure that he was alive I would see/hear him almost every day, including the day before the tank transfer. 

 

No old sand in the new tank. My old sand was 3yrs old about 1 inch deep with some areas deeper where the pistol move the sand. With the old sand I would take it out by a handful and sift it into a new bucket to make sure he wasn't in there and to check for snails. I used new live sand only.

 

I am going to test for parameters tonight but salinty was at 1.026 like always and temp was 78 degrees. My emerald crabs were eating but I dont think much bothers them. All the fish were active just not chasing food or visiblely eating. 

[Tamberav]

What type of rock did you add? Anything that would have caused an issue with ammonia? The fish sound very stressed. 

[Tired]

Do you have the old sand, and how big was the shrimp? I would very much suggest putting the old sand in some water, maybe in a bucket, and listening for clicking. 

 

What did you do with the filter media? 

[FollyFish]

I added the rocks from my old tank and 3 rocks approx. 20lbs of life rock from caribsea.  

[FollyFish]

Just now, Tired said:

Do you have the old sand, and how big was the shrimp? I would very much suggest putting the old sand in some water, maybe in a bucket, and listening for clicking. 

 

What did you do with the filter media? 

The old sand is gone. He was for sure not in it. I hand sifted it before tossing. He was approx. 1 1/2 inch which is close to full grown for a Randalls pistol.

 

I have a sump and that got moved to the new tank with everything in it. 

[FollyFish]

I just got home and tried to feed everyone frozen and garlic food. Everyone ate and chased the food except for my yellow watchman goby. He would just swim away from the food. I thought that maybe there is too much current so I reduced the current too see if that helps. I am also going to test the water and will post that when I get the results. 

 

Fish are: yellow watchman goby, clownfish, tailspot blenny, neon goby and possum wrasse.

Inverts are: emerald crabs x2, and Randalls pistol shrimp, snails, LPS and softies corals. 

[FollyFish]

5 hours ago, Tired said:

How sure are you that the pistol was alive to be transferred?

 

Did you put all the old sand in the new tank? How deep was it in the 25g? 

 

You need to test your water, the fish should have been eating by now. 

Water testing done with API reef kit the results are as follows:

High Range PH - 7.8

Ammonia - 0 ppm

Nitrite - 0 ppm

Nitrate 5.0 ppm

Calcium - 520 ppm (26 drops)

KH - 179 ppm (10 drops)

Phosphate - 0

 

Temp was at 81F so I adjusted the new heater to drop the temp back to 78F

Salinity is at 1.026 via refractometer. 

[Tired]

Keep an eye on your phosphate. 0 is okay temporarily, but if it stays like that, you're going to have algae problems. You need to have nitrate and phosphate so that non-pest algaes (and corals!) can grow, or pest algaes will take advantage of the environment and multiply. 

 

Probably the pistol is dead, if you haven't heard it by now. It may have been crushed in a rock, or shocked by acclimation issues. I would probably get another pistol if the goby doesn't settle. Make sure it has places to hide, and watch for bullying.

[FollyFish]

 

I have Happy News. I got up this morning and could't find my watchman goby so I waited around and saw this! They found each other and are setting up a new home! It is of course in the back corner of the tank that is hard for me to see but that is beside the point.

 

 

 

[Tired]

Huh, he must have been scared and hiding. Glad you found him!

 

If you ever have to transfer tanks with a pistol shrimp again, it would probably be better to catch it out with a bottle trap in advance. That way, you know where it is, and don't have to worry about crushing it in rocks or losing it. 

 

Also, you can generally keep the old sand, when it's shallow like that. It contains a lot of your biofilter and beneficial fauna, so you usually want at least a few big handfuls of it.