A little bit of a puzzle, please help me out..

Okay, so I've come back from the LFS with a really nice copperband (I had it all ready and I saw a strong one, watched it eat, and couldn't resist!), however I'm a bit puzzled on how to get it into the tank.

I made sure they didn't net it at the shop as I know that this can cause problems with copperbands in particular. Now, it's drip acclimating to my quarantine tank's water. I'm almost ready to put him into the tank, as it's probably about 3/4 my own water by now. The water in the bag, however, has had copper in. Ultimately I'd like to use my quarantine tank as a mantis tank so obviously I'm avoiding the water like the plague. Here's the problem: I need to get the copperband into the tank without netting him and without getting any of that water into mine.

Solutions

Thankkkks.

 

Maybe put it through a "dip" or two of tank water, use whatever you have available, tupperware, old salt buckets etc, whatever you can put water in temporarily to rinse it off. Then maybe run some copper remover (poly filter or something) on the tank in case some is in it's digestive system or something.

 

I know of several people that just use their hands. Just cup it under the fish then gently lift it out of the bag. Not sure if this will cause troubles with a copper band. I have done this with several fish.

 

You never want to pour the LFS's water in your tank with a new fish. I always pull them out by hand.

 

I would just cup the fish in your hand and transfer it to your QT. a few drops of water is not going to contaminate the tank for life
I treat all LFS water as poison to my tank and this is how I transfer all my fish

Since I stopped netting fish and using the hand method I've never had any issues
Good Luck

J

 

Thanks for your help guys. He's now in the quarantine tank where he'll remain for a while until he's eating again and I give him the all clear to go!

We syphoned out the majority of the water and dumped it, allowed it to refill, syphoned etc. and then lowered the bag below the surface and allowed him to swim out. I'll run some copper remover after he's out of the tank, and test it, and if it's still unsuitable then it's no huge loss but it would be if we lost the copperband due to mishandling.

EDIT: Oh, and I'll put up some pics tomorrow, of course

 

Yup your the one that got me started doing it that way. Has worked really well. ;D

 

And it was Tangster and Amcrrig that got me started