I mentioned a week or so ago that a friend of mine was giving me a Jack Dempsey. I picked up the fish and have him sitting in my living room right now in a bucket. Unfortunately, the tank was a complete mess. It's a 20L and was in just awful condition. The lady I got it from made it sound like they'd never done anything to the tank other than top it off when it got low. I transported the fish in about 3 gallons of water from the original tank, but I'm going to have to fill the tank up with my own water. Other than slowly adding regular tank water to the bucket, is there any other good way to acclimate him. I'm getting ready to test the water in the bucket to see what exactly I've got there, but I'm guessing this guy is a sure victim of Old Tank Syndrome and I'm afraid a new tank may kill this Dempsey.
Need help with rescuing a fish
- Thread starter chinnp
- Start date
I think the best way to get him used to your take water would be to slowly drip water from the tank to the bucket, then after so long if he seems to be doing ok transfer him over to the tank.
Take your time doing this, it will keep the fish from being overly stressed.
Take your time doing this, it will keep the fish from being overly stressed.
I tested the water and the parameters of his tank tested exactly what my water is. Ph at 7.8, ammonia and nitrite at 0. I can't get a reading on nitrate with the test kit I've got to save my life. I get 0 ppm regardless of whether I'm testing the tank I've had up for 6 months or water straight from the tap. Anyway, I added him and the water from the old tank to the re-set up tank since the water was so similar and Dempsey's are very hardy fish. I added a flower pot on it's side for him to hide in (they had nothing like that in the old tank) and faced it toward the wall. I then added a filter (the one they had on there had the cord cut (long story) so it's toast) and jumpstarted the filter with media from my established community tank (this is why all my filters uses the same filter pad size). I added the fish into the tank and topped it off. The tank is filthy. It has all kinds of crud (salt creep??) on it.
I'm getting a 75 within a day or so. When that gets here, the community fish will move into that tank from their 55 and the 55 will become the new home of the Dempsey and the Buenos Aires tetras. Hopefully this set up in the 20 is only temporary.
I'm getting a 75 within a day or so. When that gets here, the community fish will move into that tank from their 55 and the 55 will become the new home of the Dempsey and the Buenos Aires tetras. Hopefully this set up in the 20 is only temporary.
Wow, great rescue, chinnp. Good luck on acclimating the jd and getting everything set up for it! It sounds like it's alot of work but will be worth it. Bullly for you!!! :thm: