I I went to a friends house and saw they had a fish tank. It was a 10gal tank that was only filled up halfway with dirty scummy water you can hardly see through. Random items have fallen in and the filter was clogged with crap! I don't think it has ever had a water change or a fter change for that matter. I think the poor guy hardly gets fed also! I need to rescue it. I yelled at her and said I was taking the fish. I couldn't see the fish not only cause of how dirty it was by also it stays in a cave. I did see movement so I do believe it is alive. She said its some sort of cichlid and believes it looks just like my black convict. My question is how is the best way to get it to adapt to my clean tank. I have a 55 with a convict a Pleco and a jd. I think he will be ok in there but it might be a shock to his system to have clean water. And she said he is aggressive but my fish are pretty mean as well so I want to try to add him for his safety! Help please!!!!!!
Need to rescue fish!!!!
- Thread starter Km84
- Start date
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Nu-Nu the eel
Aquarium Advice Addict
Haha i have no idea how to do it. I would suggest slowly putting more and more clean water into the bag until its twice as full. If he lived in that crappy water he should be ok in clean water im guessing. When i bough my 40 gallon tank from a man at craigs list the tank was NASTY!! he had a huge jack dempsy chiclid in there and a massuve common pleco, he asked me i i wanted them but i said no due to how big they were. I went to the fish store the next day and saw the chiclid swimming around in nice clean water, so i guess the pet store ppl just put him in! I hope my story helped 
00youknowit00
Aquarium Advice Addict
Do you know what drip acclimation is? If so I would do a very slow drip acclimation, it'll be the least stressful for the fish.
**edit**
If not I'll be happy to explain!
**edit**
If not I'll be happy to explain!
Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic
Aquarium Advice Addict
what about getting a bucket with the current water it is used to and fill up to half way. cover the bucket with a tray of some sort or some glass so light can get in. clean the filter with water from your current tank.
add a heater, bubbler and reintroduce cleaned filter to the bucket with the fish in.
slowly, once a day, add in a cup of ur 55s water to the bucket.
then when the bucket is full, take out half of the water and keep on adding a cup day by day. then when uv done this about 3 times, do a 75% water change and put in 25% 55s water so theres 50% water in the bucket.
after another cup a day thing, it should be acclimated to cleaner water and should be able to go in the bigger tank.
this is what i would do. thank you so much for trying to help this poor fish!! xx
add a heater, bubbler and reintroduce cleaned filter to the bucket with the fish in.
slowly, once a day, add in a cup of ur 55s water to the bucket.
then when the bucket is full, take out half of the water and keep on adding a cup day by day. then when uv done this about 3 times, do a 75% water change and put in 25% 55s water so theres 50% water in the bucket.
after another cup a day thing, it should be acclimated to cleaner water and should be able to go in the bigger tank.
this is what i would do. thank you so much for trying to help this poor fish!! xx
00youknowit00
Aquarium Advice Addict
Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic said:
This is drip acclimation, just an extremely elongated version.
Ok so update on the fish. I have put him in an old ten gal for now alone to see how it acts. When I get a better feel for it I want to put it in my 55 with the others. I'm very nervous of adding him and there being fights. I would hate to have my fish Hurt or this one. I have a few pics of it if you could tell me whether you think it's male female or I'd it. I think it's a convict like the one I have just not as pronounced.
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LyndaB
Aquarium Advice Addict
It absolutely shocks fish, sometimes to the point of death, if they are taken from a filthy environment and placed into a clean one.
I see that you've already rehoused the fish. I hope it comes through okay.
So far I have taken her out of her dirty environment put her in my ten gal with half her water and half water from my set up tank. I'm letting her sit for a few days to adjust before I start doing some water changes using the water from the tank I hope to move her to. She is doing great has yet to eat bu she was rarely fed so I'm hoping in a few days she will eat. All is well so far and she seems happy I did put her cave in there so she would have a peice of home
LyndaB
Aquarium Advice Addict
Well done. That's one lucky fish.
Oblivion
Aquarium Advice Activist
i always do an acclimation with a bucket.
1) put fish in bucket + 1/4 bucket of existing tank water.
2) add a small amount of water from tank #2 (its new home)
3) wait 10min.
4) repeat steps 2 + 3 several times till bucket is full.
by then fish is usually ready to go into its home without any probs.
if needed, to be overly cautious you can always empty 3/4 of water from bucket and repeat steps 2-4, by then the water would be almost the same as the tank anyway.
1) put fish in bucket + 1/4 bucket of existing tank water.
2) add a small amount of water from tank #2 (its new home)
3) wait 10min.
4) repeat steps 2 + 3 several times till bucket is full.
by then fish is usually ready to go into its home without any probs.
if needed, to be overly cautious you can always empty 3/4 of water from bucket and repeat steps 2-4, by then the water would be almost the same as the tank anyway.
LyndaB
Aquarium Advice Addict
I'd give her at least a few weeks to recover and adjust to healthy water params before putting her in. You don't want her to be in a weakened state when you add her to your main tank. That's just asking for ich!
Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic
Aquarium Advice Addict
thanks for being open to ideas, and i hope the fish acclimates well! what behaviour is it displaying atm? x
ShadoeFox
Aquarium Advice Freak
Honestly, even if it did pass away, I'm of the mind that at least it's in a better condition at the end. I mean, dang... I'd rather die in a clean bed then a sewer.
That being said, seems like it's a tough bugger. I'd say it has at least a fighting chance, eh?
Right now she is exploring. She retreats to her cave for a bit but them slowly makes her way out and swims a bit. She hides when I come near nut I have positioned things so that she is in my view . She has t eaten yet but she is not thin so I'm not to worried about that. She did have things flowing off her face that looked like dirt from the old tank that seems to have fallen off. I'm slowly warming the water cause she never had a heater and her water was so cold. That's why she stayed in her cave she was pretty much hibernating. When the girl I got her from bought the fish she got two. This one slowly killed the other. To small of a space if you ask me. So she has never really had a tank mate. So I'm hoping in a few weeks I can get her in my part tank with little problems. Inwas thinking of putting in a small divider at first to see how they react or should I just put her in? Well I guess Incan worry about that when I'm sure she is healthy.
Oblivion
Aquarium Advice Activist
i would have thought living in her own filth would be far worse for creating sickness than a 2hr bucket acclimation and then settling into a fresh clean tank where it can live a better life without being disturbed again.
within 24-48hrs it'll be used to its newer, healthier enviroment and doing its usual things
leaving it in a tank for a week or two, it'll start to settle in and then go through yet another acclimation and strange enviroment..
stressing it twice instead of once?
