R0B

Ok, can i go to my local lake and catch a baby fish and put it in a fish tank? im extremely bored and this question just popped into my head.

Shawnie

hi rob...no question is "dum"
and I would say No on the lake fish...they carry different requirements and usually have different parasites and things that can be introduced to your tank....im sure some members have done this so maybe they can offer different advice

Jaysee

I've done that with sunfish, putting them in both a tank and a pond. Bringing them home is one thing, cause all you risk is screwing up your little ecosystem. Putting the fish back in the lake is a whole different thing, and should NOT be done UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. If you think you'll have trouble destroying the fish (as opposed to returning it) when it outgrows your tank, then you should not bring it home in the first place.

R0B

But will it survive in the water?

Jaysee

Sunfish probably will....they are extremely tough fish. I would still take care in acclimating them. They would be the only fish I would attempt it with. How big of a tank?

R0B

Well im not going to do it but i just see my 29 gal there empty while it cycles and i start wondering things lol i want to stock it already, oh that reminds me. Im using a Marineland Penguin filter (came with tank) i dont like it and im going to buy a Aqua-Tech 30-60 since im use to them. Do i have to cycle the tank again? or is the water good by then?

jdhef

The water doesn't actually cycle. What happens is bacteria that consumes the ammonia and nitrites develope in your filter media (and on all hard surfaces in the tank). Then as the water passes thru the media (or around the various hard surfaces such as gravel) the bacteria basically strips the ammonia and nitrites from the water.

So to answer your question, if you can put the cycled filter media from the old filter into the new filter, you should be okay.

Jaysee

IME, one sunfish can live in a 29 for a while. I'll kill anything you try to put in there with it. But the day will come where You'll have to get your hands dirty.

There is no bacteria in the water itself. If you have media that is already cycled, than you just have to put it in the new filter.

Prince Powder

Cycling a tank is actually cycling a filter so you would need to cycle the new filter and it's new media from scratch. If the media from the Marineland Penguin can be shoved inside the aquatech filter it will help seed the new filter faster with whatever bacteria you already have on it. If it can't go inside the filter perhaps just leaving it in the tank until your cycle is complete so you don't lose all the time you've put in so far.

Wow, I got beat twice on that one! I need to vamp up my typing! Either that or cut back on my rambling

Sonfish

I tried this once many years ago with a jack, some folks calls them chain pickrel but we call them Jack fish, it was before I knew what they were and I caught it in a pond where we used to live, definately a cool looking rascal, anyway I put it in my dads community tank so I could show my dad and before he could get home the only thing left in the tank was the Jack, LOL well now its LOL when dad saw it wasnt so funny

R0B

Thanks for the advice everyone, what i'll do is add the media from the filter that i have on the 5 gal and the marineland, should be a quick cycle.

flyin-lowe

If you were starting a new tank then there is no reason you could not add "native" fish from a lake. Obviously you wouldn't want to add them to you're other tank with tropical fish. Many people have "native" tanks with sunfish, bluegill, perch, rock bass, catfish etc. Go to youtube and do a search for native fish tanks and you will probably see some nice ones. Granted most fish will outgrow and 29g pretty quick but in the right sized tank you should have not problems. You might want to check local laws though. Some states you can't keep native fish. In Indiana we can keep them but you must obey size limits. on bass for example you can't keep one that is under 14 inches.

Shawnie

adding media from a 5g tank to a 29g tank, WILL NOT be a quick cycle.....unless you have the same fish in the 29g tank that cycled the 5g media ...you will still have to properly cycle the bigger tank

Jaysee

Yes! You can feed the media ammonia and grow the colony so that it can handle the fish you want to add.

Shawnie

but it wont be quick and will still take a couple weeks....IMO..... if the OP was adding something from the 29g to the 5g, and had more fish, it would be quick .....just my

R0B

Yea im passing the fish i have in the 5 gal to the 29 gal and adding more

I'm also going to keep the fake plants and maybe one decor object from the 5 gal.

Shawnie

I would add very slowly..no more than 2-4 inches of fish every couple weeks...and also move everything from the 5g that might have established bacteria on it

good luck ! and congrats on the upgrade!

R0B

Thank you Shawnie

Elodea

Watch out, though. Those native fish can grow very, very large, even in a 29 gallon. BTW, how are you going to acclimate them?

R0B

I have no idea thats why i posted this lol

Shawnie

are you putting that lake fish with the others you have? if so, they will be gone fast .he will eat them all

Elodea

Unless your others are African Cichlids. lol

About acclimating, maybe put them in one of those huge ziploc baggies and float them?

Shawnie

http://www.fishlore.com/acclimating-tropicalfish.htm a great article to read on acclimation......just putting in a bag, is great but only gets the bag to the temp you want not the pH levels and such thats needed

Meenu

Wouldn't it be better to drip? Just use airline tubing to start a flow or drip of water from your tank to the container the new fish is in. It will let the new fish acclimate to the temperature as well as the pH of your tank.

edit: shawnie

Elodea

Can't you just treat the Ziploc bag like one of those bags you get at the pet store? Like open it and slowly pour water in and such.

EDIT: Nah, just listen to Meenu, she beat me to it.

Shawnie

sure you can but wasnt sure if thats what you meant in your earlier post...it wasnt mentioned

Meenu

You could do this. I like to drip instead because it is just a steadier method. Instead of a cup of water every few minutes, it goes slow and steady. I usually let it drip for about an hour.

edit: ROFL... ninja'ed again.

Jaysee

What's ninja mean?

Nutter

There can be issues acclimating any wild caught fish to tap water. The process would probably take several weeks rather than just a few hours. I've done this sort of thing on many occasions & if you hurry through the process there's a very good chance you will end up with a dead fish. You need a tank dedicated to the aclimatisation process. Bring back enough of the lake water to fill the entire tank & refill it a few times. Each week when you do a water change, use the original lake water with a small percentage of treated tap water. At each water change increase the amount of treated tap water you use & decrease the amount of lake water you use. Say week 1: 95% lake to 5% tap. Week 2: 90% lake to 10% tap. Week 3: 85% lake to 15% tap. Keep going like that until the fish is surviving in 100% treated tap water. You could probably get away with doing a water change every3-4 days instead of every week though. Only at that point will you be able to introduce the fish into another tank of treated tap water with other fish. The points made about the other fish getting eaten are very valid so you may want to just have a tank dedicated to the wild caught fish. Also returning fish that have been kept in captivity to the wild is usually a no no so be prepared to rehome or destroy the fish when the time comes.

Hope that helps abit.

bolivianbaby

Ninja'ing is when someone answers a question while you are answering the same question.