Acclimating a full sized fish

Hey guys, just got a bigger tank for my full grown red belly piranha and was wondering how I could get him into the new tank. I was wondering if I could just plop him in or if I should get a bag and acclimate him like a new fish? Might sound stupid but I just want to make sure.

 

Acclimate him if the pH and temperature are different from his existing tank.

How big is the new tank?

Is he in a school?

 

No he's by himself, the new one is a rectangular 55gallon.

 

Gallon zip lock, fill halfway with the water he's in now and halfway new water. Float it in new tank for 15 min then net him and release into new tank. Same procedure you should use with all fish, regardless of size.

 

I drip acclimate everything. The more sensitive or expensive, the longer I drip. For a piranha, I would probably do a 30min drip.

 

I gradually add in the new water while the bag is floating.

 

Gallon zip lock, fill halfway with the water he's in now and halfway new water. Float it in new tank for 15 min then net him and release into new tank. Same procedure you should use with all fish, regardless of size.

That's not a great acclimation method.

If the water is different than the water he was in, you'll need to acclimate him. If it's not different (same temp, pH, hardness, etc.), you can just put him in.

If you need to acclimate him, I'd do this:
Put him in a bucket with all old water. Every 10-20 minutes, add a cup or two of new water. Continue for 1-2 hours or until most of the water is new water (you can remove some of the water in the bucket if it starts to get too full to make room for more cups of new water). After that, you can add him to the new tank.

 

That tank is way too small for a full grown Piranha.

 

Maybe I just keep getting lucky and the LFS has similar water lol

 

I would just plop him into the new tank. Only parameter that is important on an internal transfer is temperature +/-5 degrees F, unless you're trying to move him from hard to soft water. I would not concern myself with pH; people drive themselves crazy worrying about this parameter unnecessarily. A low pH is often the result of dirty water, and just putting the fish into clean water is going to improve his conditions, even with a higher pH. I've moved fish from soft water at a pH of 5.0 to hard water at a pH of 7.8 with no ill effects. Going from hard water to soft is a different situation, and has limits.

 

Thanks for the suggestions guys, the ph and temperature are the same so I just plopped him in and he's doing fine.

 

I've seen large Piranha kept in similar size tanks. They are not fine. These fish need room to swim. There simply isn't enough room in a tank that size for one that is even close full grown.