Today was the day of the big move of my goldfish to the outdoor pond! But before I start on that, I shall speak quickly of my quarantine bucket. It is still hovering around 3 ppm ammonia and 0 nitrites. I can't wait for the thing to cycle! Well, I guess these things take time.
The Move
FROM:
TO:
Pre-Move: For the past week or so, I have been doing cold water changes in my tank to help get the temps down low enough so that it is almost the same as the pond. Yesterday I began putting in a 1-gallon ziploc about 1/4 full of ice in it and replacing about ever 8 hours. This morning I shut my blinds, took off my tank cover, AND put in ice, all in attempt to get the temps down. Finally, this afternoon, I got within 3 degrees of the pond temperature (pond 67 degrees, tank <70 degrees) and deemed that close enough.
Move:
I started out by getting my materials ready. I used a fish net, a 1 gallon ziploc bag, a bottle, and a towel.
I put the ziploc bag in my tank and filled it with water. I turned it on its side and aimed it at my fish. I then gently, GENTLY is the key word here, guided my fish into the bag with my fish net.
Every part of the moving process should be as gentle and smooth as possible to help keep the stress level of the fish down. Once my fish were safely in the bag, I zipped it close (only for a short period of time) and then wrapped a towel around the bag.
This is also to reduce stress; the fish are generally less likely to stress when they cannot see the move happening from inside the bag. While carrying the bag, I took every effort to make the ride as smooth as possible. Finally, once we were at the pond, I took off the towel, opened the bag and folded over the edges of the bag.
This helps to keep the bag upright while I am acclimating the fish to their new environment. I allowed the temperature to adjust for about 10 minutes, then used my bottle to pour in some of the pond water. A couple minutes later I did this again. Several minutes later I did this a second time. Finally, once I was sure my fish were ready, I slowly released them from the bag. And now they can be free in their new home!
(Now let us just hope they don't procure some sort of disease.
)
Edit: By the way, the fish have been doing quite nicely today. At first they were pretty scared, and avoided the current residents (one big and one small) at all costs. But a couple hours later they were chasing each other around like the best of friends.