Moving fish to new tank

I've got the new 50 gal filled, the filter running, and am waiting for the
temp to come up. I put in the castle and troll and some of the glass marbles
from the 10 gal tank, and threw in the old filter (rinsed the gross big
stuff off with a little cold, non-chlorinated well water but that's it) I
don't have any plants to move to it at the moment- there was a recent
feeding frenzy. (why do they ignore the plants for days or weeks, and then
suddenly go nuts for them????)

When the temp comes up, I plan to move one fish over. Now, I doubt I can set
the heater accurately enough to get the two tanks perfectly matched, so I
figure on putting the 'test fish' in a bag and doing the "float the bag in
the new tank and slowly add the new tank water" routine, like I'd brought a
new fish home. Which leads to the question that is the whole point of this
post - is there something special about the bags the fish store uses? Or,
since I'll be sitting here watching it the whole time, thus limiting the
chance of the fish getting into a corner, can I use a clean new food baggie?
Or should I stop by and bum four fish bags from the LFS?
Thanks,

--
Laurie, Dark Phoenix
dark_phoenix RemoveThis @netw.com
"Every dog has it's day, but nights are reserved for cats." -

On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 15:39:01 -0800, "Dark Phoenix"
<dark_phoenix.RemoveThis@netw.com> wrote:

>I've got the new 50 gal filled, the filter running, and am waiting for the
>temp to come up. I put in the castle and troll and some of the glass marbles
>from the 10 gal tank, and threw in the old filter (rinsed the gross big
>stuff off with a little cold, non-chlorinated well water but that's it) I
>don't have any plants to move to it at the moment- there was a recent
>feeding frenzy. (why do they ignore the plants for days or weeks, and then
>suddenly go nuts for them????)
>
>When the temp comes up, I plan to move one fish over. Now, I doubt I can set
>the heater accurately enough to get the two tanks perfectly matched, so I
>figure on putting the 'test fish' in a bag and doing the "float the bag in
>the new tank and slowly add the new tank water" routine, like I'd brought a
>new fish home. Which leads to the question that is the whole point of this
>post - is there something special about the bags the fish store uses? Or,
>since I'll be sitting here watching it the whole time, thus limiting the
>chance of the fish getting into a corner, can I use a clean new food baggie?
>Or should I stop by and bum four fish bags from the LFS?
>Thanks,
If you can get the water to within a couple of degrees of each other
you can swap them out with no problem. They can take about 4 degrees
of change without stressing them out.(I believe that is what Ingrid
said). If your heaters have thermostats on them you should be able to
set them to the same thing and get them to about the same temp without
too much trouble.

I use the same type heater in every tank. They usually stay within a
degree or two of each other, depending on the ambient room temp.
My upstairs is about 5 degrees warmer than the downstairs.

Hope this helps. Oh yeah. I have the same type thermometer in every
tank too.

Azul