How on earth do I pull this off?

The new tank is 375 liters, the old is 60 liters.. I want my Oscar to live in the large one and the Malawie's to live i the small one.. But I'm all new with this cikilde stuff...

Help anyone?

first off how many and what kind of african did the tank come with. if your fortunate enough that they are smaller cichlids. you might be able to house them in the smaller tank. if not you can always rehome them. if you can post some pics of them we might be able to help you with your decisions.

you will have to keep the cycled water from the new tank and take some of it with you use a clean plastic dustbin.....put a few gallons in it and trans port it to your property allong with the new tank and fish bagged up when you get home set up a heater and OLD FILTER along with the heater in the plastic dustbin /trashcan...then add some fresh water to top it up ,not to the top tho or the fish will jump out ,leave it down about 9/10 inches....add declorinator to the new water in the dust bin ,make sure the surface water is being adjitated by the OLD FILTER if not add an air pump and drop an airstone in....
its important to have some old tankwater and old filter as these will contain friendly bacteria that is VITAL in circumstances like this.......
now float the fish in their bags in the dustbin (if the temp is ok)if not add a bit of warm water to bring it up leave the fish in their bags for 15 mins then release them into your fully cycled makeshift plastic trashcan tank ...they can stay here for as long as it takes you to get the new tank filled and cycled (usually about 10 days) but be sure to do regular waterchanges on yor trashcan as you would on any tank,when your new tank is ready for fish ..decide what you want in there ..catch them and put them in the remaining fish in your trashcan tank can then go in the old small tank and you can dismantle your makeshift trashcan tank BUT PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF NECROS POST ABOVE as this is just a general method an not SPECIES OR QUANTITIES specific.... hope this helps you

THANK YOU!! Phu, fishing is hard work!
But... I LOVE it!!!

this method is tried and tested and you can have a couple of weeks to get the new tank up and running without rushing the job!!!!!!!! dont let it be hard work do things at a nice easy pace check everything twice and SLOW DOWN make the new tank experience ENJOYABLE and not a chore you will love it even more this way LOL LOL

two things i want to clarify on your concern:
how to handle having fish in your new tank?
or transporting the new tank with fish to your home?

PAUL wrote:


My concern is: How to switch the fish! The new tank has got malawies in it! Bur they have to move to the small tank, so that Oscar can live in the new big one.

okey, i got it.
you have two cycled tanks, i supposed.
prepare a bucket, put some water from the tank,
partially scoop some malawies to the bucket, transfer
them to the smaller tank, immediately, put some water
to the bucket, scoop the oscar and tranfer him to the
bigger tank. then put some water again to the bucket,
scoop the rest of malawies, then transfer them to the
smaller tank. the process will give you minimal chance
of losses, keep the system running, and less stress for
the oscar.

or you can have two buckets, transfer the oscar in one
bucket, then the malawies on the other, and switch them

just my 2 cents idea. i hope it works for you

So they can actually live in the same water???
I don't have to "re-cycle" them?

in principle yes, as long as both are fresh water.
the only thing i suggest you to do first is to check
both tanks on water parameters. if they come out to
be close to each other, then you can switch. if in
case there is big disparity, make water changes first
to meet water standard so that they will not have that
new tank syndrome.

basically both are fully cycled and with good bacteria.
others do swap water from each other to balance the water
parameters before switching.

the only difference between malawis and s/c american cichlids are the diet and prefered ph. a malawis diet is mainly vegetive while new world cichlids are fed a diet higher in proteins(insect, crustacean and fish).

the malawis also like there water with a ph above 8.0 while south americans tend to be lower at around a ph of 7. however most aquarium bred africans have be raised in a neutral ph so only die hard african fish keepers bother to keep the ph raised to the proper levels. you should test your water for ph values and temperature and if they are the same or close there is no reason why you simply cannot change the fish from one tank to another.