Selecting and adding fish to your water feature

Scott Rudolph is a water feature expert at Eichenlaub:

Transcription

Hey everybody, Scott Rudolph with Eichenlaub here, and I’m pumped because we’re at Natures Aquatics today to pick out our new fish for our new outdoor living studio in Milhow. Okay so we’re with Jocelyn Wall here, and coming out of Winter, Jocelyn, what types of things do you do to prepare your fish to go out for sale?

J: Well if they were outside, we’ll bring them in, check them over really good. What we’ll do is we’ll take what’s called a slime-coat scraping, check to make sure there are no parasites on the fish and ensure they’re good and healthy. No different to if we’re getting new fish in, we’re gonna hold them for 15-30 days to have a good check of their overall health and stuff like that but the big thing is, we do check for parasites to make sure we’re getting these new guys to Eichenlaub to be as fit as they can. 

S: Alright so these guys are getting ready to get packed up to get to their new home.

J: What we’re going to do is we’re going to gradually slide them in here. We’re going to try to touch them the least amount as possible. We don’t want to disrupt their slime coat or anything. We’re going to check the water and the rest we’re going to fill up with oxygen for their trip home. 

S: How long can fish be in a bag like that? What’s the most you recommend to people?

J: Depends on the time of year it is. If it’s really warm, you’re not going to want to keep them in there that long ‘cos that water will heat up. This time of the year you can probably go a couple of hours in this size bag. If you had to go further, we’d change the size of the bag and make sure you had a lot more oxygen. With the cooler water, the fish isn’t going to use as much oxygen as if it were in warm water. And then depending on the time of year it is too. We’ll either bag heavier or lighter. 

S: So Jocelyn let’s talk about when we take the fish and we’re gonna put them in their new home. They’re not used to that water, so what do you recommend for whenever we’re taking these guys and putting then into play?

J: So what you’re going to do is you’re going to set that bag in the water for a couple of minutes. After about 5 minutes or so, go ahead and open the bag up, put al little bit of your water in with the current water that allows them to adjust a little bit easier to your pH if the parameters are a little bit different. Once those water temperatures are pretty equal the water temperature in their bag and the water temperature of your existing pond –  you can go ahead and let them loose. 

S: So when you’re putting your initial bit of water in, you’re just splashing some in, you’re not doing a half?

J: You don’t want to do half, because if your water is a lot warmer and this is cooler, it’s going to be a big change for them. You just want to splash them a bit. And what that does is it slowly warms up this water, but also allows them to adjust to your pH. 

S: So how long after you put the initial dose in?

J: Depending on anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour or so, you can always put a little bit more water in it. 

S: So add a little bit, then add a little bit more about 5-10 minutes later. And then you just let them slide out of the bag, don’t touch them. 

J: Yeah you want to try and touch them the least amount as possible, cos all that does is mess with their slime a little bit. That’s why it keeps them good and healthy. 

S: And here the fish are taking their ride down economy Burrough down to Pittsburgh, a little left on East Ohio, heading up to 28 to Millvale studio. Okay, you know you’re getting into the heart of Millvale when you hit some nice brick road, bumpy good old style Pittsburgh road here. Coming up on the right hand side, MR Smalls funhouse, a great place to see shows, Millvale really culturally is coming a long way. A lot of cool shops and good restaurants, a tonne of good different things going on here. We’re coming up to Lincoln and the outdoor living studio for Eichenlaub. We’re just going to pull right in. 

Okay, we’re back here in the studio, we’re going to use the fish we just bought. Like Jocelyn had mentioned, we’re just going to put the fish in the water and let that sit for about 5-10 minutes. You’re going to mix them together and make a nice transition for the fish. Okay, you can see they’re in the new feature, looks all kind of new to them. You can see they’re starting to swim around getting all excited about their new home. 

srudolph@eichenlaub.com

(412) 767-4769