Moving 2 1/2 hours Away with Fish!.. HELP!!!!

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Squirt0170

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
May 20, 2006
Messages
116
Location
St. Louis Missouri
Okay.. I have a HARD task and would LOVE to keep ALL of my fish alive... I have to move and the move is a 2 1/2 hour drive...

ANY suggestions on HOW to move the fish and tank safely would be GREAT!!!

The fish are 2 Bala's, 1 Silver Dollar, 1 Black Ghost Knife, and 1 Rubber lip and 2 Gouramis.
 
Errmm keep the fliter mida wet, to keep the bacteria alive, try and keep as much as possible of the water, get the biggest bags you can get for the fish with the max water and add pure oxygen instead of air, other than that i have no clue, sorry never moved a tank, its just what i can think of, best to wait for some1 who has been through it b4, GOOD LUCK though, :)
 
i dont think pure oxygen is a good idea, it can kill people is mishandled, remember only like 30% of air is oxygen, and 70% is nitrogen
 
I move my fish for 2 hour drives all the time (between home and college). I just put them in a bucket and away I go. Theres enough oxygen in the water to last 2.5 hours. For your filter, just keep the media in tank water. Remember that these fish survived being shipped to the store for much longer than 2.5 hours, and now they are probably more healthy and fit for the move.
 
dont think pure oxygen is a good idea, it can kill people is mishandled, remember only like 30% of air is oxygen, and 70% is nitrogen

yeah well, when i got my fish from a lfs that was 1-2 hours away they filled the bag with pure oxygen, yes pure, and all the fish did very well. and if your doing it your self, dont "mishandle" it ? and you will be fine?!?!?!
 
For the fish, you could get a 5G bucket with a lid, and transport them in the bucket. You should be just fine that way. As for the substrate, if it's a small tank, just leave it in the tank and tale all the water out except bot maybe a half inch above the substrate. Also, put some tank water in a smaller bucket and place your filter media in there. And you should be set. When you get to the destination, make the aquarium setup priority over unloading any other things you have. That way you minimize the potential of something going wrong.
 
Menagerie has done many moves with her fish, some a fair distance. You can either search her posts or pm her for details on how she did it successfully. It is all pretty easy just time consuming.
 
keep everything soaked in tank water, put the fish in a plastic cooler with a lid in some tank water, and defintly buy a battery operated air pump or if you have a power inverter for your car you can run your existing air pump off it, takea drill and dril la small hole big enough for airline tubing through the lid of the cooler and run the tubing through it, this way the lid will completely close and you still have air, for even better sealing, wrap some duct tape around the hole and tubing, keep a bottle of prime or some kind of water treatment on hand since the fish waste will prolly build up from the stress, hope everything goes well, try to save as much tank water as possible for refilling the tank
 
LWB is on target. I have done a few moves that were an hour or so. I always used 5g buckets with a lid. Then I poked holes in the lid and I also bought a few battery powered air pumps. I know there was probably no need at all for the air pumps but it made me feel better. If you are careful I wouldn't worry to much. How long do you think fish are in transport on the way to the LFS? I agree 100% with LWB also about making the fish # 1 when you get there. My last move, I had my qt already running at my destination. Kepp your filter media wet as stated, however do not stress to much about the water. If you could save 50% that would be good, however if not just replicate the temp. closely between the buckets and the newly setup tank.
 
Big rubbermaid storage bins.
See this thread, http://www.oscarfish.com/oscar-travel-vt54913.html?highlight=rubbermaid
chilerelleno said:
Use rubbermaid storage tubs and keep'em covered to prevent jumping and reduce the amount off water sloshed over.
Buy a appropriately sized power inverter or two, use'em to power HOB filters, airstones and heaters* (*if needed).
Don't feed during the trip.

Like this, cut the cover to fit snugly around filters.
temptank04.jpg

Photo by T_Chelle16

Unless your using W/D, sump, plumbed tanks then you can hook up any canister/HOB to the tub and maintain your beneficial bacteria while providing circulation/filtration.
Covered tubs work better than tanks, styrofoam coolers and etc.
This is the way to travel.
 
hey Squirt0170, I moved a 120g tan from Grenbay Wisconson to AmarilloTexas just simple taking the filter and setting it in a 1/2 of water abovethe gravel. I took my fish and put them in bags like you get at petsmart or petco. Then took air pump from another tank and added air to it.Just Like I do with all the fish I ship. It's just like you where packaging your fish to ship them throw the mail. They cn live in a package going to washington and singapor for 4days then they can surely make it 3hrs.
Anybody that has shipped fish can tell you. They'll be fine in the bags. The one thing when shipping the Bala shark. add some stres coat to the bag. They don't ship very well if bumped around alot.{IMO} anyway I have shipped 200+ fish throw the mail this way and they've maded it just fine. DOA's 0 live aravily 200.
 
Thank you All So much!!!!! You have all been a HUGE help!! I will take this advice and get to moving the fish :) I'm glad to see many of you have done this and had success!

I guess my main worry was the temperature changing from point A to Point B.... but I'm going to take as much tank water as I can in the 5 gallon bucket suggestion with Air pumps..
 
As Zagz mentioned, I have moved my fish numerous times both long distance (many days) and short distances. The key is preparation and being able to go with the flow. When we moved back to the states from Calgary, the UHaul truck was unavailable and long story short, the fish ended up in their containers (larger fish in buckets, smaller fish in coolers) for 7+ days. Lots of water changes were done and we were lucky to keep at least 90% of them alive. It's so much easier moving in warm weather than cooler weather. For us, there was no chance of moving the tank water, so don't feel you have to load up the truck with a ton of 5 gallon buckets. The bacteria are all over the substrate and in the filter. You will be matching the water temp the fish are in on arrival. In our case, the tanks were set up at 72 degrees and brought up slowly over the next few days. 2 ½ hours will be no sweat! Good luck!
 
imrandome1 said:
yeah well, when i got my fish from a lfs that was 1-2 hours away they filled the bag with pure oxygen, yes pure, and all the fish did very well. and if your doing it your self, dont "mishandle" it ? and you will be fine?!?!?!

ok random, i dont remember all the properties and things of pure oxygen so i didnt say anything, but it is highly flammable, and i beleive if a human were to breath in 100% pure oxygen, your body couldnt handle it.

i know for some injured horses, they have been keeping them in chambers with 20% more oxygen as an experiment on healing time, im sure they didnt use 100% because of the reasons ive stated

maybe fish are different with because when they breath in oxygen and hydrogen together, and as long as breath in water they can breath in more than one oxygen at a time for every 2 hydrogen molecules

just a theory on why its ok for fish and not people...
 
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