Moving shrimp tank

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mpulido0316

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Feb 17, 2015
Messages
66
Location
Denton and Houston, Texas
Hey guys, I just had a quick question about my shrimp tank. I'm moving in a couple of days and need to take my 5 gallon shrimp tank with me. What would be the best way to move them? I only have 3 RCS adults and 3 babies as far as I can tell. Should I put them in a Tupperware bowl? Or the bucket I use for PWC? The trip will be like four hours long, so any help would be great. Thanks guys!

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Plastic bags in a cooler would work. You could empty out all the water and plants into mason jars or into a bucket. Then you could take the tank with hardscape and just put that in the car. It should be fine.
 
I can't believe how similar your question is to a recent situation of mine. I JUST moved a 5.5 gallon TopFin aquarium with 50+ RCS and I want to make sure you don't make some of the mistakes that I made.

I emptied about 80% of the water, removed all ornaments, taped the top, left some plants to cling to, and then drove it to my new place. They did fine in the move, but I was concerned that they didn't have water to keep the filter running, so I had to add water from the new place. I then added water from my new place slowly to that tank and nearly all 50 of them died in the next week or two.

If I had to do it again, I'd keep that aquarium water in jugs and refill the tank back up, then slowly use the water in your new place to slowly acclimate them to your new water over a long period of time. Even if you're moving in the same city, the water supply may be drastically different. In my case, the water was hugely different and I shocked them bad. You might also want to check the tap water at your new place to be sure it's something RCS can survive in.

Since you're moving 4 hours away, I'm guessing you're driving. I drove my tank about 25 miles with the 5.5 gallon aquarium on the floor on the passenger's side, with a pillow stuffed in there to hold it in place. If you tape it with duct tape, the water won't splash out during the drive.
 
Wow. That was a lot of shrimp. I didn't know you could keep so many in a five gallon. I definitely appreciate the information! I didn't even think about acclimating them to the new water. I was planning on emptying half of the water into a bucket, leaving the other half in the aquarium (I have babies and was scared I wouldn't be able to get them all), and putting whoever I could into a tupperware container with some plants in a paper bag to keep them from freaking out. Would seran wrapping the top work too? I'm moving them in a couple hours so I'm trying to figure everything out lol.

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And thank you again so much for the help Kazin! That gave me a lot of good information that I didn't think of. :)

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Glad to help! I wanted to move them to Tupperware at first, but there were too many esp with the babies. Saran Wrap might do the job too, but I used duct tape. Had plenty of it since I was moving an taping boxes. Please keep that aquarium water! They dont mind moving as much as the shocking big water change, at least in my experience.
 
I'm in the process of the move now. they seem to be doing ok. I kept as much of the water I could by splitting the 5gal into two containers. The shrimp seem to have lost their color but are still alive. They've been in there for about five hours already... I still have four more to go.. here's to hoping everything turns out ok. I'm really glad I got the help I needed from you guys.

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Let us know how it goes. It's perfectly normal for them to lose color in transit, even if they're completely healthy. They'll color back up in a few days when you're moved in.
 
So it's been 2 1/2 days since the move. I ended up splitting up the tank water between the tank and a bucket. So I ended up leaving the tank half full (just in case I missed some baby shrimps). There ended up being one in there so I have eight now. Really glad I left it half full. They're all doing really well, the babies are growing, and the adults seem happy. Everything seems great! They're happy and I'm happy! It's great. :)

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Seems similar to what I did for a recent rescaping.

Took out half the water, rocks, then plants, then netted all I could. Everything went into a bucket.

After rescaping, I could see babies that I had missed. After everything was back in, I don't think I lost any. Hard to tell with the babies though.

Difference is I didn't move distance, just rescaping... so my water source was the same as before.
 
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