Bought a House - Need to Move My Fish!

[BigJim]

After a long, drawn-out battle, my wife and I have purchased a house. Now I need to start thinking about how I'm going to move my fish. At the moment, the plans are to rent our apartment through the end of May, fix up the house a bit, and move over gradually. Here's my thought process so far:

My wife's 5g hex: I'm really figuring on just taking a gallon or two of water out of the tank and just move the whole tank, fish and all, as one unit. That's how the tank came to the apartment and it worked well.

My 29g and 20L: I've thought about dropping the water levels significantly and trying to move the tanks with the fish still inside. I've done this before, but never with tanks as heavily stocked as mine are now and never from a third floor apartment. I'm also afraid that if I drop the water levels too much, the fish will lose all swimming room and get stuck in the plants.

What's the best way to transport the fish? I've thought about those plastic shoeboxes, but I think those are just asking for a spill. I suppose a 5g bucket would work too. I'm kind of leaning towards using a couple of coolers. My fish are all rather small, but I'd like to separate certain groups out. I'd rather keep my pictus and my raphael apart. They're not exactly friends. Ideas? Opinions? Thanks.

 

[HUKIT]

I moved a little over 10 miles away and used tall rubbermaid containers to transport the fish. I emptied the substrate into a rubbermaid container with tank water to keep everything wet during re-assembly.

 

[HeathB]

I think the 5 gallon would be fine cause you or the wife could hold onto that on the way, but I'd be worried about any bumps in the road with the larger tanks, or like you said fish getting stuck.

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

Congrats on the house!!!

There are a few avenues you can go, you can do it the way you said by emptying out the tank a bit and moving it, ive done this and havent had any problems but i will say it can stress out the glass and seal so beware there.

you can go with a large rubbermaid tub and do it that way with the fish and some water and leave the decor in the tank (assuming itll stay wet for most of the transport time.

Finally, my preferred way, buy a few 2 dollar 5 gal buckets and put some water in there the fish and a little piece of decor and transport them that way. It all kind of depends on how long of a transport it will be too..keep us posted!!!

 

[Andrewz00]

i know i moved a 45gal from Philadelphia to NYC...... all it took was a few 5 gallon buckets WITH covers....

literally, put all the fish into 2 buckets each with some gravel and decor... put remaining gravel into another 2 buckets covered with water.... dumped the remaining 40 gallons of water... moved the tank and set it all back up...

not a problem at all...

 

[WhiteDevil]

5g buckets or coolers are the best bet.

Congrats on the new house!

We moved a few tanks from san diego to chicago, fish were in coolers with bubble boxes, they did fine, a little stressed but who wasnt that trip lol.

 

[aveldina]

We moved my 36G mid winter about -12C outside. We put all the plants and fish into a tall rubbermaid container and used a couple of big water jugs to move about half the water. Drained the tank and tossed at least half the gravel in buckets, loaded it all into a preheated SUV and off we went. Set it all back up at the other end and all went well.
I'd use this method again. I definitely would not have moved mine with water in it, it was heavy enough to carry empty!

 

[TCool]

I used a cooler for my fish for my 160 mile move. The cooler was nice because mine is one with the handle that lifts out the back, and has wheels on the bottom. So, I was able to give them quite a bit of water without having to do too much heavy lifting.

 

[BigJim]

Thanks everyone! I think I'm going to borrow a second cooler and do it that way. We're only moving ten minutes away, so it's not a huge ordeal.

New house, lots of new real estate for tanks, wife that doesn't keep my fish habits in line....this could be trouble.

 

[meegosh]

So where's the fish room going to be? Haha, we can all dream... until our better halves snap us back into reality.

 

[BigJim]

I've actually got a couple of options, but I don't think I'll have a dedicated fish room. I've got aspirations to put the big tank I have in storage in the living room. Other than that, there will probably be tanks spread around the house. My wife wants to breed different guppies, so I have the go-ahead for several tanks if she gets a couple.

 

[WhiteDevil]

OH **** NO, dont let the wife do guppies, learn from my mistake please .


LOL, want to swing up sometime and check out my stock, got a bunch of different looking gups here....please......

 

[BigJim]

We've already started down that road. I bought her two pairs of blue metallics just before Christmas and they've multiplied to somewhere in the 50-100 range. That's even with me selling some off. Worst of all, there's a recessive red gene. I've got 4-5 males that are blue with bright red tails. Sara, my wife, thinks it would be fun to pursue that strain.

I might have to take you up on the offer for the guppies.

 

[mgamer20o0]

just empty the tanks before you move you dont have too much trouble. i would test the water to make sure the water is the same. should be who knows.....

 

[BigJim]

I'll be sure to check the new water. It'd be unusual to find any real differences. Here in Chicagoland, Chicago gets water out of Lake Michigan and sells it to neighboring suburbs who sell it to other suburbs.