Moving, with fish?

TalenT · Post by **TalenT** » 14 Aug 2006, 21:23

I'm going to move to another city, in the other end of the country, about 1300km (i think).

The dream situation would be to be able to bring some of my favourite cats with me. At the moment that would be some Synos.

If it at all is possible this is my thoughts of how to do it:

Not feed the fish the last days (to minimize ammount of waste in the transportation water).

Pack each fish individually in big thick plastic bags, with about 30%water (of 50%tank water 50%tap) and 70% oxygen from a tube.

Put bags in a Styrofoam box, for temperature isolation.

At arrival, since it is (in this case) impossible to have a cycled tank ready for them... do a fast startup of a "basic" tank: only water, heater and filtration, and do daily waterchanges combined with use of biostarter and waterconditioner plus minimal feeding.

* alternative transportation: put them in buckets and do waterchanges (pre-conditioned water) a couple of times along the trip, maybe add biostarter too?

What do you think? Any ideas? Should i forget the whole thing?

Anyone tried this before?

The whole trip would take about 48hours.

(And please don't tell me to forget about it, thinking I'm a n00b...

I've been in the hobby for about 25years, and worked in an LFS for the last three years, just never tried this kinda thing.)

Fish Soup · Post by **Fish Soup** » 14 Aug 2006, 22:02

I would also bag up the bio media from your current setup and handle it as if it was a fish. Or add a sponge filter now to get it "seeded", then bag it up for the trip. You should still have a good amount of bacteria alive if the trip is only 48 hours.

Don

characinkid · Post by **characinkid** » 14 Aug 2006, 22:07

You can absolutely take your fish with you...

I have moved a couple of times in the last 10 years and taken all my fish with me. I have tried both techniques, each fish in a bag and also putting fish in large containers and they both worked fine.

I found that filling large poly boxes with tank water and then adding a few fish worked really well. I did invest in a battery airpump that kept the water moving in the boxes which worked well.

I took as much water with me as possible, but one of the important things was to take the filter media in tank water so that the cycling happened really quickly once the tank was setup again. In this way the media never dries out and should be fine.

Do not feed the fish for 3-4 days before the move, or a couple of days after....

Good luck.....

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 15 Aug 2006, 11:23

You can probably move some of your water as well, if you have a battery-operated air-pump [it'll obviously go stagnant if you don't].

I've moved my tanks once in the past year, and I'll do it again soon [actually moved one tank already]. The process I use is to fill big plastic dustbins [1] with as much water as they will hold safely, and bring that along with the tank, gravel and filter(s).

Of course, I'm only moving a short distance... This time it's walking distance if it wasn't for the fact of carrying hundreds of kilos of goods would be a pain in the butt...

But I think the same method would work for a longer distance, for sure.

One thing to consider: Could you do a short move of your fish to the LFS (or some friends house) and then rent a van to take the fish/water with you on a separate trip once you've established yourself in the new place?

[1] biggest cheap water-tight container I could find - takes 90 liters to the top, but aren't possible to carry and not sturdy enough to work well filled to the top...

--
Mats

TalenT · Post by **TalenT** » 15 Aug 2006, 19:47

MatsP - No, unfortunately I cannot afford an extra trip, just to get the fish... That would probably have been the best soloution.

Regarding moving tankwater and filtermedia... wouldn't the benificial bacteria in both water and filtermedia die rather soon due to lack of oxygen (at least in the filtermedia)?

I've heard that most of the bacteria in filtermedia will die within an hour if they are derrived of oxygen... For example during a power failure to the filter-pump.

Now I can see that this is not exactly the same situation but still.

Fish Soup · Post by **Fish Soup** » 15 Aug 2006, 23:05

I'm sure that if the packing method you use provides enough O2 for the fish it will do the same for the bacteria. Sealed in a bag with a shot of pure O2 or an open bucket with an airstone. Both will work. In fact if use use a bucket you can throw the bio media in with the fish. I wouldn't do that in a sealed bag though.

A little side note. In real life I'm the Branch Manager for a rather large moving company. I get questions like this all the time. We won't take the fish, (no pets in truck rule) but we will take as much water, gravel ect as you want. But be careful. Our long distance moves are billed by the pound. Local moves are billed by the hour so it's not as expensive to move if you have it ready to go and at ground level. Of course if you're moving into a 3rd floor apt, rent a good pump!

Don

snowball · Post by **snowball** » 16 Aug 2006, 14:13

I would bag up the filter media as per the fish, but not too much water - just enough to keep it moist. I think it should last at least 48 hours in a big enough bag with oxygen, keep it dark too.
It would also be a good idea to clean the filter before the move so they don't get too dirty before you have to pull them apart again. Do that a few days beforehand so the bacteria has time to fully re-colonize the filter media.

I'm sure with some good sence and planning you won't have any trouble, good luck with the move.

TalenT · Post by **TalenT** » 19 Aug 2006, 12:15

Thanks for your advice.

Emptied the tank yesterday, the fish are now in large plastic containers with heaters and filtration running.

Now to the next problem, I was planning on bringing some Polypterus sp. "Bichirs" too. They will probably start chewing on each other when I stop feeding them

... Haven't got the space to keep them individually either, though I have separated the small ones from the larger ones.

Fish Soup · Post by **Fish Soup** » 19 Aug 2006, 16:20

Drive fast!

Or else

TalenT · Post by **TalenT** » 21 Aug 2006, 19:29

The synos (decorus) weren't happy in the containers. Although the containers were made of very dark blue plastic, with dark blue lids, they went totally nuts all the time, banging into the walls etc. I had some very delicate juvenile Polypterus sp. (ca 5cm TL, with external gills) in the same container and I watched the panic-struck synos collide violently with them again and again... So... Had to leave the synos at work... Figured, if they were so stressed out from being in stationary plastic containers, they were going to be stressed to death (or stressing the juvenile Polypterus to death) during the 48hour trip.

I have no doubt that the bichirs are going to survive the trip though, especially the larger ones... (From what I've heard I could as well wrap them in wet moss or something and they would have been ok.

)