Moving house with fish?

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R

rumblesushi

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 18, 2005
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ENGLAND
Me and muh woman are probably gonna move within the next couple of months, either somewhere else in England, or somewhere in Europe.

I've never had to move house with fish before. I got a couple of sponge filters which are maturing in my tanks now, and I plan to buy a couple of battery air pumps, and put the fish in lidded buckets with the sponge filters.

Now for all those who have moved house with fish, or even better moved country with fish, could you share your experiences?

It would be appreciated for the people who haven't to learn the do's and don'ts :D

Cheers,
JR
 
I just got done moving my tanks a few days ago.

I put them in rubbermaid tubs and taped the lids up. I only went about 20 miles though.

The only casualty was one of my electric blues. I let my boyfriend set up that filter and he left the bowl he used for priming on the net I use to keep anyone from jumping and sunk it.
 
I have a 55 gal that I just moved from Michigan to Ohio which is about a 5 hr drive, plus taking the tank down and setting it back up, the fish were probably in a bucket for about 7 or 8 hrs. I just put them in a 5 gal bucket with a watertight lid that snaps on the top. I didn't do anything special, just put the fish in the bucket and none of them died. I'm kinda new to this so I don't know if it made a difference, but I put the filter elements in the bucket with the fish to keep the bacteria on the filter. (can someone tell me if this was beneficial)
 
I helped my friend when moved. we moved all his African cichlids (10-15 total) in five 5 gal buckets an had another 5 to get alotve the water to. Gravel we just left in the tank, an just put it all in his truck. went to his new house like 50 miles away, an set it all back up.
 
My husband and I are pros at this. In the last three years we've moved 30 tanks 3 times.

For the large fish (12-15"+) net them with a pillow case and put them into a large cooler with their aquarium water about half full. Keeps them very safe and at temperature for a long time.

For the smaller fish, buckets work fine, again half full of water. Just make sure the lids don't come off.

Also put all of your substrate into buckets and keep it moist. This will ensure that you don't lose your bacteria culture. Put your filter pads, bio wheels, etc. into zip lock bags with a little of their aquarium water to keep those moist.

Don't mix water and/or media from different tanks together!

I don't like to put battery pumps and air stones in the containers while moving. The agitation of traveling keeps the oxygen exchange going between the air in the container and the water. The air stone only serves to agitate the fish (too small of a container) and to stir up waste and debry which fouls the water and stresses the fish.

I add AmQuel to their containers when we arrive at our destination to take care of ammonia build up that occured while traveling. While you are setting up the aquariums in their new locations, either keep the fish where they were when they were traveling (in the bed of the truck for example) or move them into the room where their new tank will be so you minimize movment.

This all assumes that you will be moving your fish and setting them up in their new location within a 10 hour period. This is what I recommend. You want to get the fish back into their normal environment as soon as possible to minimize stress. If the move will take longer that 10 hours but less than 24, I would suggest oxygen tablets in with the fish.

Also, avoid feeding for at least 2 days before a move, and wait at least a day after the move before resuming normal feeding.

Hope this helps!
 
I just moved 1800 miles from Utah to Ohio less than a month ago. I used 15 gallon coolers for all of my smaller tanks (up to 40 gallons), and for the larger tanks and fish I used 60 gallon coolers, but for my big pacu I had to use a heavy-duty plastic "truck box". If you have to use a truck box, be totally sure to sand off anything sticking into the middle of the container, or there's a good chance that it'll in effect beat the fish inside to death with the rocking of the car. During the day (and during transit), I had a battery powered airpump on the top of each of the coolers, simply becauseI was worried about the fish running out of air before the nightly stops (I was driving around 10 hours per day). When I stopped off at hotels I moved all of the fish inside the hotel room, and hooked up small in-tank filters and heaters to all of the coolers/truckbox. Try to do water changes every other night if you're moving as far as I did, or you'll end up with horrible water quality and dead fish. If I missed anything, let me know and I'll add it on.
 
you guys are really pros in moving. :WHOA:

my take in this.....if you're not that attaced to your fish, best option is to sell them off and buy again after your shift.

you get to....

1. recover some cash for newer tanks and filters.
2. get things rite this time? i.e. upgrade to larger tanks or get that filter you've always wanted.
3. buy new and more intresting fish.
4. don't need to worry about fish dying while transporting them
5. last but not least.....focus more in shifting your family rather then worry about fish.

but then again the above are for people who aren't that emotionally attached to their fish.

for me.......i choose to transport my fish to my new place (took me two trips totaling 8 hours for the transfer) and i hope i will never do this again. :headbang2
 
xrtg - 3 of my fish I really need to keep, because I've recently got back into fishkeeping, and they are fish I've wanted since I was a kid. My albino channa and my wolf. They are both juveniles - and in this country they were not easy to find, I had to drive for miles to get them. I've also put a lot of effort into pumping them up and making them healthy. And the jardini I'm picking up on saturday. I've always wanted an aro and this is a nice one.

Thanks for the info everyone, it's helpful.

rfwombat - it's true that the actual travelling with agitate/oxygenate the water, but instead of letting ammonia build up then removing it, I thought I would be best of using matured sponge filters instead connected to a battery airpump. Then when I get to my destination I can leave the fish in the bucket with the sponge filters while I setup the tanks :)

btw - how long can bacteria in filters and substrate live just with moisture? Without the filters being on? Do you have an idea? :)
 
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