Transporting Large Fish for Move?
- Thread starter RandomWiktor
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i would fast 3 days prior to the move and do several (small) water changesin those 3 days/ one thing i wish i had done was leave my water condition out when i moved because i got stuck half way through and spent the night at a hotel and couldnt do a w/c without condition.
Get a bottle of bag buddies tabs. its a fish sedative. 1 tablet per gallon. U can order them from amazon.com and will have them in a couple days. I travel alot and these r safe and very effective. Good luck and let me know if it helps.
All of these are excellent ideas. I bagged all of my large fish and put them in those "live fish boxes" that the fish are delivered to the stores in. Albeit they are sedated, they travel like this from the phillipines to the US. Getting bags this big should be no problem. I went to the LFS and told them about my move, and they were more than happy to ablidge me with some bags and rubberbands as well as the boxes. I fasted my fish for 4 days before the move (most are 10"+ so they could handle more days.) I did a water change a day before the move and bagged them in tank water. If it is a significant move you can also plan to hit up some LFS's on the way that can refill the bags with oxygen. I also used PRIME in each of the bags, it doesn't remove ammonia, but it detoxifies it. I also transported 40% of my old tank water so I could establish my tank in one day. Also don't dump the bag water in the tank as it will be less than beneficial to cycling the new tank. That the jist of what I did I you have anymore questions feel free to ask.
I would have to strongly disagree that "buckets" are the best way to transport large fish. First of all, my 24" royal clown knife would have a hell of a time fitting in a bucket that has a diameter of 11" at it's widest point.
Second of all, the surface area of a bucket doesn't alow for adequate gas exchange with a surface area of only about 95 square inches, whereas an ice chest offers a surface area of around 288 square inches if the ice chest was 2ft x 1ft. Like I said before, fish are shipped internationally in bags and boxes. When was the last time you saw one delivered to a LFS in a five gallon bucket? Ice chests are a great way to go, and so are rubberbands totes are great to if ambient temperature will allow their use, but the downside to transporting them in these is that water will inevitably slosh around and get whatever vehicle you are moving them into get wet. When I bagged and moved my fish, I got the opportunity to put them in the cab of my truck and reap the benefits of having a climate controlled cabin to house them.
Second of all, the surface area of a bucket doesn't alow for adequate gas exchange with a surface area of only about 95 square inches, whereas an ice chest offers a surface area of around 288 square inches if the ice chest was 2ft x 1ft. Like I said before, fish are shipped internationally in bags and boxes. When was the last time you saw one delivered to a LFS in a five gallon bucket? Ice chests are a great way to go, and so are rubberbands totes are great to if ambient temperature will allow their use, but the downside to transporting them in these is that water will inevitably slosh around and get whatever vehicle you are moving them into get wet. When I bagged and moved my fish, I got the opportunity to put them in the cab of my truck and reap the benefits of having a climate controlled cabin to house them.
I've done big moves with big fish. I have moved 6,000 miles total in 10 years. You can do all this crap like I did the first time, because it works fine, it just costs more. Buckets with lids and airstone is all you need. You don't need to starve your fish unless you suck at driving and can't go the whole way without sleeping.
@ expensiveaddiction Fish don't get shipped in buckets because they don't stack efficiently in a box (truck, sea container). It is a wasted space issue, otherwise it is a perfect way to do it. Buckets seal with fresh lids.
Tanks of Steel;4412078; said:@ expensiveaddiction Fish don't get shipped in buckets because they don't stack efficiently in a box (truck, sea container). It is a wasted space issue, otherwise it is a perfect way to do it. Buckets seal with fresh lids.
I guess I will iterate my point since we are on the topic of transporting LARGE fish and buckets. I have had plenty of fish that WILL NOT FIT in buckets. Bags are entirely sealed so you can stop at your LFS before the move and have them pump pure oxygen in there. Being that bags are completely sealed you can maintain high levels of dissolved oxygen, more so than you can with an air stone, and placing those sealed bags in an insulated box only furthers the stability of water parameters. And speaking of stacking and transporting, wouldn't it be better to use transporting containers that stack better? Afterall we don't have the room that cargo ships do right? Let's say conservatively that many people on MFK have more than 5-10 large fish, that's a minimum of 5-10 buckets. I dont think that will fit in the backseat. However you can stack bags inside of a box and cut it down to 2-4 boxes with the same amount of fish. I'm not saying my way is the only way, but saying my way isn't the right way or a right way doesn't make much sense being that it is used the world over.
