Moving soon... need advice.

[Tayles]

Hi all. I've never moved with fish before, and I need to know what I need to do to move them to my new place without killing them. I don't know any details of where I'm going to be living (i.e. how close it is to where I am now), so I can't give specific answers. But any advice on how to move fish without stressing them, or losing the cycled-ness of the tanks would be appreciated. If I keep some water in the tank (can't be much or else won't be able to lift it and it would spill everywhere) would that help to keep the bacteria colony? would removing all the water kill the colony? One of our tanks is finally totally cycled and we don't want to screw with it. Any ideas appreciated. Thanks!

 

[BigCiX]

what im going to do when i move is take my other aquarium with a heater and filter, and set it up at the new house. If u have an extra one u can do that. Just don't forget to add some of the water from the tank before u leave.

 

[steve535]

when i moved, i used a garbage can with double plastic bags in it,saving about 3/4s of the water.after dumping the rest of the water the tank was easy to move. take out any stone that might move around.at the other end add the water(slowly!)add the fish then you can cycle the new water in.
i put my fish in plastic bags from the lfs. keeping enough air at the top. i also used a beer cooler to keep the temp. i didnt loose any fish(6 hours)just rember to put your heater in the water befor you plug it in. good luck steve

 

[tetra girl]

since your tanks are small and so shouldnt be too heavy, I would leave a little of the water in the bottom of the tank. Put the fish in plastic bags (make sure they are doubled up) and placing them in a chiller bin is a great idea as it keeps the temp and its nice and dark which will keep the fish's stress levels down. Take as much of the water as possible with you. BigCiX idea of setting up some of your tanks at the new place would be ideal but you might not have the option.

Make sure the first thing that you unpack and set up are the tanks. Get the heater in ASAP and then float the fish bags in the tank. If its a long trip then float them for about 1/2 to 1 hours to get the temp the same. Add the fish slowly and i would recommened using stresscoat to help clam them down.

I would leave the tank lights off for 24 hours as well as the dark will comfort the fish

Goodluck

 

[Tayles]

Thanks for all of the suggestions... I think we'll try to buy a styrofoam cooler to put the fish in, hopefully with the plastic bags and the darkness they won't get too stressed and go crazy. It won't be anything more than I wouldn't say a 40 minute or more move, still going to live in the same city, just have to move from this house. I probably won't have the option of taking a tank to the new place beforehand, but I'm sure that advice will help others that might be moving and have access to that kind of stuff. So thanks for that suggestion. I will be sure to unpack and set up the tanks asap. Thanks again, and if anyone else has any other suggestions I'd love to hear them as well, looking at all aspects of this! =)

 

[wayne at home]

When I moved, I bagged the fish and put them in fishboxes, except the big fish in a couple of buckets, put the filters in the same water, drained the tanks and then went like hell to the new place. Filled up with water from tap, dechlor, used cold water only but heated some in kettle and saucepans to get temp right.
As long as you're steadily quick and don't do anything obviously stupid this isn't too tricky. Moving the substrte , plants and decs is probably the biggest pain.

 

[Tayles]

Well.. went to the lfs and others around here... and asked advice or to get bags, the guy said to just get ziplock bags with zippers, as their bags aren't very good for long transports (Even though I told him I wouldn't be moving too far this is what he said)... and we picked up a cooler to move them in so they don't get stressed. We lost our flounder and our apple snail the other night. Not really sure what happened, just up and died. I suppose that's how it is when you keep fish. Thanks for all the advice!