Well, here's my story.
I moved. It was a very unexpected move, so I never had much time to prepare the fish for this. I was worried sick how I would get the fish home, without having really stressed fish and deaths.
Well, my move was 3 hours away, but that was driving. I would have had to take down my fishtank prior to that of course. Ideally, the fish should have been bagged at most for 5 hours. Wishful thinking.
Here's how it all went down. We planned to fill our UHaul in the order it would need to be unloaded. Of course, I would be the last off, and first in. So my tank had to be taken down about 4 hours prior to leaving. I bagged up all of my fish, about 4 per bag, added a tad of AquaPlus and hoped for the best.
So now we're up to a 7 hour journey, not including refilling the tank at the new location. We get everything loaded on the truck, two hours later than we thought.
Now we're at 9 hours. We started on our trip home. We hit a bad patch of traffic en route to the first place we were to go and ended up adding another two hours to the trip thus far.
We dropped her off and headed on our way again. So far, the fish had been doing fine, while I was panicking. When I worked in the LFS I always suggested to customers not to keep fish bagged longer 3 hours. I've already broken my own rule.
Two more hours down the road (13 hours the fish have been bagged) we realize, our 1978 GMC High Sierra UHaul was running out of gas. ... A huge problem because neither of us had any cash....
We pulled over where we could and managed a phone call to a friend who was to meet us where we were. He arrived two hours later. Up to 15 hours the fish have been bagged now. He arrives and lent us some cash for gas so we could make it home, which was still another hours drive.
The other guy who was driving with me decided to go back with his friend who had came up, and we were going to deal with unloading things the next morning. I was to take the truck to my place where I could deal with my fish and finally go to bed.
At midnight on the button my UHaul runs out of gas again... (upon inspection the next day, we found out the gas tank was leaking. Oh yeah.) So I run out of gas on a deserted road, miles into the woods about 45 minutes from my destination. I hadn't seen a car for miles because it was a "short cut" through some back country.
So here I am... midnight, in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, alone... and with about $200 worth of fish bagged next to me...
Fantastic. Nothing else I could do but try and get some sleep and hope for a car in the morning.
THe next morning I wake up to someone knocking on the window... They saw me sitting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and wanted to see if I needed help. Hah... I used his cell phone and called a friend and had him meet me with some gas so I could get home.
By the time I got home, and my fish were put into their tank... they had been bagged for an extraordinary 27 hours.
All of them survived and have brightened up dramatically, to my suprise.
Sorry this is so long but I needed to vent, and to praise my fish for being so strong to have made it all that way.
Whew.
I moved. It was a very unexpected move, so I never had much time to prepare the fish for this. I was worried sick how I would get the fish home, without having really stressed fish and deaths.
Well, my move was 3 hours away, but that was driving. I would have had to take down my fishtank prior to that of course. Ideally, the fish should have been bagged at most for 5 hours. Wishful thinking.
Here's how it all went down. We planned to fill our UHaul in the order it would need to be unloaded. Of course, I would be the last off, and first in. So my tank had to be taken down about 4 hours prior to leaving. I bagged up all of my fish, about 4 per bag, added a tad of AquaPlus and hoped for the best.
So now we're up to a 7 hour journey, not including refilling the tank at the new location. We get everything loaded on the truck, two hours later than we thought.
Now we're at 9 hours. We started on our trip home. We hit a bad patch of traffic en route to the first place we were to go and ended up adding another two hours to the trip thus far.
We dropped her off and headed on our way again. So far, the fish had been doing fine, while I was panicking. When I worked in the LFS I always suggested to customers not to keep fish bagged longer 3 hours. I've already broken my own rule.
Two more hours down the road (13 hours the fish have been bagged) we realize, our 1978 GMC High Sierra UHaul was running out of gas. ... A huge problem because neither of us had any cash....
We pulled over where we could and managed a phone call to a friend who was to meet us where we were. He arrived two hours later. Up to 15 hours the fish have been bagged now. He arrives and lent us some cash for gas so we could make it home, which was still another hours drive.
The other guy who was driving with me decided to go back with his friend who had came up, and we were going to deal with unloading things the next morning. I was to take the truck to my place where I could deal with my fish and finally go to bed.
At midnight on the button my UHaul runs out of gas again... (upon inspection the next day, we found out the gas tank was leaking. Oh yeah.) So I run out of gas on a deserted road, miles into the woods about 45 minutes from my destination. I hadn't seen a car for miles because it was a "short cut" through some back country.
So here I am... midnight, in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, alone... and with about $200 worth of fish bagged next to me...
Fantastic. Nothing else I could do but try and get some sleep and hope for a car in the morning.
THe next morning I wake up to someone knocking on the window... They saw me sitting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and wanted to see if I needed help. Hah... I used his cell phone and called a friend and had him meet me with some gas so I could get home.
By the time I got home, and my fish were put into their tank... they had been bagged for an extraordinary 27 hours.
All of them survived and have brightened up dramatically, to my suprise.
Sorry this is so long but I needed to vent, and to praise my fish for being so strong to have made it all that way.
Whew.
When I went in to see if they would eat anything, they scattered and wouldn't go for the food until I stepped back.
