Transporting 2 freshwater sharks

[kvulcan]

Hi everyone,
Im new here, great site and lots of information. I have a question though. I have just bought my brothers old tank...180 gallon Oceanic.... from him. The problem is that he lives in SouthCentral Missouri and I live in the Chicago area. We are anput 8-9 hrs away. He has 2 fairly large freshwater sharks in the tank that I would like to bring with me but I am not sure how to transport them safely. The sharks are both at least 10" long and about 4-5 inches high with their fin. Does anyone know how to transport these safely for that long? any help will be appreciated.
Dan
kvulcan@Yahoo.com

 

[FroggyFox]

wow thats a tough one. They won't eat during the trip, you need to make sure they have plenty of oxygen and don't get overheated. Putting a heavy dose of stress coat into the water wouldn't hurt either. If you could find a watertight cooler that might work? They don't need much room...just enough to be somewhat comfortable...finding something big enough is going to be the key.

I was going to suggest just leaving some water in the tank and leaving them in the tank if that is possible for the trip...but thats a lot of water, I think it would be better to find something smaller to put them in.

 

[lizwinz]

yeah you want to avoid moving at tank that large with water and substrate in it if you can...that could stress the joints

i would go out and buy a big rubbermaid container/ cooler (something that will have another use after you move the fish)

get a battery powered airpump (also probably be useful in the future) to keep an airstone going in the container during the trip

like froggy said add extra stress coat and dont feed them for a day before the trip

keep the container out of the sun, maybe put a towel over it, and make sure not to seal the container you want to leave it a little open for co2 to escape

congrats on the new tank btw

--liz

 

[kvulcan]

Thanks for all the great info. I have already thought of the air pump so I picked up one of those. Also by calling the LFS I was able to get 2 of their shipping boxes for FREE. They have a cardboard outside with a styrafoam inside. They should work nicely. Does anyone have any seriou doubts that the fish will make it? If I dont think they will survive I would rather bring them to the LFS than kill them. Any other thing I should know about? I am fairly new to the fish world, I've had tanks before but none this large.

 

[AmazonTankz]

I think with the proper care and preporation the sharks will be able to wether the trip. You sound like you have a pretty good setup, I would also keep a threm. in the container and check thet temp form time to time unless you are going to close the boxes up all the way. I have heard of watching the temp and making sure it does not drop, since there will be no heater. I don't think over heating will be problem unless they are going to ride in a place that is not temp. controled. I would deffenity keep them in the cab, or back seat of whatever vehical you will be driving. The Air pump will be a huge advantage.
So overall, I would say go for it! You have a pretty good chance that they will make it through...

 

[SoulFish]

just use the shipping boxes and maybe a 1/2 bag for each, double bag, fill with pure oxygen, add some amquel or stresscoat, and youll be more then fine

1/2 bag is a bag the size of half a standard shipping box, see if you can get these or full bags from the LFS you got the boxes