I may be moving - how do I transport my fish?

[VulcanNinja]

This summer I may be moving back to Pittsburgh for 2 months - it is a 4 hour drive. So how am I supposed to transport my fish without stressing them to death? Can I lower the water level and pack it in so there is less movement??

 

[bigfish]

Best thing to do is bag the fish up & place in sterofoam box
Empty the aquarium fully
Transfer gravel to a big tupperware box and keep moist
Keep plants submerged in some water and u could bag them up too!!!

Make sure there is enough people to carry the tank and avoid bump so that you don't end up with stress cracks.

HTH

By the way how big is your tank?

 

[bigfish]

Oh most important don't stick the fish box anywhere near the heater otherwise they will get fried!!!

 

[teacherspet]

I had heard you should try to keep about half of the water in buckets, but haven't done it myself, so don't know, and 4 hours is a long drive!

 

[OohFeeshy]

As above I'd say. Bag 'em up, Umm... keep the filter media moist, look on the pinned thingy about shipping live fish, it tells you how to keep the bags still.

 

[the caretaker]

Trap as much air in the bags as you can they will need a fair bit of oxygen

 

[itZme]

When we recently had a power outage for about 4 days we had to move our smaller 5 gal tank. I bagged all the fish and then emptied out half the water then floated them in the remaining water. On the way home I didn't bother bagging them all up, just emptied half the water and it really sloshed around alot more with just a half-filled tank in the car. It seems as though the bags inside acted as baffles and greatly reduced movement. It also kept me from losing too much bacteria and recycling the tank.

 

[bluestem]

I've moved my 75g twice and can tell you what I did if it helps. You most definitely would not want to move your tank with gravel. I've been told that it's weight can more easily torque the tank causing breaks. Plus, it's too heavy to heft otherwise.

Bag up all the gravel you can. Mine's a planted tank with a soil substrate so I bagged up that separately too...you don't even want to know what odor this soil had!! Plants were bagged in with some water for moisture.

While tearing down and later setting up the tank, the fish stayed in a large plastic container (50 gallon), about 1/2 full and lined with a white garbage bag. (at the time I only had 5 gourmais, a few tetras, 2 african dwarf frogs and some kuhli loaches so the container seemed big enough) I added an airpump with an airstone to aerate the water and keep the fish more comfortable. Since it was only a 20 minute drive, I transported them in the container with the only real issue being to turn really slow and accelerate/stop smoothly. I would guess for your trip you might consider this if it's a long smooth interstate drive.

Bagging them would probably be best, maybe use the largest bags you can find and maximize the amount of air.

I hope this helps! Good luck!