Moving Fish!

[JamesP]

OK, can somebody please advise on what I should do...

I own a 125 litre tank that has about 20 fish (mainly platies, corys and tetras). I have 2 problems, firstly i am moving house soon and really dont know how i'm going to move all of the fish without causing them stress. Do you think it will be possible to empty half of the tank's water and then transport it somehow on some kind of trolley?!?!? Also, over the last few days we have now discovered that we have approx 15 baby Platy fish about 1-2mm long.. If I have to take the fish out of the tank during the removal am I realistically going to be able to capture these baby Platies?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated....

 

[Gooner]

JamesP,
I am going to have the same problem in a couple of months time so I will be watching and taking notes.
Not much help I know, but how far do you have to move, is it metres or miles. If it`s miles I think a trolley might be out of the question unless you are feeling

 

[JamesP]

JamesP,
I am going to have the same problem in a couple of months time so I will be watching and taking notes.
Not much help I know, but how far do you have to move, is it metres or miles. If it`s miles I think a trolley might be out of the question unless you are feeling

Will be moving about 3 miles. Was thinking about using a trolley to get it onto the back of a van. Then literally sitting in the back of the van holding onto it for grim death making sure it didnt rattle about. Also getting the driver to go no faster than 30 mph! Do you think this is possible?!

 

[catxx]

i think you will need to remove the fish, otherwise they're going to be sloshing around all over and, god forbid, the tank gets a crack during transport you'll risk losing the fish as well as the tank. get practising netting your fish!

the fish tank needs to be the last thing you move out and the first thing you set up at the other end.

i transported, admittedly only 3 bettas at the time, in their own fishbags then wrapped in newspaper and then inside a kritter keeper to keep them stable and warm and not to get squidged.
i put some of the water from each tank into a bucket with clingfilm over the top to stop splooshing, and the filter media in this to keep them wet, and any plants. empty the rest of the water down the drain, i had smaller tanks so i kept the gravel and 2cm of water inside the tank.

then put it all back together at the other end, no casualties!

be VERY careful lifting your tank! wrap it in anything you can! bubble wrap, towels everything haha.

 

[Gooner]

Not sure that is such a good idea.
I have been thinking about the move for a couple of weeks and thought about bagging the fish like you do when you get them from the Lfs. They should help and let you have some bags. Then emptying at least half if not all of the water into buckets and re-using the same water at the other end, that way the tank should be fairly light. Put the filter/filters in the bucket of tank water. Transport and set the tank up first, put the filter/filters back in and add the water from the buckets into the tank, switch on the heater and get to the desired temp and then add then acclimatise the fish and release.

This all sounds so simple but I expect it is tricky to put it into practise.
I have read a post somewhere on this forum how to move succesfully but cant remember where it was.

Maybe wait for someone who has managed a move succesfully to reply.

When are you moving, is it days, weeks, months......................

Sorry catxx, not aimed at you, I was typing at the same time just a little slower

 

[JamesP]

Not sure that is such a good idea.
I have been thinking about the move for a couple of weeks and thought about bagging the fish like you do when you get them from the Lfs. They should help and let you have some bags. Then emptying at least half if not all of the water into buckets and re-using the same water at the other end, that way the tank should be fairly light. Put the filter/filters in the bucket of tank water. Transport and set the tank up first, put the filter/filters back in and add the water from the buckets into the tank, switch on the heater and get to the desired temp and then add then acclimatise the fish and release.

This all sounds so simple but I expect it is tricky to put it into practise.
I have read a post somewhere on this forum how to move succesfully but cant remember where it was.

Maybe wait for someone who has managed a move succesfully to reply.

When are you moving, is it days, weeks, months......................

Sorry catxx, not aimed at you, I was typing at the same time just a little slower

Moving in a couple of weeks..what shall i do about the 15 baby fish. Not sure how i'm going to catch them!

 

[wayne1983]

this is why im thinking of waiting till i move as i wouldnt want to harm the fish during moving

 

[diet]

eeekkk im moving in 8 months time and have to travel 6 hours up the motorway to get there.


I was thinking of transporting the fish in a polestirine (sorry bad spelling) box rigging up a heater to either a car battery or a converter which plugs in the cig lighter and really hoping for the best. i know some internet companies deliver fish via courier etc so i wanna trya nd find out how they do it and try and adapt.


Dan

Good luck with the move and let us know how it goes so i can adapt anything u do!!

 

[OohFeeshy]

To catch the fry, lowerr the water level to an inch or two. That should make catching all the fish easy.

 

[AHDOnline]

I just moved two 55 gallon setups 30 miles. 1 saltwater setup with live rock, 2 fish & 1 freshwater with 15 fish and live plants
I borrowed several 10 gallon buckets from my LFS, bought two rubbermaid storage containers, a round rubbermaid toy bin and a 32Roll pack of paper towel, duct tape, small plastic roll

The toy bin was used to put the live fish buckets in to catch any water jumping out so not to get it all over the van. It looks more like a base for a large plant.

Before i started i fed the fish to ease some stress

I first i filled one rubbermaid half way with the water from the saltwater and filled them with the rock. then put more of the water in a bucket with the fish and 1 rock. The rock is not a good idea but this one was just big enough not to slosh around and hurt anyone. I then took a piece of plastic cut it to overhang about 3" over the top of the bucket and duct taped it around. This was so i could still see the fish and minimize spills.

I then put the freshwater in the buckets just over half way so that I could up the rest of the plants in one, and one plant and fish in the other.

I then proceeded to fill the other buckets I had with the rock from the fresh and sealed it.

I took the filters out and floated them in the planted bucket so they wouldnt lose any appeal and proceeded to empty out the rest of the tanks because any wrong movement you have with stuff in them will likely crack them.

I rented a Uhaul van and kept it running to keep it warm, it was 20 degrees outside.

I kept all the fish inside until the last so they would have less movement. I loaded everything into the uhaul that was perishable, and the rest i loaded in my truck and headed south.

As soon as i got home i unloaded the fish first and took them to the basement and immediately put some 1" airstones in there to help with some airation and gave them just a little food to get a count to make sure they were alive.

I then unloaded the tanks and cleaned everything up since it needed it. Then I setup the saltwater because it needs more time to do, since you probably have fresh i will skip to that..

I setup the freshwater tank, put back in the old gravel setup the filter and then started to fill it with water from the gravel bucket and plant bucket. At that point it was about 30% full, i turned on the heater and started putting it back to the 78Dg FH. After the water was warm I put the fish in one by one with the remaining water. I tried to setup the tank the same way as it was flower/rock layout.

After the fish where in there about an hour i test the paramaters and proceeded as if i was doing a water change to fill the rest of the tank.

All in all this took me 8.5 hours with two people. It worked out well and three weeks later not one loss in either tank and everything is thriving.

The big thing was keeping the fish, filters, and rock wet as not to ruin the bio that was setup. I tested my water twice a day for two weeks and nothing spiked, no changes to the PH or any of that. I was very please although i had an idea it would work out since i used established media

There will not work for everyone but just letting you know what worked for me..

 

[diet]

AHD Cheers for that ive picked up a few things i can adapt. hopefully the 306 odd miles will go without a hitch i am realistically expecting losses but hopefully not many but im also thinking about donating the fish to where i work and just concentrate on transpoting the media and keeping that stable