7 Hour Move + Tank Upgrade

[mctavish132]

Hey fish forums, been awhile since I posted since everything has been going soo smooth. I'm moving to Vancouver on the 25th of September, from a small little town in Canada B.C and its going to be about a 7 hour drive. I plan to bring most of my fish with me because I've gotten far too attached to give them away. Anyway I've rented a moving truck so I will have tonze of space for this journey. Currently the fish are all in a 60 gallon tank, but I will be ditching this tank for a 90 gallon that will be set up on arrival. (90 gallons is the maximum size I'm allowed to have in the apartment building, a 4 foot tank to be exact. a 90 gallon is the best I can find at 4feet)

The fish I plan to bring with me to hopefully live the next few years happily in this 90 gallon are.

- 1 severum
- 1 blood parrot cichlid
- 1 RTB shark
- 6 cories
- 1 unidentified cichlid, was told it won't get any bigger then 7 inches

So my questions are: how do you go about moving this many fish the distance I'm going while causing minimal stress on the fish?, and will a 90 gallon 4 foot long tank be big enough to keep these fish happy throughout their entire lives?

 

[willowstwin]

I've looked into this myself as I'm planning a move to Holland, and that will be a 12ish hour drive. The way I see it though, is that if online order companies can send fish out next day delivery, then it must be possible.

From what I've read, you need to bag up the fish and use an oxygenating tablet and a stress ease product. Then load them into polystyrene box(es) with a heat pad, and they should be ok. Being in the dark in the box will be less stressful I think.

Dont forget to put your filter media into a bag of tank water for the journey too, so it doesn't die.

I'll be watching this thread with much interest. I hope your move goes well.

 

[Flute]

As it's going to be such a long drive, it might be worth you using some kind of storage container instead of bags, especially as they're larger fish? That way you could get a cheap battery powered air pump and a sponge filter, and run that for the duration of the journey. If you seeded the sponge filter before you move, not only will it help to keep some of the ammonia and nitrites down, but I'm sure it'd put oxygen into the water too.
Apparently food cooler boxes are fantastic for moving fish, as they retain the waters temperature much better. Starve them for a good few days before hand too so that they have minimal waste in their systems.

As to the size of the tank being big enough, I have no idea I'm afraid. Good luck with your move, keep us posted as to how you get along

 

[mbeer21]

I've moved my fish on a 7 hour car drive before - kept it simple, with fish in bags exactly like they are from the fish store (lots of air in the top), bags set inside the empty tank with towels over the top to keep it dark. Didn't use any heat pads as the interior of the car was warm enough, but I suppose the back of a truck might get rather cold so you'll probably need one I retied the bags halfway through the trip to get fresh air in with them. Don't feed them the day before the trip, so they'll produce less waste for the journey.

 

[mctavish132]

Thanks for the fast replies, love to hear other peoples experiences moving fish has gone so well. So I'm gonna go with the white styrofoam coolers, gonna get 1 for each species of fish, because any of them could easily rip through a bag on the ride(excluding the cories ), and they are quite aggressive fish so there definitely gonna need their own coolers. The moving truck has 2 outlets in it and I plan to run a really powerfull 60-120 gallon air pump with a splitter and an airstone going into each container. I really am not sure what to do about keeping the temperature stable, but all I can think of is to rap them up in blankets and hope for the best, because I cant run 6 heaters at the same time. I dont plan on feeding the fish for a good day or 2 before the move so the waste production is minimal, so Im hoping I wont have to seed a bunch of sponge filters just for the ride Anyways other then that Im feeling alot more confident hearing your moves have been a success.

Does this plan sound good? and will the 90 gallon tank be big enough for the severum, parrot fish, RTBS, and the cories to happily live to their full potential? Thanks a lot, appreciate your input.