Glofish transportation

[JFox]

Hi! I'm new to this forum. I looked around for an answer to this question but didnt see an answer. Is there a good way to transport glofish that they wont be so stressed and will survive the trip from the pet store? (At least an hour transit?
About a month ago I saw some glofish and wanted some. So I set up my aquarium and let it run a week before going back to petsmart (closest one in Jackson an hour away) and getting some fish. The girl puts 8 fish in a bag and sends us on our way. By the next day 4 were dead. We took them back to the petsmart the other way (in Nashville an hour and a half away - the next closest petsmart) and they said she just stuffed too many fish in a small bag. So they exchanged those fish and bagged them in a way they said was more appropriate. The next day the rest of the original fish were dead and the new fish were dead in 2 more days. Anyway it went back and forth a few more times, every time with a different answer, until tonight when they admitted that the fish brought back dead the most is the glofish because they just dont travel well. Is there some magical key to getting glofish to not be stressed and travel well?

 

[Kritastrophe]

What size tank do you have? What kind of Glofish are you purchasing (danio, tetra, tiger barb, sharks, etc)? Did you cycle your tank with fish food, ammonia? What is your gh, ph, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite readings? It’s a lot of questions, but every bit of information helps. Glofish are GMO fish but I’ve never read or heard of them being especially fragile. The company that created them and licensed sellers will ship them cross country via post so I don’t think an hour car ride is the cause of death.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

How did you set the tank up?
eg: did you use any cleaning products to clean it originally?

Have you tested the tank water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH?
If yes, what are the results in numbers?

Did you use tap water to fill the tank up?
Did you add a dechlorinator when you set the tank up?
Did you use dedicated fish buckets for cleaning the tank and filling it, or any bucket around the house?

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Fish can usually spend an hour or more in a bag and not have any problems during transit. However, if the fish have only come into the shop in the last day or two, they will be stressed and won't travel as well to your house. Likewise if the shop has done water changes on their tanks in the last 24-48 hours, the stress of the new water from the water change, and then going into your tank with possible different water, can stress and kill fish.

If the shop assistant chases the fish around for 30 or 40 seconds it can stress the fish and they die on the way home or a day later.

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Test your tank water and make sure it is safe and suitable for fish. Make sure it has no chlorine or chloramine in.

Call the local pet shop and ask them when they get new fish in and when they do water changes.

You want to buy fish the day before they do a water change (or just before they do them), and if possible a week or more after the fish have come in. Unfortunately most shops get new fish in every week so that second part is hard to do.

eg: The shop does water changes on Monday and Tuesday and new fish come in on Wednesday. You go to the shop and buy fish Sunday or Monday before the water changes are done. This gives the fish a few days to recover from being shipped to the shop, and you get them before they get a water change.


You also want to get them before they are fed if possible. Most shops feed the fish in the morning so either get there before they feed them or go in later that day. Make sure the fish have not eaten in the last 3 or 4 hours so there will be less chance of them regurgitating the food in the bag.

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If you are travelling long distances, ask the shop if they can put oxygen in the bag. Some shops have bottles of oxygen and can put that in the bag instead of just air from the room.

Ask the shop to put the fish into a couple of bags (eg: 4 tetras in each bag). If the shop asks why, just tell them you have been losing fish the day or day after you get them and you want to minimise the stress on them by having fewer fish in each bag.

Put the fish into a dark carry bag and wrap them in a blanket or towel and put that in an esky (cooler). Put some more blankets or towels in the esky to stop the bag/s moving around. Put the lid on the esky and head home.

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When you get home, open the esky and remove the blankets but leave the fish in the carry bag for 5-10 minutes. This will let them have some light without being taken from complete blackness to bright light instantly. While this is happening, you turn the aquarium lights off and leave them off for the rest of the day. You can turn the tank light back on the following day.

Take the bags of fish and float them in the tank for about 30 minutes. After 5 minutes, add 1/2 to 1 cup of tank water to the bag. Do this every 5 minutes for the 30 minute period. Then gently pour the fish into the tank.

If the main display tank already has other fish in, then put the new fish into a quarantine tank so they don't introduce diseases into the main tank.

Don't feed the new fish until the day after you get them. Just leave the tank light off and let them settle down and recover from the trip.

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The following day open the curtains or turn the room light on and wait at least 30 minutes before turning the tank light on. This will give the fish a chance to wake up slowly and without being blinded by bright light.

At night turn the room light on, then turn the tank light off. Wait at least 30 minutes before turning the room light off. This gives the fish a chance to settle down for the night.

Use this method for turning the tank light on and off every day on any tank you have.

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Make sure the aquarium has a picture on the back to make the fish feel more secure. You can buy plastic aquarium backings (pictures) from any pet shop or online. You tape these to the back of the aquarium, on the outside. You can use newspaper, coloured card or even a plastic bin liner. As long as there is something across the back to make the fish feel safe.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

@Colin_T pretty much covered everything. If you don’t already, you really need to get a test kit. I suggest the API master test kit. It has over 800 individual tests, and is around $30 USD.

(It tests for ph, high ph, Ammonia, Nitrite, And Nitrate.)

 

[JFox]

Thank you! This is all great advi

@Colin_T pretty much covered everything. If you don’t already, you really need to get a test kit. I suggest the API master test kit. It has over 800 individual tests, and is around $30 USD.

(It tests for ph, high ph, Ammonia, Nitrite, And Nitrate.)

Yes, it is helpful. I had that since the first fish disaster

 

[JFox]

Hi and welcome to the forum
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Thank you @Colin_T!
That is all the kind of advice I was looking for!
I've had fish before but it was a while back (probably 12+ for any tank that I ever had) so it's not that I totally dont know anything, just I can't manage the 1 kind of fish I wanted to get
No cleaning products. Been using an Api test kit and initially the pH was low but good other than that. Our water has no chlorine as it is well water from our 43 acres of land with no surrounding high density population. But did add stress coat+ and stress zone with new fish and water changes. The bucket I use I got specifically for this tank and nothing else. There is a backing on the tank and it does make sense that it makes them feel safer because they like to hang back there.
And I do have plants in there hoping that might get the tank bio in better shape.
The info you gave is so great!!! Exactly what is was looking for. Next time I try to get any glofish I will definitely try it!!!
I got some neon tetras yesterday and they all seem to be doing well which is way more than I can say about any of the other fish that came and died.
I did also buy a new filter a little over a week ago (the kind with the biowheel) because some people complained that the filter that came with my tank (20 gal. Hex) left the water too cloudy (which I couldn't quite disagree with) and couldn't find a good source of filters for it for replacement time and thought different filter might help.
Thank you again!

 

[Colin_T]

Do you still have the original filter in the tank?

You don't want to change a filter over if there are fish in an aquarium. If you remove the established filter, you get rid of the beneficial filter bacteria living in it and then you get ammonia and nitrite problems while the new filter cycles. It takes about 4-6 weeks for a new filter to go through the cycling process and develop enough beneficial bacteria to keep the water free of ammonia and nitrite.

If you want a second or different filter on a tank, you should add the new filter but keep the old one in/ on the tank. Run both filters on the tank for at least 6 weeks (preferably 2 months), then remove one.

The same thing happens if you replace filter pads/ cartridges that are in filters. The pads are home to beneficial bacteria and if you replace the pads, you get rid of the bacteria and can have ammonia problems while the new pad develops the good bacteria.

If you have a filter that contains pads/ cartridges that need replacing on a regular basis, add some sponges to the filter and leave them together with the pads for 2 months. Then throw the pads away and put some more sponge in the filter to take its place. Sponges can be squeezed out in a bucket of tank water and will last for 10+ years and don't need replacing unless they start to fall apart.

You can buy round/ cylindrical sponges for some brands of internal power filter. These cylindrical sponges have a hole through the centre and fit over the intake strainer of most external canister filters. The sponge can be taken off each week and squeezed out in a bucket of tank water, and re-used.