Going Home for the Holidays -- +Holiday Cheer!

[littlefishie]

Okay, so I'm going home for Christmas on the 22nd. (Damn my university for running exams so late!) I won't be back to school until the 4th. Every fish in my signature is with me at university. Tomorrow when I go home for three days I'm bringing Blueballs, Prince Igor, and Mai Tai with me. But then on the 22nd when I go home, I have to bring the 5g and two other bettas. That's not the part I'm concerned about, as my lovely LFS friend gave me some fish bags to use for them. What worries me is taking home the filters in the 5 gallon and the 2.5 gallon. I don't want the beneficial bacteria on them to die.. Any ideas how I can do this? I'm only going to be in the car for half an hour tops, but I don't have the extra cash to spend on a battery-operated air pump to keep the bacteria oxygenated. I was thinking that, if I wait until the last minute and load the tanks last, then they won't have to suffer so long? I'm totally lost as to how to do this. The bettas I can handle because all but Captain Morgan are in bowls and therefore don't have filters. But the tanks.. I just don't want to have to cycle again! If anybody has bright ideas, pleaseeeee tell me.

And the Finding Nemo Christmas -- the good thing about my university is that they let us paint the windows in the dining hall. You can tell how fish obsessed I really am.. my boyfriend and I were there until roughly 2:30am that night, and we'd started at 7. But it's worth it.

..yeah, I have no life.

 

[sylvia]

Wow! Lol - that's great - I love the fishy pictures

For the filters, I'd take out the media and put it in a zip-lock bag with tank water. If you do this last minute many of the bacteria will survive the 1/2 hour journey and you can replace the media and get your tank started up right away when you get there to keep them alive.

Good luck!
And of course monitor your parameters and fish for the next few days to make sure you don't have a re-cycle on your hands.

 

[littlefishie]

Thanks.. They're possibly my favourite thing in residence so far. Besides my real fish, of course. lol

A ziploc bag will work? That's awesome! It's just an Elite Stingray 5 and an Elite mini sponge so it's not a lot of media to worry about.. 3 sponge inserts and 2 carbon.. I didn't know tank water would be enough to keep it going.. always interesting to know.

I've been saving water bottles since October, do you think I should try to bring most of the tank water with me? I haven't been able to test the water from my hometown compared to here with pH and such [there are no LFSs there, just a Wal*Mart] so I didn't want to shock them with crazy pH or anything when refilling the tanks. I figured if I bring 75% of the water from each tank I'll have enough for it to just seem like a water change? And I'll bring back water when I come back to school, of course.

 

[cutechic]

I wouldn't worry about bringing all that water home. Test the pH at uni before you go, and at your house as soon as you get back. Depending on how much the numbers differ, you can acclimate the fish accordingly (eg. if it's only a .4 change, you don't need to acclimate them as long as you would if it was >1.0 change.) If that makes sense.

 

[pnyklr3]

I cycled a friend's media in my tank, and sent it home with her on a 2 hour trip in a tupperware container. Everything was fine.

 

[fishdudein]

Tomorrow when I go home for three days I'm bringing Blueballs, Prince Igor, and Mai Tai with me.

Just had to chuckle at the names of some of your fish...people here are so creative...I am the type that names my oscar "Oscar" and my Dempsey "Jack" I don't even bother anymore

Sounds like an excellent plan for taking care of your fish during the holiday break, well thought out.

, too.

Have a great break, Happy Holidays!

 

[littlefishie]

plastic bag IN a ziploc container? mwahaha double protection lol
sorry for the craziness. i just got out of a 3 hour sociology exam and i want to go home and sleep.


fishdudein -- Trust me, Blueballs was accidental.. originally I was going to name him Harry to go with my [now deceased due to tumor] betta Ron. Then I joked about Blueballs, cos he's blue. And it kinda stuck. Prince Igor was my boyfriend's idea.. after Prince Igor vodka. I said if the next betta I got was dark it'd be Black Velvet after his rum. If it was light, it'd be after his vodka. Prince Igor is a white betta. ..And Mai Tai is a marble-y red, white, blue, and purple with a bit of butterfly colouring to him.. since a mai tai cocktail [according to boyfriend] has a bunch of ingredients, and Mai Tai is many colours, that was his name. Then there's Captain Morgan -- the first thing he flared at when I had him was a bottle of Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay.. My fish seemed to be named after a LOT of alcohol lol. and I'm not even old enough to drink. It's all Chris', dammit.

..That's nothing, I let my friend name my platies months ago before I gave them away last week. ..Snickerdoodle and Buckwheat.
I think the crazy names are the fun part lol.. but there's nothing wrong with Oscar and Jack.. at least people won't look at you funny when you start talk about medicating Blueballs, and feeding Blueballs, and bringing Blueballs home with you.. lol

 

[fishdudein]

fishdudein -- Trust me, Blueballs was accidental.. originally I was going to name him Harry

Sometimes it's best if I just don't say anything at all

 

[littlefishie]

lmao I neglected to mention that at one point it was going to be a combination of both names.. Harry Blueballs. ..that's when I dropped that idea and just went with Blueballs. Cos I said that in the store and got a couple weird looks discussing hairy blueballs over bettas with one of my housemates..