Ideas to transport my fish 260 miles...

[VulcanNinja]

Hi! I haven't been on this board in a while.

Anyway, I have to transport my 10 gallon aquarium and my 2.5 mini bow aquarium to Pittsburgh (which is 260 miles, about a 4 hour drive).

I do have 1 extra 2 gallon aq that I can use for the transport.

Anyway, can I simply lower the water level, and make sure there is plenty of air getting into the tank? Temperature shouldn't be much of a problem since it is almost summer.

Should I pad the aquariums at all?

Just need some ideas. It's going to be stressful on the fish!

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[Tolak]

Don't move tanks with water or gravel in them, they are not designed for that stress. You're asking for future leakage problems if you do.

4 hours is not that long of a time for a fish to be bagged. I've bought fish at auctions that have been bagged for 12+ hours, they do fine.

Don't feed the fish for 24 hours before the move, bag them with 1/3 water, 2/3 air. Cut a small piece of cycled sponge filter, 1/4" square, and put it in the bag with the fish. Put the bags in a cooler to maintain temp, and to keep them in the dark.

Keep your filter media & gravel wet for the trip to keep your bacteria alive. Put something under the tanks to pad them, make sure nothing rolls into them or they don't shift during the trip. I've put 6 20 talls & a few 10's in my pickup truck with a blanket & a little padding under them, & some cardboard in between to keep them from bashing together. A few cargo straps, watch the bumps, no problem. An hour later I'm home trying to figure out what to do with all these tanks I got cheap.

Tolak