moving fish how....

[LEGENDARY70]

Hello all.

I am moving today. I have 5 small tetras and two small guppies. Our travel time is about 4 hours. How do i transport them? I cannot put the entire filled tank in the uhaul truck. I will need to empty it.

Can I save some of that water thats in the tank so I can refill the tank when i get there?

how long can the fish stay alive in a plastic bag?

will the filter be fine with the 4 hour trip?

i am going to refill as soon as i get there.

worse case scenerio i can surrender them to petco.....but i dont want too?

thx

 

[LEGENDARY70]

well petco told me and googled it also that fish can survive in a bag for 9 hours. its only a four hour drive.?

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

I purchase my fish online most of the time due to lack of variety in my town. They are filling plastic bags in air and then overnighting them to me ($29.99 per fed ex) so I know they can withstand a LONG time. One thing, don't feed them for a day or two before the trip - you need to keep them from pooping in the bag. They can go several days without eating. I've even had FedEx miss their deadline and go two days. They double bag the fish to keep the fish bag inside from tearing and fill both with air. You'll be fine. Keep your filters moist in a small container of tank water. The rest will have to go. When you get ready to set up at your new place purchase Tetra Safe Start with the extra bacteria and pour in 1/2 to one bottle (depending on the size of your tanks). Make sure to add a water conditioner like Prime. And then add your fish. The extra bacteria boost should help them survive the loss of the bacteria in the new water tank. If your ammonia spikes just add another dose of prime and start doing water changes until you get it down at least to a "1". Prime will deactivate the harm from high ammonia and nitrites until your fish cycle kicks in - which should be helped by the extra bacteria and you adding back your original filters. Once the tank is emplty of water and fish - take some time to give it a real good cleaning (with water only of course). Best of luck to you.

 

[Essjay]

Put the fish in a bag/bags or a bucket with a lid. Completely empty the tank, and if the water will be different at the new place, take as much old water as you can so that when you refil it will be mainly the water they are used to with a bit of new water. Put the substrate in another bag/container with a bit of water, and the same for the filter. If the whole filter won't fit, take the media out and keep that wet.

Tanks are designed to be strong when sitting in one position. Leave some water in and it will slosh around and twist the siliconed corners. Tanks are not built to cope with this twisting and the sealant can fail when the tank is refilled.

 

[coriesinhawaii]

Yes the filter will be fine if you do as suggested above. The most important thing is making sure it doesn't dry out during transport. When you put it in the new tank make sure to pour the water from the bag/bucket into the tank as well (even though it may seem "dirty" it will have a lot of good bacteria in it that will help your biofilter re-establish itself quickly).