Moving House - How To Move My Fish?

[jenny83]

Hi everyone

I'm moving house on Friday and need to move my fish tank. I know I need to keep a certain % of the water etc, but what is the best way to move the fish? SHould I bag them up separately, or leave them in the tank with a low level of water? We currently live in a 1st floor apartment, so I can only leave a small amount of water in the tank otherwise it will spill when the men are carrying it downstairs!

Any suggestions/experience would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[BigIan]

i`ve moved my tank/s several times. keep as much water as possible get your self some 5 gallon drums to keep the water in they hold a large quantity and are easy to transport. Your tank needs to be empty no water at all and no substrate, leaving anything in the tank can cause the tank to crack or the seams to split as the loading changes due to water/substrate shifting during moving.
As for moving your fish again its quite easy get a polly box/s (polystyrene box that fish are shipped in) from the lfs they normally give these away for free if you cant get one then a cool box will also work. anything that will keep the temperature. Then bag the fish up, bag them sparingly I.E 4 or 5 fish to a bag. this will help to keep stress down and oxygen levels up. If once you have your fish bagged up you still have room in the polly box fill it up with bags of water this will help to keep the temperature up.

Also remember to keep the filter media wet as well, if you have an internal you can pack the media into tupper wares or even the whole filter into a seal-able bucket. if your have an external its advisable to stick a carrier bag over the top with an elastic band to hold it on and sit it in an empty bucket, as some water does tend to splash out in transit.
When you fill your tank up use some hot water as this will help to get the temp up quicker and mean you can introduce your fish to the tank sooner, (match the tank water to the temp of the water of the bags as thish will reduce the shock factor of going from cold water to warm.)

hope that helps.

 

[Too Fast]

Don't feed them for a couple of days before you move so that they produce little waste when in transit. That way they are not poisoning themselves, only putting 4-5 per bag helps this as well.

Also if you want to change anything in your tank then when moving is the time to do it!!!!!