Moving House

[fishywishy]

Ok so we have a fish tank at our home with a number of fish, tetra's, mollies, guppies and a couple of albino corys. But there is a problem:

We are moving to universtiy in a few weeks and have to take the fish with us. now i have spoken to a marine biologist mate of mine about moving the actual fish and he said as long as we kep them insulated they should be fine, but what about the tank?

Will we need to cycle the tank again, or do we need to leave some water in it whilst we move it ( wont this make the tank to heavy and risk breaking the bottom ), or should we just give our fish to some friends here?

We love our fishies so want to keep them, but dont want to kill them.

HELP US!!!!! SAVE OUR FISH!!!!

 

[snowyangel]

Ship your tank empty with lots of padding and bag as much of the tank water as possible to help you setting it up again without starting the cycling process over. Another important factor is to keep your filter media sponge wet! This will guarentee the beneficial bacteria survival and will help immensely when you set up again. Shipping the fish is farely simple.You can go to a lfs and they should give you fish bags for free. Then use these for transportation and try to have 2/3 or 3/4 of the bag filled with air(no blowing in it!). The longer the distance means the more air should be in the bag. In the summer insulation isn't as important, but you can use any towels or blankets for that. The darker the environment for the fish, the calmer they will be.
Good luck
EDIT: forgot to mention to get styrofoam boxes WITH lids from your lfs too for transportation and insulation. They should plenty around from having fish shipped to them.

 

[skimpy]

A friend of mine recently moved house (a seven hour journey). He bought for £1.50 a large polystyrene box with lid (which keeps it very dark) from his local fish shop with which is well insulated and as large as a 12 gallon tank. This fishes were in the box overnight and did not go back into a tank until next day (about 30 hours in all). They have all survived and two weeks later are fine.

He did not know however to keep his filter in water for the journey and plug it in immediately so he has had to start cycling his tank from the beginning, so I would advise to check out that part. I know it must be kept in water but I am not too sure how long it can cope with being turned off?

Good luck - hope you get to keep your fishes. Happy moving.

 

[fishywishy]

Thanks guys, you have saved our fish and should be proud of yourselves, thank you xxxxx

 

[skimpy]