The Dreaded Newbie Asks...moving House...advice Please?

[Fire_an_Ice]

Hi folks...just got joined up here...we're moving house very soon, and it's becoming increasingly obvious that I'm going to 1) have to perform a miracle of teleportation or 2) find out how to move my fish around the place properly. Therefore, any step-by-step, designed-with-dumb-newbie-poster-in-mind answers would be highly desirable. I have had a quick browse, and haven't found anything useful (Me being daft? Quite possibly. It's getting late on Sunday night and I have to go to work tomorrow. Urgh ) so if you could impart some pearls of wisdom, it'd be much appreciated!

Cheers and Beers

F&I B)

 

[laurasmithuk]

hi mate, got same problem coming up soon! and like you am dreading it.

ive been asking on her for a while and have also been told by my local lfs to bag the fish up. one quarter water and 3 quarters air. put bags in a poleystyrene box as this will keep heat in.

store old tank water, try and move at least half so that new water does not shock your fish too much!

also try and keep filter in old tank water so the good bacteria does not die off.

im only moving 5 mins down the road so its not too bad.

hope all goes ok and let me know how you get on.

 

[Fire_an_Ice]

Urgh. Thanks for the reply Laura...I'm only moving a couple of miles, same as you, so distance isn't a problem. What ALSO worries me, is the new presence of baby guppies (fanfare please) in the tank today. Poor little blighters no sooner are noticed, then I'm going to have to shift them...btw would anyone recommend taking them out of the community tank asap? They're about 2mm long, and seem to be happy, but dont want to provide the bigger fish with interesting food! I HAVE read other posts about this, but don't know which way t jump with an imminant move


Cheers! B)

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

That depends on whether you have room and want to keep the fry alive. I tend to leave my livebearers in the hands of fate. Many fry that young won't survive a strenueous trip but you never know.
Sorry can't help with the moving thing. I dread the day I move. Thankfully that isn't in the forseeable future!
Hugs,
P.

 

[SamUK]

well it kinda depends if you want that many baby guppys.

some are bound to survive, some always have in my 80G neway and ive got some right fry munchers lol.




as for the move, jus do what laura said.

bag them up well and get the move over ASAP and they should be fine.

if its only a small move then the filter media should be fine 2.


cos your staying in the same area, the tap water shouldnt be too different to what you have now which will help.

 

[Fire_an_Ice]

Many thanks for your help folks...and making yet another newbie poster feel welcome! Good luck with YOUR move Laura

Cheers and Beers

Fire & Ice B)

 

[bUcky]

i havent thought about moving! oh no. moving is bad enough but in october it will be the first time i have to move fish. alot of fish! oh man its will take forever! ahaha well at least i got untill october!

 

[Synirr]

Good luck on the move, since your fish are all relatively small it shouldn't be too bad
When I move my midas hybrid, oscar, and their 80 gallon are moving with me!!

 

[CFC]

Im moving house this Friday and have 14 tanks of up to 200 gallons and around 100 fish upto 2 feet in length to move.

Because this question has been coming up a lot recently ive just thrown together this quick guide to moving house http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=129060 hopefully you will find it usefull.

 

[karlp]

When I've moved, I just put several fish in a cool-box (e.g 28 litre) and didn't bother with individually bagging them. I've not lost a fish yet and moved several times and some big distances (Edinburgh to Southampton for example). It has the advantage that they make good temporary tanks that you can stick a heater and air stone in while you're dismantling the tank at the start and reassembling the tank at the destination. Just don't stock them too heavily and remember to leave some air (I normally fill them 2/3rds full of water and use 1 cool box per 60 litres of tank roughly, assuming your tank is not heavily stocked). If you warm the cool box next to a radiator the night before, they keep their heat really well and you shouldn't get a temperature drop.

Keep the filter media separately in some tank water if you can during the trip.

If you can use old tank water at the new place, that's great. If not, just make sure you acclimatise the fish properly. With the cool box method, you'd take the water level down to 3" or so in the cool box and then drip water into the cool box from the newly setup tank using air hose to do the syphone with a clamp over or tap to reduce flow to dripping. After about an hour, the water level should have doubled and then net the fish and put them straight in the tank. It's the method my LFS use for acclimatising fish they receive from the whole saler.

 

[Durbkat]

What size and how many tanks do you have to move? What and how many fish do you have in them? I know how you feel I might have to move and its not the 10g or even the long 20g that makes me want to dread moving its my 55g and it took me like 2-3 hours to fill my 55g up I can't even think how long it will take to break it down and put 75 pounds of gravel into buckets and to keep it wet. Then on top of that I got 26 fish all together and boy I don't even want to think about it. LOL!