Moving

[ThePearlFish]

My poor poor fish! I am in the middle of moving and they are on my bedroom floor right now. They are such hardy little guys! they survived the move of their tank, with the water sloshing around and everything, to my floor and they are living without a light right now and only a filter running. Their tank is kinda messy, but I don't want to clean it too much anyways since I will have to move them again anyways very soon and I can just do that when they are at their final home.

Any suggestions for making both my moving the 20g Long AND the fish themselves being moved (oh, and the 10g frog tank too) as least messy and stressful as possible??

The drive from where I live in MD now to VA where I am going is about 35-40 min. without traffic and construction, but unfortunately I-95 south is notorious for bad traffic especially because of construction. Then when I get there I have to go through the stress of setting up the tanks again.

So, all suggestions are very welcome!!!

Thanks!

~TPF

[ScentedLove]

Why not take the fish out of the tank?

[dramaqueen]

Is the tank cycled? If so, you can keep the gravel in a couple of inches of tank water and put the filter in tank water so you don't lose the good bacteria. Put the fish each in their own container with tank water. You can put your tank water in gallon jugs and transport it, too. Then, when you get to your new home, you can put everything back and put the fish back in the tank. I hope this helps.

[ThePearlFish]

Good idea. I do have a lot of the good bacteria I want to save. It will DEFINITELY be less heavy without tons of water in the tank. I am going to see if I have containers around the house I can wash well to hold the fish. I just remembered that I am also due for a partial water change anyhow, so that will be easier cus I won't have to worry about transporting ALL the water, just 1/2 to 3/4ths of it.

As for the 10g frog tank, that one will be easy to transport if I only have a few inches of water in it, and the frog can probably stay in that one for transport.

Thanks everyone!

~TPF

[dramaqueen]

Yeah, you could just transport half of the water. You could get some gladware containers to put your fish in.

[Kim]

If you don't have any containers bags will work just as well. Depending on the temperature I would put them all in a cooler packed in tightly. Stick some newspaper around them to keep everyone in place. If it's a hot day leave the cover open so that they get some air, and if it's a cold day shut it to conserve the heat in the bags.

If you can't pick up the tank without fear of breaking it with the gravel in, then put it in a 5 gallon bucket along with enough water to keep everything wet. Make sure to cover the bucket to avoid spilling in your car. Keep the filter media in a bucket of water as well and try to keep the inside of the filter full of water too.

[ThePearlFish]

yes, I am worried about the glass breaking. At least moving it to and from the car. I might have a bin big enough to put the tanks in and pad around the tanks so it doesn't move around during transport. I am planning on making the tanks pretty much the last thing to leave my house so I can focus on just them mainly.

~TPF

[Magdalaine]

I just did this last week when I went on vacation. Definitely use the containers for the fish, that way you don't have to worry about them getting hurt by anything in the tank (i.e. gravel, plants or decorations), traffic tends to shake up the containers a lot so definitely pack them well. Bettas tend to handle car rides pretty well, i dunno how others do though... also, make sure they aren't in direct sunlight (this completely freaked my fish out). Hopefully your fish make it... my goldfish died shortly after the car ride, but it was a four hour ride with lots of traffic.
Good luck!

[bubbaface]

My betta "Bubba Face" made a 12 hour car trip from RI to KY in his 1.5g half filled sitting on the passenger side floor so he was mostly shaded. He stayed in his cave while the car was moving and would peak out during pit stops. He was near flush white from the stress but a good day on a solid end table and he was full color and lively again. That was four months ago and hes still in great shape. I moved him again recently but in his 10g at 1/4 filled. That was a 20min trip and his tank a mess after the fact but he wasn't phased at all.

[ThePearlFish]

Aww, I'm so sorry about your goldfish Magdalaine :(. THANKFULLY, the trip is a less than an hour one w/o traffic, but my Corycats can be kinda spastic creatures. It was them I was worried about when I first brought them home. I thought they were gonna have heart attacks on me. The Tetras were stressed when I first got them but they calmed down fast after getting in the tank. And the Betta, he is okay. My friend who got him for me had to bring him on a 3-4 hr drive from her school, so I guess this is a really non-stressful trip compared to that. That Betta never seems ruffled by anything! He really is a special one.

Moving day is in a couple days! I'll let you all know how things go!

~TPF