CalmedByFish

As far as you know, should plastic containers be safe? I know they may have some kind of residue, so I'll rinse well first. But does the plastic itself leech anything sketchy into the water? I'm specifically wondering about these: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BA5F3O?tag=tank01-20

I've thought this so often! But I've sometimes realized that if I reply with a "wow," people might not know whether to take it as a positive or negative.

Since I currently have platy fry, I'm very interested. Could it be that in the big tank, they have more food or more heat?

@gardenman That's genius! It never occurred to me that it could be an option. Is it hard to get enough light into the water?

I've had guppies die on the floor, 2 species of snail readily crawl out, and my 1 angelfish jumps half-way out when startled. (I remember seeing an angelfish in one of the Peru videos jump entirely out of the water.) I haven't kept the other species you mentioned, but I'm guessing that the number of species that are safe without a lid is very small. If I needed to go without a lid, I'd lower the water level enough that the walls of the tank, above the water, are at least the length of the longest fish's body. Or at least 3" to protect the snails - whichever length is greatest.

I landed on the below link for everything but the angel, and got the angel his own 5 gallon bucket. (I bet nothing will actually be full of water, since they'd be too heavy.) This is a good framework for working out the rest of the details. Anybody have suggestions for my many pothos vines? I'm currently just thinking of putting them, moist, into a couple plastic trash bags, then into a cardboard box. The leaves would be in moisture for about a week, but I've seen people keep them alive submerged for a month, so maybe it's fine. If you're sure the trash bag idea is bad, let me know. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BA5F3O

I have a trick for this. The remaining grungy water in the HOB, without media, can be pulled out using a big syringe or turkey baster, with the tip held at the bottom. (Basically a gravel-vac for the HOB.) That'll get most of the grunge out. Any chance a HOB (or 45 per tank) could make your life easier?

Oooh genius. So this is like @Patrick_G's idea of baffling, but the sides of the sponge would go into 2 opposite corners, so I wouldn't have to glue anything. Right? I only have a few handfuls of soft floating plants. Of these fish, whose bodies would be in most need of cushioning? Endler males, females, fry. Platy males, females, fry.

Tedious time-consuming liquid test kits... but sometimes, you gotta have numbers closer than the strips can get. Bleh.

Hear ya. When I was 18, I counted 21 buildings I'd lived in. And 9 since. A total of about 22 towns, in 3 states and 2 countries. Priorities: [Huge sigh.] I actually found a new home for all my other pets when I decided to make this move, realizing that my fish give me the best work-to-benefit ratio, by far. Everything you said is exactly right. It's rough.

I've decided to use rectangular containers so I can use them as little tanks after arrival. Taking that shape into account, can you clue me in? Even 1 idea would be enough for me to get my thoughts moving.

@Torrey That is seriously impressive! What an accomplishment! Thanks for the loads of ideas. By the way, I do have fry. But my thinking is that they can be in fry-only containers, so I can give them a couple snacks and little water changes, while most of the others stay in the car. It just occurs to me: No matter how well I plan this, I'll probably have to edit the plan en route.

This is all I can contribute, but it might matter. Lead is very harmful to humans, and is at an unsafe level in about 1/4 of the homes in my city - so much so that the city mails instructions to every house, telling them how to drink water safely. I paid for an independent lab to test the water from my house, and sure enough, I'm among the 1/4. So part of my fishkeeping is making sure my fishes' water doesn't have a harmful amount of lead. Lead pipes leech a harmful amount of lead into standing water in about 6 hours, so I certainly wouldn't use a lead plant anchor. I have no knowledge about 3D printing though.

This. Unfortunately. But maybe you live in a good climate for putting a container outdoors? Or maybe you could just use the 5 gallon for the fry until they're big enough to put in your tank with endlers? I breed endlers too, and have considered medaka as fun egg-laying tankmates. They might be worth a bit of research.

Valid point. Many platies will eat every baby they have though. A lot of other fish will eat their or other species' babies, too. Some people keep a betta, dwarf gourami, or other small fish for that purpose. (It's why I got my angel actually, and he's TOO good at it!)

I don't remember there being another forum member who was or is professionally into art - though I could be wrong. That's an interesting detail! And yeah, a bit of aquarium life on the desk makes working so much less bleck. I'm about to move, but I hope to set up the new place with that lovely little feature. 🙂

This! It'll make your life easier long-term. But yes, "cheap" and "community" are good words to look for in your research. Bettas aren't a bad idea, especially since you live in a place that's warm, since they need warm water. I hear tale that among the beginner fish, platies are among the most hardy, for what it's worth. They're peaceful, "community," and many of the colors are cheap. Even snazzier colors are cheap compared to most fish. Welcome to the forum!

1) Welcome to the forum! It is *beyond* exciting, isn't it! 2) All those warnings above about not falling face-first into burnout? Yep. Not that I'm saying you shouldn't go hedgehog-wild with the tanks... just, carefully.

🙂 It is normal! For me, it's only mitigated by the absolute necessity to not spend time and energy on quarantine and other forms of "putting out fires." I get my fix via the magical internet instead. But that's okay, it's resulted in intentionality - a thing which almost always gets good results. Anyhow, welcome!

So many good ideas here! I'll be busy googling for a while. Hmm.

Since I'll need to use some of the containers as temporary tanks after arrival, they'll need to be fairly large and solid, instead of bags. I've seen some rectangle-ish totes that have lids that lock down, so spills shouldn't be worse than drops. (Hard to find though.) The cooler idea makes me wonder if there might be insulated coolers with lock-down lids. If so, that would be an insulated, large enough, solid container. If I could get a half dozen small ones, or even just a medium-size one for the angel, that would be great. I gotta find out if those exist. Unfortunately, I can't be confident that I can run air stones overnight. My little human might even be such a handful that I have to leave the fish in the car and cross my fingers. I have 2 air stones on 1 ACO pump right now. How would I do more than 2 per pump? Is it that little metal strip that has about 4 outlets on it, each with their own screw-like adjuster? You guys might really be on to something with this cooler idea... somehow...

I'm concerned that if I can't run the air stones during dark hours (because kid), the plants might take the oxygen from the fish. Thoughts on that?

I'll surely have more posts on this topic, but let's get me started! I'll be moving all my aquariums from the Northern U.S. to the Southern U.S. in November. My time and effort will have to go to myself and my kid, who has a lot of special needs. So the fish need to be set up for travel in a way that's low maintenance. To focus on my kid before and after traveling, the fish will be packed up 2 days in advance, not put into tanks for a couple days after arrival, and some will use their travel containers as temporary tanks... so this is not a "just put the fish in bags" situation. Here's what I've figured out so far, with some questions. I'd appreciate answers and ideas. The fish will be in their travel containers a minimum of 10 days, 4 days of which will have unstable temperatures as I'm on the road. There will be at least 7 separate containers of water (5 animals, 2 plants). One container needs to be tall enough for an angelfish. The others can be wider than they are tall, and just need to be light enough to carry. Do you know of specific tall or short containers that are sturdy and seal well? 4 of those containers shouldn't dip below 65 degrees, though it may be as cold as freezing en route. Suggestions for warmth? (My only thought is to tape heat packs to the sides of the containers.) I have enough pumps and air stones to give each of the 5 animal containers several hours per day, if I use them in both the car and the hotels. Is that enough aeration? The 2 containers of plants will have bacteria on the plants. Do I need to give that bacteria some air stone time? None of my sponge filters are short enough for the travel containers. How about if I float the sponges in the same containers with the fish, so bacteria is present? The dude I bought my platies from bagged each fish separately, with a small piece of "Poly Filter" to absorb ammonia. Every bag of water smelled from-the-tap clean when I opened it. I intend to put a chunk in each animal container, but let me know if you have instructions about Poly Filter, or an idea you like better. Since the animals will be in these containers for 10+ days, I think it wouldn't be smart to fast them for a day before putting them in. Maybe just a snack the day before, and a snack every 3-ish days? I'll travel with water conditioner, a net, and a cup for scooping water out. What other "oh no" supplies might I need? Okay! Enough for this post! TIA.

Stunning! I'm enamored with bright shiny blue on fish, but I need to stick with easy fish, so options are limited. (I recently put my only blue endler in the same tank as all the mature girls and the 1 angel. Give ya 1 guess what the angel did.) Anyway, gorgeous!

😂