Driving with fish west to east coast.

[Sultrysamurai]

Hello, I was looking for advice for moving with your beloved fish.

I am moving from the west coast to the east soon and want to bring my fish and shrimp friends.

I have a betta, neon tetra and cherry shrimps. The betta is most important if I had to choose who makes the trip but I would love them all since I have worked so hard on the shrimps.

is it possible to travel with them all in a filtered 5 gallon bucket? I know it’s not ideal but we will be on the road for just over a week. Any advice is appreciated. 

[SugarBassJoe]

i would use the bucket for the shrimp and the neons, cut some holes in the lid for an airline and maybe heater if your going to use one( heat ,im unsure of the best method for this) i think if i was going to do it, i would find the biggest piece of sponge i could and cram it down at the bottom of the bucket for the shrimp to hold on to. Your betta, again this just my idea, if I was travelling alone I would find the biggest cup that would fit in my cup holder, i'm thinking those fast food style cup with a narrower bottom, so i could keep an i on him, if you're not travelling alone i would find a something bigger than the cup but smaller than a bucket and have someone hold him. I would keep a couple extra gallons of de-chlorinated water and  bottle of de-chlorinator for emergencies. Keep the drive as smooth but as fast as possible, good luck.

[Sultrysamurai]

On 1/22/2023 at 9:55 AM, SugarBassJoe said:

i would use the bucket for the shrimp and the neons, cut some holes in the lid for an airline and maybe heater if your going to use one( heat ,im unsure of the best method for this) i think if i was going to do it, i would find the biggest piece of sponge i could and cram it down at the bottom of the bucket for the shrimp to hold on to. Your betta, again this just my idea, if I was travelling alone I would find the biggest cup that would fit in my cup holder, i'm thinking those fast food style cup with a narrower bottom, so i could keep an i on him, if you're not travelling alone i would find a something bigger than the cup but smaller than a bucket and have someone hold him. I would keep a couple extra gallons of de-chlorinated water and  bottle of de-chlorinator for emergencies. Keep the drive as smooth but as fast as possible, good luck.

Thank you! Hoping I won’t need a heater but I’ll keep an eye on temps. 
 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Personally I would use buckets with a usb nano air pump powering a sponge filter in the buckets. It’s nice that the usb nano pumps can plug into a car cigarette port, and you could get an outlet that could power as many pumps as you need. Filter(s) (assuming they’re cycled) would be no different than running tanks on the drive. 
 

I would bring the buckets inside the hotel or wherever you plan to sleep on the road trip to help with temps. 

[Patrick_G]

This sounds doable to me. I think I’d cycle a small sponge filter or two prior to the trip. You can use them in the bucket and then you’ll have them when you get to the new place. I also would try and make some sort of baffle for the bucket so the water doesn’t slosh around as much. 

[Sultrysamurai]

On 1/22/2023 at 2:23 PM, Patrick_G said:

This sounds doable to me. I think I’d cycle a small sponge filter or two prior to the trip. You can use them in the bucket and then you’ll have them when you get to the new place. I also would try and make some sort of baffle for the bucket so the water doesn’t slosh around as much. 

Sponge filters I have, thank you!

Any ideas for a baffle?

[Patrick_G]

On 1/22/2023 at 2:53 PM, Sultrysamurai said:

Any ideas for a baffle?

Maybe some plastic hardware cloth? I’m not sure how it fit it to the bucket though. Some rigid plastic with holes drilled in it might also work, but again I don’t have any bright ideas on how to attach it to the bucket. 

[Rube_Goldfish]

This might be a long shot, but since a lot of fish stores can pack fish up to ship through the mail, if you can get the timing right, you might be able to get your LFS to ship your fish to either your new home or maybe to a LFS in your new town. Properly packed, fish can be just fine in the mail for days. I have never done this, so I don't know what the cost might be. I also don't know if it will be more or less anxiety-producing that driving them yourself, but it can't hurt to inquire.

[Sultrysamurai]

On 1/22/2023 at 5:21 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

This might be a long shot, but since a lot of fish stores can pack fish up to ship through the mail, if you can get the timing right, you might be able to get your LFS to ship your fish to either your new home or maybe to a LFS in your new town. Properly packed, fish can be just fine in the mail for days. I have never done this, so I don't know what the cost might be. I also don't know if it will be more or less anxiety-producing that driving them yourself, but it can't hurt to inquire.

Good idea!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I moved about 7 hours from Oregon to Washington this last summer, moved my 15 tank fishroom. 
I used 27 g totes - rigid, large water volume to help with parameters, hold heat pretty well, tops are lockable so eliminates water escaping and reduces evaporation. 
I used a Jackery battery system hooked to the van I rented through the cigarette lighter. I used an air pump Hooked up to this and a sponge filter. 
I’d keep the 5 g bucket idea for your water to use for a water change half way through the journey. 
Any way you decide to do it most likely it will work. The difficulty comes with acclimating the fish to your new water on the other end. 
I wouldn’t feed them. I’d fast them for the trip. With that you may want to consider separating the shrimp from the Betta as they’ll probably prey on them over time when not being fed. For them this will be like an adventure holiday with their labyrinth organ nothing can kill them when they’re healthy. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/22/2023 at 9:27 AM, Sultrysamurai said:

is it possible to travel with them all in a filtered 5 gallon bucket? I know it’s not ideal but we will be on the road for just over a week. Any advice is appreciated. 

Sterilite containers is probably a lot better choice than a 5G bucket.  Get some with snapping lids,  20-40G sizes and fill them 1/4-1/3 of the way with water.  you'd want to have some method to keep them secure with air going into the containers.  Every night you're likely going to want to do water changes and try to eliminate things like ammonia buildup.  2-3 days prior to the trip you'd want to starve everything and then you'd want to limit feeding (or wait) until after they have arrived in the new location.  If you do feed, I would opt for doing so right before or while you change water.

Shrimp should be able to handle temperatures a bit easier, but you're going to run into some issues with heat over that big of a trip.  It might actually make sense to bag some and keep them in an ice chest or something to keep them warm with heatpacks or other methods.  Blankets, insulation (especially from the floor) and other things you would want to look into.

Ultimately, this is the setup, but you just have to work on making that work for your given situation while moving.  Shrimp need things to hang onto. Which makes it a little tricky.
 

 

You can dose dechlorinator once every 24 hours. That should help. Get yourself some of this stuff too....