Moving house - what's the best way to move fish over a 2-day trip?

[Xaos]

Hi all, I'll be moving about 600 miles at the end of May, and I'm looking for advice on the best way to move my fish with as little loss as possible. Here's my stocking:

55 gallon community tank:

• 5 loaches
• 7 harlequin rasboras
• 9 neon tetras
• 6 cardinal tetras

20 gallon:

• 20-25 neocaridina shrimp (babies through adult) + 1 amano
• ~12 trapdoor snails

10 gallon:

• 2 snow white plecos (juveniles ~2 inches)

 

On day 1, we'll be packing up and driving ~350 miles over 6-8 hours. We'll then take a break, sleep, and pick back up ~12 hours or so later for the last ~250 miles/4-6 hours. So a total of ~36 hours if all goes according to plan. I've seen two suggestions:

1. Bag everyone just before we leave in the style of shipping, transport the filters in 5-gallon buckets filled with aquarium water, place bags in coolers/insulation, and leave them be until time to reacclimate in final destination.

2. Split everyone into a couple of larger coolers or bins, drive them to the midpoint, run the filters etc. overnight, and then drive to the final destination.

 

Second option seems logistically more complicated, but I'm not sure if it could save me any heartache. I do have a battery-operated air pump that I can use. I don't have any experience moving or shipping fish, and I know I'll probably lose a few either way, but I'd love some advice from those who do. Also looking on recommendations of how many/which fish to keep in each bag, what type of bags to use, etc.

I know a few basic principles either way: try to keep them in the dark, try to keep the temperature stable, and don't feed for 3-4 days prior to the move to keep down ammonia, keep the media submerged, wrap the emptied tanks in plastic wrap. We'd move them inside either way when we break for the night at the midpoint. I've got loads of plants to add to the bags/bins. I'm not worried much about the shrimps & snails, they seem to travel well. Any other tips?

Thanks in advance!

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/29/2023 at 8:25 PM, Xaos said:

1. Bag everyone just before we leave in the style of shipping, transport the filters in 5-gallon buckets filled with aquarium water, place bags in coolers/insulation, and leave them be until time to reacclimate in final destination.

I would tend to lean towards this. 

The big question is how long will it take to get things going between trips?  Meaning, once you get to the destination, how much work is it to get the tank itself up and running.  There's going to be ammonia spikes, you'd want carbon and stuff to handle that as well. 

The way I moved, you can scale is as need be, but it usually works.  You can replace the word buckets with tubs for whatever need be for your situation.
A.  pull all the hardscape, keep anything with plants wet.
B.  pull all the plants, keep them wet.  (you have room in the bottom of this container to add some media if you want.  I had sponges in mine.
C.  drain the tank so it's easy to net fish, catch the fish out into their own bucked and then add your ceramic media with bacteria to the bottom of that bucket.  That bucket also gets an airstone.  Cover the bucket so the fish can't jump and keep them out of an area of traffic.  Shadows and things like that aren't great. 
Note:  For a longer journey you can bag them, use a heat pack, then use an ice chest of insulated box. That's the difference.
D.  Use a net you dont mind breaking and dig out the substrate.  rinse it if you want to, then cover it in a bucket with a good lid and set aside for the move.  This is also a great opportunity to change substrate if you wish.
E.  Take the tank off the stand, clean things as you need to (rinse out with water), clean the lids, and pack up all of the fish stuff.

When you leave, the fish were the last to go and first to be setup upon arrival.  Even if you're just setting up the tank and then filling it up with water and heat, that works. 
 

 

I had the fish with me in the car so I was sure the buckets didn't fall over, temp controlled as well.  I very much lost some plants because I set the bucket down and they dried out.  Don't forget!

[JettsPapa]

I'd also vote for option one.  Seal the bags with 1/3 water and 2/3 air, with half of the water from the tank the fish or shrimp came from, and the other half fresh water (dechlorinated of course), and don't try to put too many in each bag.  Fish are shipped all over the country like that every day.

[nabokovfan87]

Just wanted to share this. It's a fun series.

 

[Xaos]

Thanks for the advice all! Looks like I'll go with bags. What do you think would be an appropriate number per bag with my school sizes?

[JettsPapa]

On 3/31/2023 at 1:09 PM, Xaos said:

Thanks for the advice all! Looks like I'll go with bags. What do you think would be an appropriate number per bag with my school sizes?

It depends on the size of the bag.  I have three different sizes I use for shipping.

[Xaos]

On 3/31/2023 at 3:29 PM, JettsPapa said:

It depends on the size of the bag.  I have three different sizes I use for shipping.

I've never shipped before, do you have a link to those you recommend? I know to look for rounded-bottom bags and I have seen recommendations to double-bag, but other than that, not sure if there are significant differences. I'll have to buy them for this so I'd guess bigger would be better?

I have a few styrofoam coolers that I can put them in for the drive.

[rockfisher]

It’s really no that big of deal. It’s going to a little stressful for the fish.  I use coolers when I have done it. It’s been a few years and they have much better battery pumps as well as solar. I would go and ask the LFS for the big bags they get fish in. You can get them online for not a lot. Search 5 gallon fish shipping bags bass pro has tournament weigh in bags. Then I did know wheee to buy them. I would put the those in the styrofoam coolers in case one broke. Then up an airstone in and loosely tie the bag with the air line coming out of the tie and I used a battery powered bait pumps. It was simple and I didn’t have issues. 

Edited April 1, 2023 by rockfisher
Spelling

[JettsPapa]

On 3/31/2023 at 2:39 PM, Xaos said:

I've never shipped before, do you have a link to those you recommend? I know to look for rounded-bottom bags and I have seen recommendations to double-bag, but other than that, not sure if there are significant differences. I'll have to buy them for this so I'd guess bigger would be better?

I have a few styrofoam coolers that I can put them in for the drive.

Yes, I believe bigger would be better.  To give your a rough idea of how many fish to put in a bag, I shipped around 50 guppies last fall.  I used three 10" x 20" bags, so roughly 17 in each bag.  I took them to the post office on Saturday and they arrived in Ohio on Monday, and all of the fish were fine.

By the way, if you're going to double bag you don't need the round bottom bags.  You can insert the first bag upside down in the second, or leave it right side up but rotated 90°.  That way after you tie the second bag there are no corners.

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/29/2023 at 8:25 PM, Xaos said:

55 gallon community tank:

• 5 loaches
• 7 harlequin rasboras
• 9 neon tetras
• 6 cardinal tetras

20 gallon:

• 20-25 neocaridina shrimp (babies through adult) + 1 amano
• ~12 trapdoor snails

10 gallon:

• 2 snow white plecos (juveniles ~2 inches)

 

On 3/31/2023 at 11:09 AM, Xaos said:

Thanks for the advice all! Looks like I'll go with bags. What do you think would be an appropriate number per bag with my school sizes?

As @JettsPapa mentioned, it depends on the bags you have available.  Let's say they are 4-6" wide....

-Plecos get their own bag, single bag if you have space.
-Snails in their own bag (2 if you have space)
-Shrimp in their own bag with something for them to hang onto (sponge or netting or something
-Loaches in their own bag (2 if you have space)
-Neons in their own bag
-Cardinals in their own bag
-rasboras in their own bag

You can also get this stuff called polyfilter and add that to each bag to help during shipping.

Edited April 1, 2023 by nabokovfan87
typo

[jwcarlson]

I think there's plenty of good suggestions above.  If I were doing this personally, I would rehome everything and restart at the new place.  Unless you've got strong attachments or things you're breeding or something very rare.  Don't take that as a suggestion of what I think you should do, but an option.  Sometimes we get lost in the fact that we can do something when it might be easier another way. 

Otherwise treating it like shipping a fish isn't a bad idea.  This is done all the time, including the dead of winter.

[Xaos]

Thanks all! I don't have a LFS as we live quite remotely, which complicates a few options for us but this has all been very helpful and I feel much better about our plan for moving them. I found some 12"x24" bags on Amazon that I think will work well for us, and just divide each species into a bag. We have a battery-powered air pump that can run two lines, so we might play around with splitters to see if that would work for some of them. We also have some media that I may try to seed & toss in with them. It will probably be a bit of overkill.

[JettsPapa]

On 4/1/2023 at 12:56 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

You can also get this stuff called polyfilter and add that to each bag to help during shipping.

I forgot to mention it earlier, but when I ship shrimp I always include a piece of live plant (usually pearl weed, guppy grass, or hornwort) for the shrimp to hang onto, and something with a little bit of biofilm to graze on, so they aren't just in a sterile bag.

[Xaos]

On 4/1/2023 at 3:23 PM, JettsPapa said:

I forgot to mention it earlier, but when I ship shrimp I always include a piece of live plant (usually pearl weed, guppy grass, or hornwort) for the shrimp to hang onto, and something with a little bit of biofilm to graze on, so they aren't just in a sterile bag.

My hornwort is doing very well, so I think I’ll have some to toss in with everyone! Haha.