Moving fish long distance advice

[feh]

I've sold off all my corals, but I have 3 fish I've grown quite attached to and having a hard time with selling them before I move. This is a long distance move about 5 to 6 hours away. Looking for best advice on how to move them safely and without any casualties once I get there. New display was never cycled, but do I have some old rock in the tank I've had them in for a while. Anyone with experience have any suggestions?

 

[stunreefer Verified Sponsor]

Triple bag them and put oxygen in bag (good LFS should be able to do that for you), then into a styrofoam cooler. Heat/ice packs could be added based on ambient temps.

Another option would be to place in bucket and use a battery powered air pump during drive, but this does nothing for temperature swings (which could be moot - depends on your ambient temp).

Make sure you have a solid plan figured out for getting your tank up and running without any params spiking.

 

[feh]

Triple bag them and put oxygen in bag (good LFS should be able to do that for you), then into a styrofoam cooler. Heat/ice packs could be added based on ambient temps.

Another option would be to place in bucket and use a battery powered air pump during drive, but this does nothing for temperature swings (which could be moot - depends on your ambient temp).

Make sure you have a solid plan figured out for getting your tank up and running without any params spiking.

I'm planning to put them back in the temporary tank once I get there. The rock and any possible cycle and such are my main concerns. I have plenty of salt mix on hand if I need to do WCs to maintain proper levels. Will be a little bit longer before I start up the new display. I don't want to put the old rock in it, but that's another story. Thanks for the info.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

What kind of fish are they? That may affect what the best way to handle them will be. Sounds like you have a good basic plan going though.

I would probably put them into a holding tank while I cycled the display. Treat the holding tank like a QT setup. They should be fine that way.

 

[tyler1503]

I moved my 5 gal 5 hours away a few years ago. I moved a 4 inch long zebra moray, complete CUC, live rock, a bunch of corals, a starfish, live sand, an in tank refugium with macro algae and rock rubble, a sea urchin as well as all my hardware. The only casualties were the urchin and macro algae.
All I did was double bag everything and pack it all tightly in a styrofoam box with newspaper padding. I sat it in the backseat with a seatbelt on it to keep it in place. I left the rock and sand in the tank and sat it in my lap with wet newspaper covering the rock.
Being such a small tank I was able to save 100% of the tank water so I didn't have to worry about acclimating anything. I just put as much water in as I could, let the water heat up, float the livestock to equalise temperature and let them and the bag water out into the tank. A small water change the next day and everything settled in nicely.
If you stress and rush things, you could make mistakes which could lead to losing a fish or two.
Also, try to drive as smoothly as possible, any sudden stops or big bumps along the way can be stressful to your livestock.

 

[feh]

What kind of fish are they? That may affect what the best way to handle them will be. Sounds like you have a good basic plan going though.

I would probably put them into a holding tank while I cycled the display. Treat the holding tank like a QT setup. They should be fine that way.

Two tank raised percs (pair) and a yellow watchman goby. They're in a holding tank now. I had planned to start up the display in a couple weeks, but company dropped a bomb on my entire office early last month. So I took the opp to move back home so I could be near family.

I'm thinking of packing the fish in a 5 gallon bucket and the rock I have in the holding tank in another.

 

[joshbbert]

Im having the same issue im moving 22 hours away and there are corals and a fish that I simply refuse to part with. Best I could come up with is leaving them behind with my brother get where im going set up and im gonna leave him cash to ship them. No idea if its going to work but maybe you could take your water and rock then have a buddy ship them. Shouldnt be more than a bill or two (I know thats not exactly cheap) good luck man I hope it works out for you