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My job makes me move every 3-5 years. Being Canadian that means any where form 100Km (60miles) to 4800Km (3000 miles). So a move could take over two weeks or as little as 2 days. Now I have 2 Oscars (3-5 inches), a fire mouth (3 inches), 2 apple snails and a Albino Rhino Pleco (4 inches). How far and long do you think I could move these fish and how should I go about doing it? Keep in mind that space in the back seat of my compact car would be shared with 2 cat carriers.

There are a few options to consider:

Ask Your LFS if you can leave your fish there until you are ready for them (or a friend, family, etc ). If so then you could either have these people mail the fish to you, or you could come collect them a bit later.

IF you are going to be moving the fish then here's how I would do it. get at least one battery operated air pump, some air line tubing and airstones to fit. (also get plenty of batteries!) empty half the tank into an old cat litter tub (they tend to have snapping lids, this is a plus ) if not use a 5gallon bucket, and find a lid. cut a hole for the tubing and run it through. net out the fish and place them into the buckets/tubs. then turn on the air and your good to go. then take a small rubbermaid container or plastic crate/tote and put the gravel into it, along with a few fish food flakes and tank water to cover it. also if you have filter media put it in witht eh gravel! or do a similar procedure. this will help reduce the cycleing period and the shock to the fish that would correspond. if you need the space on teh back seat, you could collapse one of the carriers and put the cats in one i would say you should put the fish in two buckets, one for the oscars, the other for the pleco and fire mouth... the snails can go in with the gravel if there is enough room and enough water for them to stay submerged.

these fish should be good for six to eight hours, but no promises,it alldepends on the shock theyt incure from bumps and etc. i had a large tiger oscar in like situation for three hours with no damage done. (except i didnt do the air pump, a stupid mistake!)

also make sure any decorations go in with the the gravel so the bacteria stays alive and functioning...

did i cover it all?

GOOD LUCK,
-Brandon

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

That sounds like the tub is how I would moving them.
My father in-law moved his fish from from the east coast to Central Canada in 3 or 4 days. Some died but a lot lived. Some types of fish would do a move better then others. I would think that the snails and the placo could be moved around the world three or four times before there was a problem. However how many days could I move the Oscars and Firemouth before I ran in to a illness or death?

well five would be the max, but if they had plenty of room, some waterchanges when you did a rest stop every other day or so, possibly they could go six days, but it would be pushing it. also dont feed them while your going, and if it is going to be days i would suggest you start adding small amounts of gravel to the tubs asasp and try to start to cycle them with a little ammonia. that way you have a good ecosystem for them to live in during transport. treat it like a mini tank.

the snails should be fine no matter what (they could even go in a water bottle if they could fit in

the oscars and firemouths are generally hardier as well, the pleco is what scares me! plecos tend to be more sensitive to climate changes and etc, i am not familiar with the rhino pleco, but hopefulyy it is of a hardier variety. for best results i would say 5gals per fish minimum. but thats alot of water to be toting arround, so 15gallons sight/should suffice... just make sure the tub is level for best results, and properly strapped in (get some webbed straping like yo would use to transport something on top of your car, bungees run a risk so dont use them... other than that you should have everything set to go, and all you can hope is that your fish make it...!!!

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Here is my experience with moving fish:

Almost a year a go I made a move that one can make in about 12 hours if everything goes right. Now everything did not go according to plan and the move took three days. Here is what I did.

~I started out by not feeding the fish for almost a week before the move date. This was so they would not pollute the water they were in. When I worked at the LFS our salt water fish would go through similar treatment before getting shipped across the world.

~Each fish was placed in to it's own fish bag that was 1/3 water and 2/3 air. The water was half tank water and 1/2 new aged water. I placed each fish in it's own bag to prevent one fish dieing and killing the rest.

~Next all the bags were placed into a cooler to keep the temperature stable.

~At the end of each day of travel I would open up the bags to let some fresh air in.

~As for the gravel and filter pads I would just keep them wet to hold the bacteria. I put my filters in bags and the gravel in buckets and rubber made tubs.

This system seemed to work really well as I didn't lose a single fish on my trip.



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I have moved many times, but only twice with the fish. Luckily, the moves were just short ones only several miles and we did have the luxury of about a week to get it. Once the major bulk of stuff was moved I took the fish into large rubbermaid tubs with lids (using tank water). then As efficiently as I could I removed the rest of the water and ornaments and stuff and packed them seperate. Next I grabbed up the empty tank(s) and put them in the truck (up front with the fish) and quickly went to the new place, set everything back up, allowed the water to clear and settle down and the temp to stabilize and intorduced them to their new home. Also took the opportunity to replace the old stands with new ones. The biggest advice I can give is to do a very thorough gravel vac first, as this can kick up quite a cloud. Again, this was done as a special trip and a day was set aside for the whole thing, but they were back up and moved in just a few hours.

I recently had a very short move myself. I was able to move both my 29 and 75 in an afternoon. I purchased (6) 5 gallon buckets with lids. I filled each with about 4 gallons of water from the 29 and moved it in 1 trip. I left just enough water in the tank to keep the gravel moist and put my filter components in one of the buckets to keep as much bacteria alive as possible.

I moved the 75 in 3 trips storing the water in tubs and coolers at the new house. When the water dropped too low for the filter to continue, I removed the components and put them in the tank to preserve bacteria. On the third trip, I put plants in one bucket, filter components in one and divided the fish up in the other four. I used a pond pump to get the water from the large tubs back into the tank.

FYI, larger tanks can be very heavy with gravel and a little water in them! The 29 wasn't bad but if I did it again, I would probably use one of the buckets for the gravel in the 75.