cross country move

While moving, keep them in a dark container--ie, a cooler, with the lid shut. Lower the water temp a tad, but not enough to stress them--only 2-3 degrees. Do not feed them for 2 days before packing them up--this will reduce the waste they create and ammonia problems. I'm a fan of puting a handful on ammo chips in the bottom of each bag for trips longer than 1 day, especially with larger fish.

Bring along several jugs of prepared water, and stop to 'refresh' their water a couple times a day. If possible, open topped contained will allow more oxygen exchange, and help out as well.

i just moved from NJ to FL, 1000 miles, and this is almost exactly what i did. we drove a straight shot, 15 hours. the only thing i added was a battery air pump with an airstone in each of two coolers that i used to supplement the old O2 supply. i don't know if this was necessary, but it made me feel better. i was able to slide the tubing into the nearly-closed cooler, which helped limit spillage (i wrapped them in towels anyway). oh, i also made sure to keep the filter sponges wet for the trip, which i think has really made a difference as my new setup has been just about cycle-less. bringing the fish in coolers also allowed me to bring 15-20g of water from the old tanks as well, another plus.

i moved a lot of fish (more than i wanted to move) and all survived and have been doing fine in their new tanks for 8 days now. let's see...23 total fish moved: gouramies, loaches, sun cats, a couple spiny eels...