Moving fish cross-country

Geekshow

Geekshow

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Sep 2, 2008
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Im moving from louisiana to wyoming in two weeks (its a three day drive). I have four tanks with fish 75 gal tropical community tank, 69 gal catfish tank, 29 gal goldfish tank and a 10 gal nursery tank. Im not worried about the tanks themselves, we are having profesional movers move our household goods. Im really worried about the fish though. Ive grown quite attached to all of them and i dont want to end up loosing them all because i tried to move them. Does anyone have any ideas? Should i just forget trying to move them and take them to the local pet store or should i try and take them with me?
 
All I know is, first and foremost: make sure the fish you want to bring are legal to own in Wyoming.
 
No problem there, nothing rare or extrodinary. Mostly mollies platties and gold fish. The catfish tank only has a juvinile channel cat two silver dollars and a syndontis.:)
 
If you really, really, REALLY want to take them with you, you'd have to get one of the LFSs to hold them for a few days while you move, then pack them up with LOTS of oxygen in the bags in an insulated box and airfreight them using an overnight service. They should not be fed for at least 24 hours prior to shipping. They should have a water treatment that neutralizes ammonia in their water. When they arrive they should be carefully acclimatised as this is new water, and by that time your tanks will no longer be cycled. Use lots of bio-spira. Most should survive the trip, but no guarantees.

The other option, of course, is to let your LFS sell them and buy replacement fish when you get there.
 
pack them in rubber maid containers and get a plug converter thing that can plug into the car lighter. or you could use a battery powered pump. i guess it depends how you are moving. i don't know how far louisiana is from wyoming but i'd probably use one of these methods. shipping them via lps might work if you have an lps that you would trust to handle this correctly.
 
^^^^^^^^I agree
 
Thanks for all the help. Im still thinking about my options. I really dont want to sell them but if that ends up being whats best for the fish ill do it. One more question if i shipped them wouldnt i need to be there before they arrived so i could recieve them? Plus the movers will not arrive with the tanks for a few days after we get there any sugestions on what to do to house them untill the tanks arrive?
 
Geekshow said:
Thanks for all the help. Im still thinking about my options. I really dont want to sell them but if that ends up being whats best for the fish ill do it. One more question if i shipped them wouldnt i need to be there before they arrived so i could recieve them? Plus the movers will not arrive with the tanks for a few days after we get there any sugestions on what to do to house them untill the tanks arrive?
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You would need to have the LFS board them for a week or two while you moved, then get your tanks set up in the new place, let the LFS know when you are ready, then be at the airport to meet the plane. Perhaps the LFS could board your filters, too. That is, run them on one of their tanks for the 2 weeks, then drain them and ship them at the same tome as the fish but IN A DIFFERENT BOX!!!!!!

Yould need to find a really friendly LFS that has an oxygen tank for filling the bags.
 
If all you have is common fish, and faced with the extra time to break down and clean the tanks for packing them up, the 3 day drive and the wait for the moving truck, I would just turn them in.

Trying to take them all in containers may be space limiting in your vehicle and shipping them will cost you 10-20 times more than what your could replace them for.
 
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