Moving Fish

[Erynn]

Hi....
I am going to be moving a 20 gallon tank out of my mom's house and into my house which is about an hour away or so. Right now here, there is a few feet of snow and it's very cold out. In the aquarium right now are 2 cory's, 1 moonlight gourami and 2 platy's. Fake plants.

What is the safest way to move these guys, to keep them warm...and then to be able to put them back into the tank asap. Will it have to cycle again if I bring along the water that is in it now? I am in the middle of cycling a 10 gallon....I guess I could put them in there temporarily until I get the 20 set back up. Thing is, I don't want to harm them in any way....and putting them in a not completely cycled tank doesn't sit well with me!

Ideas?

 

[waterspirit]

okay lets see if i can answer this and not give you bad advice.

I basically have no other suggestion but to wait as far as the not completely cycled tank goes but hey, I'm relatively new to the hobby but can give you one possibly decent method of transport.

To do this, you need to act as your own LFS. If your car has a good heater, let it warm up before you put the fish in the car. Get some of the little fish bags from an LFS and put the little guys in them, (be sure to keep the ratio 1/3water to 2/3 air. Then just drive them on over to your house. Oh yeah, do try to put them in a dark place like inside a paper bag or something on the ride home. It will help minimize stress.

 

[OrionGirl]

Shouldn't be a problem.

Get yourself some coolers. Put the fish in the coolers (bagged or not, your call. Bagged would be easier on them). Keep the cooler shut--avoid the temptation to check on them until you have them inside. Don't feed the fish for 24 hours prior to the move--won't hurt them, and will reduce the wastes they produce while bagged.

For the tank: Don't bother saving the water. It won't be worth it, since you will be importing nitrates. Transfer the gravel and the decorations into buckets. Keep them moist--wet paper towels or wet newspaper works great for this. Do the same thing for the filter media and filter.

Move the tank and all parts to your house. Setup the tank, return gravel and decorations. Fill with dechlorinated, appropriate temp water (doesn't have to be EXACT, but you'll want it close). Let any sediment settle, if needed. Add fish back. You can float their bags to help get them to the same temp as the tank.

Keep the lights off for a day, and feed very lightly. Monitor the tank closely. You might see a small spike, but it should be less than what the cycling tank is going through. Water changes will help.

 

[Erynn]

GREAT advice guys...thanks SO much....I'll let you know how it all works out!

 

[famman]

If your PH is different than your Mom's, you'll want to re-acclimate the fish to their new water just like you'd bought them new. That is, you add a small amount of new water to their bag every several minutes for an hour or so. If you bring enough old water with you to give them a fresh bag of water to float and add water to when you get them home it might go better.
Remember, you only have to do this if your ph is different than your mom's.
good luck