Moving house with fish

Hi all,

I was wondering will it work successfully, has anyone moved house with fish etc traveling around 12-14 hours or maybe fly fish up via airplane. Any tips or ideas on this?

Thanks.

 

Fish get transported all the time.
Check with someone that routinely couriers fish, and find out how they do it.

I think if fish are bagged properly and crated they should be able to survive 12-14 hours without too much stress.

 

Yeah I know that if anyone on the forum has done this before please share what or how you have done it, If I need to fly fish up I will, sure bacteria in canister will also stay alive for a few hours.

 

Trying to keep filters alive over that period normally does not go well. Tried it once and two days later all my livestock were dead.

Rather clean everything and start new by adding Stability.

Moving fish and house is one of the things I hate the most.
Now if I need to do it I move the fish and tanks a day before moving house.

Ensure I have enough time to setup everything.

Hope it helps a little.

 

Moved a tank from Cape Town to Pretoria many years ago, and this is what I did:

Had a new 4ft set up in Pretoria a few weeks before the move (I was fortunate to travel up for work before the relocation so had time to do this)
Had the tank run for a week with filter media from a friend's tank, then added a few Guppies and let it run.
Bagged the fish in Cape Town, added O2 to the bags (not sure how much this helped but I did it anyway)
Had the fish transported up as cargo on the same flight I was on, bags packed properly in a sturdy cooler box and clearly marked.
Introduced the fish into the tank in Pretoria.
The had the original tank ship up with the rest of the house contents and set it up again there.

Upside is that there is no rush.
Downside is cost.

 

Good idea, might setup small tank on that side with one of my current filters will then fly up fish and will go put them in the temp setup, will then move the tank with movers and when all is there just move over.

 

From where to where are you planning the move?

 

Cape town, yes I might even do that rather.

 

I would find it difficult to get rid of some of my fish.
The Ancistrus may be cheap, but they each have their own personality.
The Harlequins and the Gourami come to the glass when they see me approaching.
The Betta takes food from my hand.
The Rainbows are just starting to colour up nicely.

 

Yeah bud that is my exact problem they each have their own personality most of my fish swim from right to left before I feed them or the angels always very inquisitive so yes will see what happens or how I could do it.

 

If starting over is a option at all, do it.

 

Thanks all for the info really appreciate it, will see what happens for now I am enjoying what I currently have getting a nice dophin c1000 canister next month and a couple of extra fishes and buying my LED tube from the lamphouse on Thursday

 

@Reedfish not all, aro's are an exception. It took me long to get him to trust me and he hates everyone else haha. When I moved him from the pond to his new tank I thought I was going to have a battle again but he actually came to me when I entered the pond. I petted him on the head and picked him up as if nothing was wrong, he didn't even struggle. I put him in the tank and he also ate immediately witch is strange for arowana after a move. He is very afraid of my dog and when she spooks him he comes to me and hides behind me. When I put my hands in the tank he comes and rubs up against them. He's also over his eating machine stage of live as he only eats every second day or so, so its not food. He's like a dog to me. I might be seeing things but there's more to him than just instinct.

 

To move your fish you will need to bag them with good quality water together with oxygen. Stop feeding them 3 days before the move. This will help clean their intestines in order not to foul the water too much. Remember it is a small quantity of water that you will transport them in and the ammonia level quickly rises in such a small quantity. Since they are going to stress, their respiration rate will also go up and this will increase the CO2 in the water. This is why the water quality you start with and using oxygen instead of air is critical.

Use proper fish bags to pack them in and double bag them. In order to keep the water temperature, it is best to use a styrofoam box. Depending on the orientation of the bags it is sometimes better to tape the corners of the bags back onto the bag in order to prevent the fish from getting stuck in a corner along the way.

To transport them via airplane you will need to book them in as "Livestock" and you normally need to arrange this beforehand. It means they will go into a temperature controlled area. Do not attempt to transport them in the normal cargo hold, they will not survive.

I would say the best way to give your filter bacteria a surviving chance is to take the filter material out of the canister filter, put it in a bucket and run a battery operated air pump on it. Whatever you decide to do, do not transport the filter material in a closed canister filter. The bacteria will start dying from oxygen starvation within an hour. I have learned this the hard way due to load shedding.

Best of luck!