preparing to move

[Tedd Jacobs]

we just bought a house and are preparing to move the fish. yes i know what
this means... i finally get to buy that bigger tank! :-D i'm posting up my
method for moving so you guys can offer up any comments, criticisms, advice,
been-there-done-thats, et al. i have five tank in all to be moved, a 5, 10
15, 20 and 25 gal. the 5 gal. is my hatching tank for eggs, it wont be much
of a problem at all as i dont have any at the moment. the 10 gal. has 3
dwarf puffers and 8 african dwarf frogs. the 15 gal. has one adult
angelfish, one bristlenose pl*co (hell yeah i'm being supersticious! i'm
about to put a major move stess on him! ;-)) and two ADF's. the 20 houses
my tigerbarbs, 5 adults with currently about 15 3-month old juviniles. the
25 has a pair of mated angels, a sailfin platy and a swordtail, one bamboo
(wood) shrimp and two oto cats.

we are only moving about a mile and a half away so i'm fairly lucky in the
respect that it will be a shorter ride, though the stress of capturing and
containing then reintroducing will be the main stresses. i'll be moving
each tank one at a time with the exception of the 5 and the 10, which will
go together. i have two five gallon buckets with sealing lids that i am
going to use. from each tank i'll siphon off 5 + 5 gallons of water, then
drain most of the remaining water out to ease netting the fish. i'll then
net the fish and put them into one 5 gallon bucket. i'll drain out most of
the rest of the water leaving, for the most part, what is left in the
substrate. then pack up the filters, close off the buckets, move on over to
the new house and set up. i wont be adding any new water immediatly, they
are on their own well(s) and do not treat their water. i'm waiting for the
last report to arrive and i'm taking my testing kit over tomorrow to compair
the differences. so i'll only be using the 10 gallons i transport over at
this time. depending on the differences in the hardness scales, i'll
beging adding new water gradually (over the course of a few days) to let the
fish adjust. i'll be moving all of the tanks on the same day, rinsing the
buckets between each trip. i plan on doing an extra 20% water change a day
before and holding off on the feeding untill i get them over to the new
place (a basic 24 hours). from start to finish should take less than an
hour for each tank.

my biggest worries are my otos, the pl*co and bamboo shrimp. the angels,
while finicky are locally bred and pretty tough and sturdy when it comes to
weathering changes. the tiger barbs are hardy fish and will make the move
just fine i think. the platys are about the same, they have made more than
one trip around the house from tank to tank from time to time. the puffers
i dont know much about yet, we've only started into them within the past few
months. the wifes frogs might accidentally get lost somewhere along the way
;-). but it is the ones you cant neccessarily feed that worry me the most.
when i first picked up the shrimp i used liquid fry in the tank once a day
and he seemed to respond well (long story how this happened), it wasnt but
within the span of a few weeks he'd molted twice, which i didnt think was
possible.

as for the bigger tank,... the wifelady did promise me that once i got her a
new house i could get a bigger tank, i'm thinking 125-175 gal.. i got a
nice wall in the living room that needs something to fill it up. :-))

[Dick]

On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 23:28:43 -0700, "Tedd Jacobs"
> wrote:

>we just bought a house and are preparing to move the fish. yes i know what
>this means... i finally get to buy that bigger tank! :-D i'm posting up my
>method for moving so you guys can offer up any comments, criticisms, advice,
>been-there-done-thats, et al. i have five tank in all to be moved, a 5, 10
>15, 20 and 25 gal. the 5 gal. is my hatching tank for eggs, it wont be much
>of a problem at all as i dont have any at the moment. the 10 gal. has 3
>dwarf puffers and 8 african dwarf frogs. the 15 gal. has one adult
>angelfish, one bristlenose pl*co (hell yeah i'm being supersticious! i'm
>about to put a major move stess on him! ;-)) and two ADF's. the 20 houses
>my tigerbarbs, 5 adults with currently about 15 3-month old juviniles. the
>25 has a pair of mated angels, a sailfin platy and a swordtail, one bamboo
>(wood) shrimp and two oto cats.
>
>we are only moving about a mile and a half away so i'm fairly lucky in the
>respect that it will be a shorter ride, though the stress of capturing and
>containing then reintroducing will be the main stresses. i'll be moving
>each tank one at a time with the exception of the 5 and the 10, which will
>go together. i have two five gallon buckets with sealing lids that i am
>going to use. from each tank i'll siphon off 5 + 5 gallons of water, then
>drain most of the remaining water out to ease netting the fish. i'll then
>net the fish and put them into one 5 gallon bucket. i'll drain out most of
>the rest of the water leaving, for the most part, what is left in the
>substrate. then pack up the filters, close off the buckets, move on over to
>the new house and set up. i wont be adding any new water immediatly, they
>are on their own well(s) and do not treat their water. i'm waiting for the
>last report to arrive and i'm taking my testing kit over tomorrow to compair
>the differences. so i'll only be using the 10 gallons i transport over at
>this time. depending on the differences in the hardness scales, i'll
>beging adding new water gradually (over the course of a few days) to let the
>fish adjust. i'll be moving all of the tanks on the same day, rinsing the
>buckets between each trip. i plan on doing an extra 20% water change a day
>before and holding off on the feeding untill i get them over to the new
>place (a basic 24 hours). from start to finish should take less than an
>hour for each tank.
>
>my biggest worries are my otos, the pl*co and bamboo shrimp. the angels,
>while finicky are locally bred and pretty tough and sturdy when it comes to
>weathering changes. the tiger barbs are hardy fish and will make the move
>just fine i think. the platys are about the same, they have made more than
>one trip around the house from tank to tank from time to time. the puffers
>i dont know much about yet, we've only started into them within the past few
>months. the wifes frogs might accidentally get lost somewhere along the way
>;-). but it is the ones you cant neccessarily feed that worry me the most.
>when i first picked up the shrimp i used liquid fry in the tank once a day
>and he seemed to respond well (long story how this happened), it wasnt but
>within the span of a few weeks he'd molted twice, which i didnt think was
>possible.
>
>as for the bigger tank,... the wifelady did promise me that once i got her a
>new house i could get a bigger tank, i'm thinking 125-175 gal.. i got a
>nice wall in the living room that needs something to fill it up. :-))
>
>
>
>

Such a short move and fairly small tanks, I would take out half the
water and any ornaments or rocks and leave the fish and plants in the
tanks. The motion is not a problem, the frames are built to handle
pressure from within. I would be careful about holding only the frame
and no pressure to the glass. I will do anything to keep from having
to catch my fish. Talk about stress, me and them not to mention torn
plants.

Big is great, but I have heard comments from owners that say the
larger tanks can be hard to work in. The bottom is too far to reach.

dick

[Ali Day]

> as for the bigger tank,... the wifelady did promise me that once i got her
a
> new house i could get a bigger tank, i'm thinking 125-175 gal.. i got a
> nice wall in the living room that needs something to fill it up. :-))

Go for it, I went from 75 gal up to a 6ft 160 gal tank, and it's fantastic
and certainly impressive when you walk into the room. The only thing I'm
struggling with really is getting enough nutrients in with the plants
without having algae appear everywhere.

[Sarah Navarro]

This is how we moved our tanks that we bought with fish in them, a 40
gallon, and a 30 gallon. Just make sure you remove all the large
decorations, and don't leave any glass lids on the top during the move. It
is much easier for the fish and for you. We also put a blanket all around
and under ours during the move.

Sarah

>
> Such a short move and fairly small tanks, I would take out half the
> water and any ornaments or rocks and leave the fish and plants in the
> tanks. The motion is not a problem, the frames are built to handle
> pressure from within. I would be careful about holding only the frame
> and no pressure to the glass. I will do anything to keep from having
> to catch my fish. Talk about stress, me and them not to mention torn
> plants.
>
> Big is great, but I have heard comments from owners that say the
> larger tanks can be hard to work in. The bottom is too far to reach.
>
> dick

[Tedd Jacobs]

"Sarah Navarro" > wrote in message
ink.net...
>
> This is how we moved our tanks that we bought with fish in them, a 40
> gallon, and a 30 gallon. Just make sure you remove all the large
> decorations, and don't leave any glass lids on the top during the move.
> It is much easier for the fish and for you. We also put a blanket all
> around and under ours during the move.
>
> Sarah
>
>>
>> Such a short move and fairly small tanks, I would take out half the
>> water and any ornaments or rocks and leave the fish and plants in the
>> tanks. The motion is not a problem, the frames are built to handle
>> pressure from within. I would be careful about holding only the frame
>> and no pressure to the glass. I will do anything to keep from having
>> to catch my fish. Talk about stress, me and them not to mention torn
>> plants.
>>
>> Big is great, but I have heard comments from owners that say the
>> larger tanks can be hard to work in. The bottom is too far to reach.
>>
>> dick

dick and sarah,
how did you guys prevent spillage while transporting?

[Sarah Navarro]

I drained the tank down until there was only enough to cover the fishes. I
only left about 4 inches or less of water and then I put towels over the
top. I was going to put plastic trash bags, but was afraid of smothering
the fish. I also have a battery operated airstone that I put in with them
when I move them. One time I moved them over a three hour drive and they
were just fine, although I don't recommend it.

Sarah


">>
>>>
>
> dick and sarah,
> how did you guys prevent spillage while transporting?
>

[Dick]

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 10:43:33 -0700, "Tedd Jacobs"
> wrote:

>
>"Sarah Navarro" > wrote in message
ink.net...
>>
>> This is how we moved our tanks that we bought with fish in them, a 40
>> gallon, and a 30 gallon. Just make sure you remove all the large
>> decorations, and don't leave any glass lids on the top during the move.
>> It is much easier for the fish and for you. We also put a blanket all
>> around and under ours during the move.
>>
>> Sarah
>>
>>>
>>> Such a short move and fairly small tanks, I would take out half the
>>> water and any ornaments or rocks and leave the fish and plants in the
>>> tanks. The motion is not a problem, the frames are built to handle
>>> pressure from within. I would be careful about holding only the frame
>>> and no pressure to the glass. I will do anything to keep from having
>>> to catch my fish. Talk about stress, me and them not to mention torn
>>> plants.
>>>
>>> Big is great, but I have heard comments from owners that say the
>>> larger tanks can be hard to work in. The bottom is too far to reach.
>>>
>>> dick
>
>dick and sarah,
> how did you guys prevent spillage while transporting?
>
I wouldn't worry about spilling a little water, but I would cover the
tanks with something to prevent jumping. If the tank water level is
low, the water will not likely to slosh out. I forget these details,
it has been many years since I transported any tanks, but I do know I
did not remove the fish.

dick