# Moving Fish



## PEIFish (Jun 24, 2008)

Hello All.

I'm new here.

I have a question about moving fish.
I will be moving in about a week to another house.
I have 3 aquariums.
The largest is a 75gal. that currently has a medium sized red parrot fish, a small rope fish and a large pleco.
In the other 2 aquariums I have, among other fish, a medium red tail shark, a clown loach and a jack dempsey all of which I want to move to the larger tank.

My question is would it be better to wait until after the move to transfer these fish so they don't have to deal with 2 changes, or would it be better to move them now so they can acclimatize to their new environment before moving them to the new place?


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

IMO, if you have the time on your moving day, leave them in the tanks they are in right now. When you get to your new home, put them all in the 75g (which BTW will be, IMO, too small for all of them when they are all fully grown, plus the loach needs some friends as they are social animals that do best in groups of 5 or more). That way, when you get to your new home and set up the tank, you'll have all of the in there, and only have one tank to worry about.


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

How far are you moving to? P.E.I.?


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## PEIFish (Jun 24, 2008)

I'm not moving far at all.
I live on PEI and I'm moving less than a mile from my current place.


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

LOL, oh god lol ftw. gta aquaria reaches to new distances. awesome.

at least you don't have to worry about a long haul with your fish. my sister is moving to Toronto from Halifax in one straight drive and she's got no idea how to move her betta. i can't imagine moving a community tank.

best of luck. i'm sure it'll go over smoothly.


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## PEIFish (Jun 24, 2008)

I only get to visit GTA occasionally but since this was a busy forum I thought I would join up.

The move should go OK.
I have 3 tanks and I'll be moving most of the water to keep the balance. 
I'm getting a custom 300gal. tank built in the new place so the bigger fish should be happy.


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

sorry, i've been lurking this thread the whole time thinking you were moving half way across the country and i was all " omg, how's s/he gonna manage that?" 

also i'm a schmuck. 

more importantly, i'm enormously jealous of your new tank. that's incredible! what do you plan on stocking it with?


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## PEIFish (Jun 24, 2008)

I think I'll stick with what I have in the new tank when it's built.
A big pleco, blood parrot (but I'll add a couple more to keep him company) a rope fish, a jack dempsey and the clown loach. By the time they reach maturity it will be plenty for the big aquarium.

I'll use the 75 gallon to make a "friendly" community tank or I am considering making it into a saltwater tank.


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

Welcome to the forum, PEIFish

PEIFish, did you see the sticky article in the Plants and Cultivation section called " How do you empty/move a planted tank?". It may help.


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## PEIFish (Jun 24, 2008)

Thank you for that Calmer.


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## planter (Jun 9, 2008)

For longer distances you can buy one on those muilt plug unit that plugs into the cig lighter in the car. Then buy a rubbermaid bin or bins. poke some holes on top for ventilation and power cords. Run an air stone and heater into the bin. Treat the water with prime declor or any kind that bind ammonia, nitrite,nitrate. every seven hours or so. Do not feed them one or two days before the move. 

Tada ! portable tank  

plants and substrate/decor should be in separate bins.


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

If I was moving even a medium distance and worried about my tanks being too heavy to move except if I completely empty them and tear everything down, I would be sticking one sponge filter per moving-buddy-set, into my most well established tanks right now, to start them growing their bacterial colonies. Then I would move the filters into clean buckets or coolers, along with their fishies, and whatever plant life you can move along with it. When you get to your new place, you could even move your fish and the sponge filter into a cooler, for the day of the move, and you will have an easier time moving without crashing your biofiltration and without having tanks 1/3 or 1/4 full of water to move. The oxygen and water being on the bacteria will keep it alive, and the tank water will hopefully contain enough nutrients to keep the overall biological system alive and balanced even if the tanks have to be stripped and moved clean.

I would hate to move a 75g glass aquarium with anything at all inside it.



W


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

KhuliLoachFan said:


> Then I would move the filters into clean buckets or coolers, along with their fishies, and whatever plant life you can move along with it. W


Don't move the plants in there, especially if you don't have adequate aeration, as in the dark, the plants have the capacity, if there are enough of them, to starve the fish of oxygen. A small enough will be good to provide something to rest in, but too much may not be the best choice.


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

Okay. Good to know. Wouldn't want to asphyxiate the fishies!

W


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

PEIFish said:


> Thank you for that Calmer.


Your Welcome


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## PEIFish (Jun 24, 2008)

I'm getting professional movers to do the move and they're pretty hardy guys.
I'll leave the 2 40 gallon tanks about a third full of water for the move.
I'll ask them how much they can handle with the 75gal.

The place I'm moving to is only 3 minutes away from where I am now so I will just bag the fish pet shop style and transport them in a box with our pillows. Of course I will be moving them myself.


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## Westender (Mar 24, 2006)

I'd really think twice about leaving that much water in your 40's to move. that's about 130 pounds of water or so. Odds are very good that you will lose tanks when moving them with that much water in them.


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## KnaveTO (May 13, 2007)

One should never move tanks with water in them as you will probably put stress on the glass. There will be a number of times that the water level is uneven and thus stress the seals in the tanks.


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

KnaveTO said:


> One should never move tanks with water in them as you will probably put stress on the glass. There will be a number of times that the water level is uneven and thus stress the seals in the tanks.


I absolutely agree. Moving a tank with water in it is about as bad as you can possible get in terms of the stresses you'd apply. The weight will not be supported evenly and will be subjected to flexing as the movers go up and down and around corners with it, compounded with the fact all the remaining weight will be supported on the two ends (assuming 2 movers holding it).

I successfully moved a planted 50G last Dec and basically removed all the water I could and once the water was down close to the gravel , I scooped out a small "sump" in one corner of the gravel so I could get the hose down to the bottom glass and then tilted the aquarium to that end so water would collect - then carefully siphoned out water down below the top level of the gravel. As I was draining, I made sure the plants laid flat as possible without braking stems, covered the whole bottom (plants and substrate) with wet towels and moved it.

This also keeps the disturbance of your substrate to a minimum, any amount of water sloshing about will really affect your substrate and move things around.

No guarantees, but this method worked well for me.

BTW: 3 good sized tanks AND living in PEI...I'm a bit jealous.


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## PEIFish (Jun 24, 2008)

Thanks for the advice all. I will drain the tanks and transport the water in buckets.


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