Moving big spiny fish

[Psy]

Well, there might be a move in the future, and I would like to not sell all my fish for this cross country move. I have moved fish and aquariums before, but only day moves, not a 3 days drive.

This makes me think breather bags, though that means single bagging some 6 inch plecos and raphaels. I suppose the ability to open the box/cooler once a day is an advantage over mail shipping.

What is the proper fish to bag size ratio?

[Bas Pels]

Starting at the base - start with starving the fish for a week

Then I would us buckets - ideally 20 liters / 5 gallon buckets, which are half full with water, 1 for each fish.

I would catch the fish on day -2, that is 2 days before the move. after 4 hrs, change water, than, the next day after 8 - 10 hrs, in the morning and evening. Next day, day 0, change water again (the fish are now used to the protocol) and go.

During the drive, change water every morning, and be careful with temperature.

Assuming the water at the destination is different from the starting water, ideally you use the trip to get the fish used to the new water. That would imply bringing water along

[Acanthicus]

Morning,

moving big fishes is easier than you might think, but forget about the bags, you definetely need buckets. I assume you mainly have fishes like Doradidae and Pims, right? I just moved a group of 14 Pimelodus, each measuring between 20 and 25cm. Each fish a bucket on it's own and they will be fine for three days, if you change half of the water every day and don't feed them the week before. I also lower the temperature a few days in advance of a long transport to calm their metabolism.
If you travel by car you need to pay much attention that the water doesn't get to warm, which happens pretty fast in my experience. It's better to keep the water at 20 °C instead of 25 °C or more.


Good luck and don't worry,
Daniel

[Psy]

Nothing as big as 25cm. I did move a C. uropthalmus (false red terror/mayan) that big 6 hours away once. 15cm doridids though. Cichlids too, though I'm not sure which ones would come along. Maybe the Salvini pair or gymnogeophagus.

Current plan is to pull fish as I break the tanks down. One tank keeps gaining convicts because I can't net anyone out. They'll have fresh water at that stage, and then prior to shipping. I'll need movers to get a couple tanks out of the basement.

It is going from very soft to very hard water. People breed Apistos in tap water here, and rift lake fish there. At least its not well water from there (25 degrees of hardness?)

[amiidae]

You may consider running portable air pump for the tub.

[TwoTankAmin]

I do not know if this will help. It is a vid of how they moved some very big fish from their old tank to a new 105,000 litre tank in a new house. You can see how the catch and move the fish into the transport containers, You will see about midway through that they actually wrap one fish in a wet towel to carry it from the tank to the vehicle. Their journey is much shorter than yours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6rUyDHWH2o

[Psy]

I sold the raphaels.

I saw a bristlenose fry go across the glass today. Just under 3 weeks in the 75. Its actually still sitting on the basement floor. Small, and I don't know who spawned in which cave, but pretty interesting that they bred so soon after a 4 day truck ride. 6 days in a bucket.

Lost my female salvini. I wanted to keep her and her mate in separate buckets, but did not have room. Probably a combination of stress/temp/oxygen and the mate chasing her. I'd expect the larger fish to have O2 problems first otherwise.

[PortsmouthKate]

Hello, everybody!

I'm not sure where to ask, but can anyone recommend a removals company in the UK that can help me with the moving of my tank? A friend of mine recommended this removals company in Wimbledon SW19 http://www.removalswimbledonsw19.co.uk/ Have you used their moving services?
This will be my second move in short time, but a couple of months ago I managed to move on my own. I don't think I can do it again.

Thanks in advance!