Things actually started a few months ago as I began the process of getting ready. I slowly began passing fish on to others, consolidated, and broke down tanks as I emptied them out. Last month I had a business trip to Washington DC and placed several rarer fishes with Andrew Blumhagen of Scales in Maryland. These included what are probably the only two Hypostomus robiniiin captivity. They were collected by Kaare (Mallemalle) in Trinidad, taken to Norway, passed to me in Oslo, brought back by me to Mexico, and then flown to Andrew in Maryland. The plan is for them to someday end up with Jools in Scotland. That trip will be their third flight over the Atlantic. I suspect those two fish are better travelled than most people.
Today I hit the fishroom hard with the idea of getting all but one tank (a 40 gallon) broken down and cleaned out. The final 40 gallon will house the remaining fish and plants until I can take them to a local importer this coming week.
This is the state of the fishroom after about 8 solid work hours with no breaks. I also broke down and packed up the RO system and accessories.
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Above is the main rack. It holds four 10 gallon tanks, one 15 gal and four 20 gallon "long" tanks. The six 10 gallon tanks will end up serving as "boxes" for most of the fishroom equipment. They will then be dropped into the two 40 gallon tanks, one 45, and one 55. The 45 and 55 (not pictured) each hold two 10 gallons and the two 40s can hold the remaining two 10s and 15 gallon.
Every filter, heater, light, piece of driftwood, etc has to be washed (without soap) before packing. If they are not the smell will cause you to fall over when the shipping crates are opened at the other end. The light bulbs all have to be removed and thrown out as the bulbs never ship well. Each tank also has to be carried to a sink and washed with clean water and a clean rag inside and out.
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Above is the right side of the fishroom (the previous photo is the left side). The top 40 gallon hold the remaining fishes and some plants. The bottom 40 is full of driftwood. All driftwood should ideally be removed and washed several weeks before the move so it has time to dry. Remember you are paying for every pound shipped and a large soggy piece of driftwood can weigh several pounds. I also threw out a piece of driftwood that was starting to rot.
My biggest problem is getting rid of the gravel. I do not have a yard living in the city, so it has to go out with the garbage. The gravel from the fishroom filed about three 5 gallon buckets. I transferred it all to several small plastic shopping bags each with about 3-4 pounds of gravel. I then dump 4-5 bags daily (1 or 2 each time) in the building's community trash cans. If I dumped it all at once somebody would notice the weight! I feel like one of the prisoners in "The Shawshank Redemption" getting rid of the dirt just a little bit everyday.
The 45 and 55 are planted tanks and I figure it will take me my entire remianing month here to get all the gravel out.
My back is killing me after today so I am self treating with aspirin and cold beer.
-Shane
