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Moving
Fish:
I
Moved 3,000 Miles with My Fish
By
David
Drake
I moved
3,000 miles with my fish -- Update after the move...
Well, the move is
over. It started out in Emmaus Pennsylvania, about 45 minutes outside
of Philly (it was July 6th and the temps were in the mid 80s F), and
it ended 6 days later in Portland, Oregon, where temps were also in
the mid 80s.
I'll give you the
whole story here and at the bottom I'll give a list of my Do's and Don't's
for moving fish great distances.
July 4th:
Two days prior to the move I broke down all of my tanks (29g, 20g, 10g,
5g) and put fish and shrimp in 4 separate 19gallon Rubbermaid tubs.
I floated the live plants in the water to provide cover, food, and hopefully
a little oxygen for the fish. I also set up filtration in the tubs that
ran until minutes before we loaded the tubs in the car for the drive.
I also put the hoods over the tubs until we left to provide for healthy
plants going into the trip. I fed the fish lightly.
July 5th:
Gave the fish a healthy feeding of frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp.
I know people say not to feed fish prior to a long move because it will
put waste in the water, but with all those live plants, waste was not
my main concern. I figured it would be like a Last Supper kinda thing
for them. Today we loaded all of our furniture onto the moving truck,
had pizza for dinner, and slept on the floor of our apartment with 4
tubs of fish.
July 6th:
We loaded the 4 tubs of fish into our Toyota Tercel which we pulled
behind the Penske moving truck. I bought one battery operated air pump
online and decided to rotate it throughout the trip, giving everyone
air part of the time. (Can we say cheap boys and girls!) I left the
windows down so the car would not heat up hotter than the outside air.
It was about 82*F as we drove out of PA, through West Virginia (for
like 10 miles), and into Ohio. At each stop I switched the airstone
to a different tub. Somewhere in western PA at a truck stop I noticed
a tetra and an SAE had jumped to their crusty demise. Had the lids on
loosely so hot air would not get trapped in. In Ohio at 9pm at my cousin's
house I rolled the windows up on the Fish-Mobile and left the fish outside.
Temps that night got down to 60.
Fatalities:2
High Temp:82
Low Temp:60
July 7th:
At 8am I went outside and measured water temps with my wife's digital
chef thermometer. Temps was 72*F. Perfect. Found a dead Pristella (X-ray)
Tetra. We drove through the rest of Ohio, through Indiana, into Chicago
Illinois to stay with a friend there. Temps got up to upper mid 80s
again. Water temp reached 82 by late afternoon. Fish stayed in car at
night again.
Fatalities:1
High Temp:85
Low Temp:65
July 8th:
In the morning I checked water temp again and it was 73*F. Drove 720
miles from Chicago, through Illinois, through Iowa, into Kearney Nebraska,
about 2 hours west of Lincoln. Arrived at 1:30am morning of 9th. Cared
not about fish, happy to have finally found a hotel, and went straight
to bed.
Fatalities:0
High Temp:87
Low Temp:63
July 9th:
Headed out early (8am), not wanting to arrive late 670 miles away in
Wyoming at Aunt & Uncle's house. Made only 3 stops between Kearney,
Nebraska and Crowheart Wyoming. (Sidenote: Wyoming is the most desolate
place I have seen on Earth. The capitol, Cheyenne, WY is a tiny little
cowpoke town with its tallest building being the state capitol bldg.)
It got HOT today with temps in 90s. Upon arriving in Crowheart, WY around
8pm, I inspected fish and found all to be well. Other than the 4 tubs
of fish in the car, I also had excess live plants in three 5-gallon
buckets in the trunk of the car. I took a look at them for the first
time and found them to be in BAD shape, as they had got NO light for
3 days and had undoubtedly gotten VERY HOT in the trunk. I took the
3 buckets of plants out for the night, letting them get some morning
sun the next day.
Fatalities:0,
only my beautiful Hygro Polysperma and lotus nymphaea which melted
to mush
High Temp:93
Low Temp:67
July 10th:
I put 3 buckets of sickly plants back in trunk at 11am, switched airstone
to other tub, and headed out for 620 miles of travel through Wyoming,
past Yellowstone, through Idaho, and into Eastern Oregon to Baker City,
Oregon to stay with another Aunt & Uncle. We saw buffalo and elk
near Yellowstone, but unfortunately did not make the time to go through
Yellowstone (next time). Today it was really HOT again, in upper 80s.
We made only 2 stops today, one in Jackson Hole, WY, the other in some
place in Idaho that eludes me. Did the same thing at night, switched
pump to new tub, rolled windows up, set 3 plant buckets outside to cool
off and get am sunlight, left fish in car all night as temp dropped,
cooling water off to a good temp by morning.
Fatalities:
0
High Temp:88
Low Temp:66
July 11th:
Went for morning hike with family, collected some cool pieces of slate,
and found 2 dead black kuhli loaches. I really liked those guys. First
fish fatality that was really considered a loss. I had a really hard
time finding some kuhlis that I could keep alive, and had had these
2 guys for over a year. We left around 1pm. Today we drove from Eastern
Oregon, to Portland Oregon, 6 hours driving with NO stops at all. We
arrived around 6 in the evening, unloaded the tubs of fish and buckets
of plants and unpacked some essentials for the night.
Fatalities:
2
High Temp:83
Low Temp:N/A (fish again indoors)
July 12th:
Set up the 29 gallon tank, but did not hook up CO2 yet. Tested water.
KH is very low, about 2 Degrees, so I added Baking Soda to buffer water
up to 6 Degrees in anticipation of DIY CO2 lowering pH. Water here comes
from tap with a pH of 7.0, 0 nitrate.
July 13th:
Set up 20 gallon river tank. I CANNOT BELIEVE that all of my hillstream
loaches, Glass Catfish, and Otos made the trip and are alive now on
the 18th, almost a full week after the move. I thought for sure all
of these guys would die as I have struggled to keep them alive in my
tanks, let alone tubs in the back seat of a car splashing down the highways!
Fatalities:6
Amano shrimp disappeared, 4 carcasses left behind, 2 poofed
July 14th:
Did not set up the 3rd and final tank which will house my wife's overgrown
Synodontis Euruptus. He seemed fine in the tub, and I was tired and
sore from packing, driving, and unpacking.
July 15th:
Went to Petco on 185th Street to buy some frozen bloodworms and they
had a Clearance table with all items selling for ONE dollar. I bought
a 20gallon tank setup and 2 TetraTec UV sterilizers. My sister-in-law
bought an Eclipse 12gallon setup for one dollar. All items were brand
new and in perfect condition!!! We spent $10 and had savings of $575.00!!!
The UV sterilizers were listed at $159.99 each, but I got them for 2
bucks. AMAZING opportunity to get my sister-in-law hooked on fish for
cheap. I'll set up a planted tank for her No Water Change Style.
July 16th:
Set up the tank for the catfish. Aaahhhhh. Finished tank setups. Started
running CO2 on the 29 and the 20.
July 17th:
Wrote this. Oh yeah, tested some of the Rubbermaid tub water for nitrate
and ammonia levels and it is zero on everything. I did NO WATER CHANGES
between PA and OR, as my name suggests.
DOs:
- Have a Win/Win
attitude about the whole thing. I viewed any outcome as desirable.
If all of my fish made it, then great, I would be happy that they
lived and I was able to move them successfully. If all of my fish
died, then great, I would have an opportunity to completely re-stock
my tanks with new fish, at my leisure. I would not have to rush to
set up tanks in a new home immediately upon arriving in Portland,
and I would be happy. I did not stress about the fish while we were
driving. Whenever we hit bumpy roads, my wife and I would look at
each other and smile and say, "Splish, Splash!"
- Use Rubbermaid
tubs, about half-full of water, allowing for room for the water to
splash in the tub, not in your car.
- Get more than
one battery operated air pump. I would have gotten the set of 3 if
I had ordered a few days sooner.
- Give yourself
about 2 full business weeks for regular shipping
Keep a digital thermometer with you to check temps the first couple
of days.
DON'Ts:
- Don't worry about
taking the tubs inside each night and setting up filtration (if weather
permits). I was fortunate to move in the summer. Wintertime would
have been a HUGE problem for me as extreme lows are more of a problem
than extreme highs in the northern states I traveled through.
- DON'T put too
many plants in the tubs with the fish. The first night in my home
back in PA I had the water surface covered with plants and ALL the
fish were gasping at the surface the next morning. This is why I put
excess plants in 5-gallon buckets as I had too dang many to have in
the tubs with the fish.
- DON'T put plants
in hot dark places like trunks of cars. The plants in the tubs with
the fish that were in the back seat came out beautifully, but the
ones in the buckets in the trunk came out UGLY and melted. Looking
back, I would have put all of my excess plants in a 5th, and possibly
6th Rubbermaid tub(s) in the front seat of the car.
I hope my story
can help those traveling really far, and reassure those traveling less
than 3,000 miles that YES, it can be done, and more importantly, it
can be done CHEAPLY and EASILY!
Editor's Comments:
Wow, just wow. You'll think twice next time you begin to stress when
you have to move across town with your 20 gallon tank, eh? From PA to
Oregon with around a 10% casualty list. That's simply remarkable.
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