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I am moving out of my uni accomodation on the 19th and taking my fish with me. Now the problem is, they arent coming to live with me at home, they are living another 100 miles on from home. I can't move them the whole way in one journey, so my best thoughts are

move from colchester to brighton
stay in brighton for 4 days
move from brighton to salisbury.

Their tank cannot be set up in brighton at all. So, this leaves 1 angel, 3 BCT's, 2 plecs, various Pandas, an ACF and 3 Ghost Shrimp between the following fish receptacles.

1 13 g tank with heater
1 6g tank with heater
1 1g QT bowl
1 2g QT bowl
1 0.5g transit tank
1 5g bucket

nothing has heaters except where specifically mentioned.

So - how do I fit them all in? How can I minimise the stress of the journey? The frog is staying in brighton in the 13, but the fish will have to move on. The frog cannot be in a tank with anything else, he's big and hungry, the BCT's eat the shrimps. They're the only limitations really.

So

HELP!!!!

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

go out to walmart, and perchase a few 30 gallon tubs, 7 bucks each i think that could sold your problem...(whats a BCT?)

no more tubs or tanks possible, remember I am moving my entire university stuff as well. Nothing over 20g allowed in flats anyway. Oh, and my parents wont have anything other than 1 tank larger than 6g in the flats, even for 4 days.

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

oh..well now that is a problem do you know approx how many days it will take?

and whats a BCT and how big r hey?

Last edited by fishyhelper288 at 27-Aug-2005 12:25

An angel is going to need bigger than that. Maybe a 20g if there's no other fish in there but I'd never put mine in a 20g and he's not even full grown. The pandas need a school and so need either a 10g all to themselves or a 20g with just a few other fish. No idea what a bct is. All I got when I searched for it was an endangered trout species.

To move fish I'd stick them in fairly large bags and put all the bags in a box or a bucket so long as they aren't stacked to the point one is squishing another. That way you don't have fish rolling around the car. That works for anything that can't punch holes in a bag and isn't over 6-8". When you get there you definitely need to set up some rubbermaid containers with aeration temporarily. Putting the fish in such small tanks for 4days with all the bacteria dead in the filter media is going to send the ammonia sky high. If your traveling a half hour away or less you can pack the media wet and the bacteria might survive but it will die within an hour of not having aeration or water movement. Anything over a half hour drive leaves you with almost no time to get the filters taken down at one place and setup at the other. That still leaves the need to cycle the tanks at the destination with somewhat sensitive fish and quite small tanks.

No, sorry. I've been unclear

The fish live in a 50g, and will be moving with their tank. It's just in the 4 days of move that they cannot live in the 50g, and must live in the assortment of bowls I have available. The 50 will live in the back of my car awaiting its movement to its new holiday home, which it will return from when I have a rented place of my own.

Cycling - i'm going to use Cycle, water changes and they are just going to have to ride it out. There's nothing else to do on that angle, but I want to balance out so that a cycle does not begin in the 4 days they are with me in Brighton. I would ideally like to bring as much Colchester water as possible to avoid 2 acclimatisations, but that may be unfeasible.

I suppose I need advice on how to spread them between the receptacles I have for the 4 days they wil be in Brighton, and how to minimise their stress if they are acclimatsed to 3 different waters in less than a week. BTW - I am in the UK, so no antibiotics, sedatives, etc available.
A guide

Colchester water - hard with artificial but stable PH buffers - 7.3-7.5

Brighton water - very hard, no PH balance, 8.5 PH, does not respond to water softening solutions

Salisbury water - Chalk so hard, PH 7.5-8, variable. Heavy mineral content.


The brighton water causes the largest problems, I would think, So what to do?



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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

I would acclimate them to bottled water over a few days before the move then buy the same bottled water at both locations until everything is set up and they can be acclimated to the water at their final location. Or at least dilute the hard water so it's equivalent to the water at their final location.

You might want to get a few more 5 gallon buckets

BCT is blind cave tetra, methinks

Sorry, that's all the help I can offer

Hope the move goes as smoothly as possible