So, I’m moving back to Austin at the beginning of June (Holy Crap! It’s getting close!). That said, let’s get to the questions.
Fish:
The last thing I’ll be packing before the 28ish hour drive (this includes naps at rest stops) will be my aquarium. The first thing I’ll set up will be the aquarium. But, it still needs to run for 24 hours before I can put my fish in.
Now, will my fish live for 2-3 days without being in an aquarium?
I have a Pleco, soe tetra things, and a Betta. So you know.
Boxes:
This is the first move where I haven’t had enough boxes. I was getting them from B&N, but then they did a weird thing where they toss the boxes very often through the day, so I can either dumpster dive (I worked in a B&N cafe, so I know how scary those dumpsters are) or . . . well, there aren’t any other options there.
Where else can I get boxes? I’ll buy them from somewhere if they’re cheap. I’ll be needing a goodly number of them.
Liquor stores have boxes. Grocery stores have cool boxes in the produce section–get your paws on some apple boxes.
You know this, but I’ll say it anyway: yer prolly gonna lose some fish on such a long journey. It’ll be the stress of getting sloshed around and then temperature changes if you’re not careful. I’m not sure if it’ll help but you might try tossing an (anti)amonia rock into your carrier as well as some fishie Quaaludes (it’s not really Quaaludes, its a “stress reducer” that some of your finer pet stores will have.) If you really love your fish you can give/sell them to a petstore who is sympathetic to your cause and buy new stock when you reach your destination and buy a replacement for the fish tank that was broken as you were unloading it from the moving van.
Yes, you can move fish, but not the way you’re planning.
Get a large, clean plastic garbage can with a lid. Transfer all of the fish, water, gravel, etc into the can. Get the filter running IN THE CAN - you can get an adaptor for your car’s cigarette lighter to plug it into. Put the lid on, so it will be dark - the fish will be marginally less stressed about things.
When you get to you new place, transfer the fish, water and gravel back into the tank.
Voila - fish moved.
Do NOT put your fish in a bucket, turf their water, ditch their filter and wash their rocks, throw it all back into the tank and expect them to live. THey need all the gunky goodness that grows in their filter and on their gravel to keep the water quality OK. The filter can’t be off for more than 24 hours.
Boxes - I dunno - have you tried asking at your local drugstore or walmart - they get tonnes of shipments and I know at my location we just recycle the empty boxes.
UPS store had boxes for me.
I had a 55 gallon tank, drained half the water out, put in the truck. stretched saran wrap over the top, leaving a small gap in the center, then a huge beach towel. Then bungeed the towel in place. I only had to keep them without filtration for about 8 hours. No deaths, whew
did a quick google search:
As far as boxes go, got a Wal-Mart Supercenter handy? If you do, go around 1 a.m. or so, when they’re restocking. Tons of boxes, and they’ll let you have as many as you can pack off (you will have to stop at the door and let them search through them to make sure you aren’t stealing stuff.) I’ve carried two shopping cart loads of boxes out. Just make sure you get there before about 3 or 4, because they will break the boxes down and get rid of them otherwise.
alice_in_wonderland has the correct idea. Get a rubbermaid plastic container and basically throw everything inside. Keep the whole thing covered and keep the temperature stable (you should be able to keep all your filters and heaters working inside the container. If you have a bio-wheel, get a Fluval underwater filter.
Just keep in mind the thing is going to weigh a friggin’ ton
Well, I wasn’t planing on moving them in clean water or cleaning their gravel.
What is it that kills them, when not in an aquarium? Lack of oxygen, too much waste, no food, what?
The temperature in my car’s going to be pretty much stable, since I’ll have all the rest of my pets in there, too. 3 cats, 5 rats, and 6 snakes. Can’t cook or freeze anyone.
There has to be a way to move them without trying to hook everything up inside my car. I only have one lighter plug.
If you’re setting up the new aquarium with the same (uncleaned) gravel, a lot of the old water, and the same (uncleaned) filter, I don’t think you’ll need to run the new tank for 24 hours before putting the fish back in. All your good bacteria will still be there.
Between power outages and moving (across town), I’ve had my fish go without active filtration for over 2 days at a time without harm. I would try to reduce the sloshing during your trip. For short trips, I kept them all in a big cooler – sort of like the plastic garbage can idea but with the added advantage of keeping the temperature more stable. Just make sure that you leave the lid open enough for air to circulate.
Old filter, check. Old gravel, check. Old water . . . how much of it can I get away with tossing? I have a 20g tank. Could I put, say, 5 gallons in my cooler(I do happen to have a nice, if large, cooler)? And leave the lid propped open? Should I stir the water up every few hours? Like, swish it around or somesuch?
And with the old water/etc, I’ll just have to get the water up to correct temps, right? So . . . 30 hours out of the aquarium, we’re down to.
Lots of good advice given already. Especially consider Intigo Montoya’s thought of selling and restocking. The Betta won’t be a problem. Mrs. H, a fish dealer, has seen them shipped between wet sponges (although I think that’s cruel).
Ask at a good local aquarium store, a place that deals specifically with fish. They should have good advice, and if you buy some stuff, should be willing to help. (My wife hates people who expect free advice, especially for equipment they bought on-line.) There are battery-back-up aeration units that will help on the trip and are good for after the move in case of a power outage. (Texas - think lightning storms.) Make sure to bring extra batteries as well. Good luck.
Don’t tell anyone I told you to do this, but I moved from Seattle to Denver–24 hr pretty much nonstop and had a dozen or so black neons, a pictus catfish and like 6 or 7 painted glass tetras all in a 2 quart thermos–with the aforementioned fishie quaaludes–on the front seat of the U-Haul. At the destination I filled up a 55 gallon tank with Waterpik-filtered tap water (some hot, some cold to get the temperature in the correct range) added some StartRight and then the fish like an hour or so later. All new rocks & furniture, no good bacteria base, just the nasty stagnant water from the previous tank. Lost 1 neon and the catfish in the move. Everyone else made it. I think I got lucky. Be careful, of course, but remember–they’re fish, and fish can live in some pretty gross & toxic environments. Haven’t you ever had a fish that you just wished it’d up and die so you could get something else…and the damn thing was imortal?
There is a local fish store that I’ll go to for specialty supplies, now that I think of it. They’re never in my mind, due to how incredi-frikkin-ly expensive they are compared to myusual petstore. Mayhaps I can get water treatement or something while I ask for advice.
As for long-lived fish:
When I was, oh, a Junior in HS (99-00), I got an aquarium with almost the exact same fish. When I moved out in the summer of 01, my sis got the tank, then donated it all to her, er, 6th grade science teacher.
The Pleco’s still alive. Sis tells me (she goes back to visit said teacher on occasion) that Mr Pleco is about a 8" long, if not longer. They had to get a bigger tank because he no longer fit in the 10 gallon. Hehe,
College bookstores, if you have one near you. There is one in town at which I used to work, and as long as you were quiet and did it after hours, you could raid his ‘recycling’ bin (a huge trailer that he never emptied, because he was banned from attending after calling their down syndrome suffering assistant “a moron”).
Best Buy is pretty good about boxes, just call ahead of time and ask nicely. They’ll tell you what day their trucks come in (delivered at night, unpacked in the morning) and you can get a ton of boxes of all sizes.
I have a way shorter trip than you, but I’m using 2.5gal glad zip bags to move my fish. Put the bag in a bucket, fill it with fish and water, zip it up, transport away. Maybe you can put a bunch of rocks and more water in another baggie or two so you don’t have to use as much tap water when you arrive.
