moving fish

[mskohl]

So, how long would you estimate that fish can survive in a 5 gallon bucket with an airstone? I think I can keep the temp between 76 and 80* - I'll have them in the back of my Explorer and in a cooled house. I have a large tomato clown, a damsel, gramma, small yellow tang, and an engineer goby that I'll give away to anyone who can come get him with I take down the tank.

I plan on using home depot buckets with a hole drilled in the lid to fit the air tubing and temp probe. I may have to get 5-7 of them to fit everything, but I really can't fit anything too big in the back of the Explorer, plus I have to be able to move it.

Any thoughts?

 

[_Sooner_2]

I've never moved any marine fish a long distance. But, I once brought 8 Discus back from Dallas in a 7 gallon bucket. That was a 4 hr. trip with no air stone.

Not really an answer to your question. But Discus are about as delicate as they come. If they can make the trek, I would imagine your saltwater fish could as well.

Ronnie

 

[pwhitby]

Days.

i would get an ice chest though, a large one, crack the lid open and use an airstone diffuser as you say.

 

[Youngsilver]

I seen fish bagged with oxygen in bag for 8 hours with no ill effect, as long as tempuratures stay within range

 

[corwise]

I'd ask a LFS how they get the fish in the first place. It's probably a what, at least 24 hour trip in a box to the LSF via air, if not longer? How are they packed that let the fish survive that?

 

[mskohl]

The move went okay. I've unpacked most all of the boxes and we're still arranging things the way we want them, but I think we've adjusted well.

The fish seem to be doing fine too. I moved everything in 5 Home Depot buckets (45 gal tank with sump) and put battery air pumps in the buckets with the fish (3). We were able to move the tank with some of the water in it and managed not to splash it out. I was really hoping not to have a cycle, but it's happening anyway. The day after everything was re-setup, my ammonia tested at the lowest reading, nitrites showed up at the lowest, and nitrates were through the roof. (I can't remember the numbers on my test kits.) I was overdue for a waterchange and so my nitrates were high to begin with.

I did a 10% waterchange at the time of set up (Friday) and did another on Wednesday. I need to test again this evening to see if it's improving. All of the coraline that was on the glass and out of the water died, so I think this is part of my problem. Should I scrape this or leave it? I'd like to get the sides clean, but not sure if I should put this dead stuff in the water.

 

[Youngsilver]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7776250#post7776250 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by corwise
I'd ask a LFS how they get the fish in the first place. It's probably a what, at least 24 hour trip in a box to the LSF via air, if not longer? How are they packed that let the fish survive that?

Down here, our fish are shipped via air from singapore to our wholesaler in California somewhere,probably unpacked and acclimated to their systems, then flown from LAX to DFW airport where we pick them up. The are just bagged as usual, with slightly larger bags, and O2. There will be 1 -15 bags per box, depending on their size(anything from a 15" smooth hound shark in a box by itself, to boxes with 100+ tiny damsels).

 

[eddybabyhd]

i bring back fish from houston all the time in bags, with no airstone. Just a little oxygen. Come on now, they are shipped from wholesalers to upwards of 48-72 hours in bags, in those boxes. They will do just fine.

 

[mskohl]

yeah, they were fine. I just put them in the buckets since I had to use them for rock too. I even considered leaving them there through the night, but decided to just get it done.

 

[Matrexz]

I did it the way paul suggested whenever I moved and started setting up my 180. All my fish came out perfectly fine.