Transporting Fish in emergency

L

Lwhite

Custom User
Hi all, I want to preface this question by saying that the following is being done in emergency mode and we do not have time or a lot of options available to us.

We have a friend about 3 hours away who is about to lose their home to flooding, they have a 125 gallon reef, and we are trying to save as much livestock as possible and move it home to my tank. Everything will be dipped/ QT appropriately, but I do have to set up a new tank to work as a QT tank when I get home from work tonight.

I am coordinating all of this with my girlfriend over the phone so lets hope it works as she is in Bismarck and I am not. :)

The plan is this:

Place all livestock (fish and corals) in seperate 1 gallon ziploc bags about 1/2 full of water, double bag, place in a cooler and pad so they dont roll around,
Bring them home, hope it works.

The coral specimens will be in these ziploc bags for at least 5 hours or so until I can get home to dip them, but the plan is to put the fish in a 5 gallon bucket with a powerhead until I get home.

Does this sound reasonable?

Thanks

-Luke
 
They travel for more than a day in a plastic bag and a dark box for atleast 24 hours when they get shipped, so a few hours shouldn't be a problem. If your friend's tank is healthy and he's had those fish for awhile, why the need to QT them? I understand dipping the corals though to make sure they don't have coral bugs. Be careful not to overload your bioload, could be disaster for your tank. how many fish and corals are we talkin bout here?
 
I have personally never seen the tank, hence the QT. I am doing all of this over the phone from work with my girlfriend who is on scene and doesn't really know what to look for. My tank is a 40B, the 2nd/QT is a 29 Bow. I have no idea what I am getting hahaha, but she does know what room we have so I am trusting her on that.
So far sounds like:
Open brain approx 5"
4" Tridacnid of some sort
asst Mushrooms
Some leathers, I think a finger and a toadstool from her description

as to fish she sent me a picture of a percula, so no idea if thats it or there are more.
 
Ziploc bags will probably leak, if you can get styrofoam cups with lids and stand them up in a cooler it'll work much better. Works great for corals and fish, it's what a lot of vendors do for frag swaps. I'm not sure if you're putting the fish in a bucket for the trip or after you get home, but watch the intake on the powerhead to make sure they can't get sucked in.
 
OK so updated list

2x 2" Perculas (already paired)
3x Green Chromis
1 x purple firefish

Sounds like the rocks have flatworms, so do I just dip with flatworm exit and then coral rx and then to the DT? or how does that work? I haven't had to play with that before.
 
I'd set the qt up with an equal or lower sg than the bag water using newly mixed water aged and aerated for a day or two. Approximately match the temp of the bag water. As soon as you open the bag dump the fish and as little bag water as possible into the qt. Prolonged confinement in the bag drops the ph as CO2 builds up. The lower tips the ammonia scale towards the less toxic ammonium species . Once the bag is opened the CO2 blows off and the ph rises tipping the scale towards the more toxic ammonia. sO movingteh fish fromthe bagwater quickly is helpful.

Dipping the rock for 40 minutes or so in saltwater with falt worm exit should help. I'd use a powerhead to move water around during this bath.
 
I would also blast the frags a little with water in a turkey baster. Any dead/dieing flatworms on the frags should blow right off.

It's worth noting that, depending on the severity of the infestation, you may end up ultimately introducing flatworms to your own tank even taking these precautions.
 
I would avoid the ziplocs as well. They almost certainly will split open. I would be tempted to just put the stuff in 5g buckets with lids and go for it. Don't make it any more difficult than it needs to be. I've brought fish back from Florida that way ~ 26hrs, no problems. Battery air pumps if you want to.
 
I've used ziplock bags with success but a 5 gallon bucket will be easier. Ziplock bags are good if you have fish that might beat each other up in small quarters. I used them to keep my mbuna separate during a transport.
 
billdogg said:
I would avoid the ziplocs as well. They almost certainly will split open. I would be tempted to just put the stuff in 5g buckets with lids and go for it. Don't make it any more difficult than it needs to be. I've brought fish back from Florida that way ~ 26hrs, no problems. Battery air pumps if you want to.
Click to expand...

That is what I would do. I am a big believer in battery operated air pumps.
 
tmz said:
I'd set the qt up with an equal or lower sg than the bag water using newly mixed water aged and aerated for a day or two. Approximately match the temp of the bag water. As soon as you open the bag dump the fish and as little bag water as possible into the qt. Prolonged confinement in the bag drops the ph as CO2 builds up. The lower tips the ammonia scale towards the less toxic ammonium species . Once the bag is opened the CO2 blows off and the ph rises tipping the scale towards the more toxic ammonia. sO movingteh fish fromthe bagwater quickly is helpful.

Dipping the rock for 40 minutes or so in saltwater with falt worm exit should help. I'd use a powerhead to move water around during this bath.
Click to expand...

Good advice from Tom.
 
Thanks for the advice all, I will set the QT up like advised, except that I unfortunately do not have the day or two. We found out about this about 2 hours before I posted, and as a paramedic I don't really have the opportunity to run home and start the salt water.

And the 40 min flatworm bath sounds good. Am I ok to use the bag water during that? Again, I dont have the means to prep any water now, so the option is to make some when I get home. or use the bag water
 
I think Ziplocs will probably serve your purpose fine, but just in case I would buy they cheap plastic food containers. I've transferred quite a few pieces of coral in these without problems and without worry of busting. Plus there easy to stack and save space.

Good luck with the move and hope all the critters make it.
 
Hahah ok so.. they went with a combination of styrofoam cups and ziploc baggies.

.. New concern

It appears they peeled the zoanthids and star polyps off the rocks they were attached too... so I have a lot of tissue/mat and no rock. Will these reattach? I am not so worried about the mushrooms, and plan on placing them in a dish with some rubble but no idea what to do with the zoas/GSP
 
You can use a little cyanoacrylate glue(crazy glue gel) for the zoanthidae. The pacyclavularia (gsp) should reatched if you tuck it down on some gravel or a rock surface.
 
Do you have a decent LFS nearby? Any good store owner will gladly give you some of their bags for free or a small fee.....if tied properly, they will hold water far longer then a ziplock. Additionally, if you're traveling more then a few hours, putting O2 in the bag will be far better for the livestock over just putting room air in the bag.
 
Well here is the exciting conclusion to the story:

So after everything came in, I went out to buy some more coral rx and flatworm exit. Of course, being memorial day everything was closed.

On the way home, we got hit with a major tornado spawning thunderstorm, and ended up losing power for about 12 hours. So I had to attempt to acclimate, freshwater dip (since no other way to remove hitchikers) and move all of the pieces into the tank by candlelight, while the DT had no water flow. This then meant that I was up once an hour to siphon 5-10 gallons out of the sump and pour it back in the DT to aerate. Everything is opening up this morning, and appears to be doing well so far.

Here is my conclusion:
If a coral can be ripped off its rock, transported 5 hours in a bag with no special care, left to sit for another 2 hours in a cooler, dipped in freshwater, moved into a new tank with no water flow, and tolerate that lack of flow for about 10 hours and still open up in the morning.

We coddle our tanks. Its a statement to the hardiness of these creatures.

:)
 
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