Giving my fishies to a friend...

Hello all. I was given a 25g freshwater tank, I think. I know nothing about fish or tanks so please excuse my ignorance. I am moving and can't take the fish with me, so I am giving the tank and fish to a friend. I was wondering if I can get a coffee pot to take some of the water out for transport and leave the fish in the tank with about half of the water. The tank has a cichlid fish, or its in that family I was told, and I have what I call the "sucker fish", but it looks like a minI cat fish that cleans the tank. The tank also has a filter system. It will be about a 20-30 minute drive to my friends house. I am not sure what to do in this situation. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Hello all. I was given a 25g freshwater tank, I think. I know nothing about fish or tanks so please excuse my ignorance. I am moving and can't take the fish with me, so I am giving the tank and fish to a friend. I was wondering if I can get a coffee pot to take some of the water out for transport and leave the fish in the tank with about half of the water. The tank has a cichlid fish, or its in that family I was told, and I have what I call the "sucker fish", but it looks like a minI cat fish that cleans the tank. The tank also has a filter system. It will be about a 20-30 minute drive to my friends house. I am not sure what to do in this situation. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

they should be okay with half the tank full

 

Won't it be too heavy if there is half of the water in it? Maybe you can carry it but I think it puts a lot of stress on the tank itself when you move it with water still in it.

 

the fish will be fine with just half the water, but i'd be very careful about moving a tank with water or fish in it.

 

HI There heres a suggestion for you...
If you only have the one fish, any container would be a good transport for it as long as its not a teeny thing. Depending when you have to do the move, some LFS or online aquarium supply houses sell a portable battery operated aeration pump that runs on batteries, it would help keep your fish in oxygen for a long drive, they come with tubing and a small air stone. You should get a hold of a plastic clean 5 gal bucket, empty the gravel in it with enough tank water to keep the gravel wet along with any of the tank decorations. Also take some tank water and put that in a smaller bucket with the filter sponge and so as not to loose that good bacteria in it. From there you can empty the tank and move it a lot easier. Then when you set up the tank at your friends house, you can add the gravel back in and put the filter sponge and media back into the filter and hopefully you won't loose too much of the beneficial bacteria that is necessary for a cycled tank. Good luck with the move and hope your cichlid will do ok..
~ kate

 

just to add my opinion here, I just went through the moving process with both my tanks with great success, only lost one fish due to the stress of the move :-[ what I did, I put the about 4G of water in a 5G bucket with the fish, moved it over to the new place with the filter, got it up and running, then went back for the tank, emptied out most of the water, left just enough to keep the gravel covered, thenmoved it that way, better to do it that way, then disturb all the bacteria in the gravel

 

jmatt has a good idea...I would try that ;D

 

I live at college and come home for winter break and the summer... so I obviously have to move my tank.

The first time I did it, I only had 2 fish to move. I asked my LFS for a couple of the bags they use to sell fish and I put the fish in those. I emptied the tank 90% and removed the filter media and dropped it into the rest of the water so keep it wet with the gravel. I secured it to a pully and then straped it into the front seat of my car!

Now, having 8 fish, I will use my 5 gallon bucket as previous mentioned to move the actual fish and 4 gallons of water.. but do the rest of it the same.

You really have to remember two things...
keep the filter media & gravel wet-you have to keep that good bacteria or else you'll have to cycle all over again (& maybe kill all the fish)
and remember to provide the fish with lots of oxygen, aka, a big bucket with a large surface area.

I also put a little bit of salt in the bucket to calm them down.

Hope all goes well!!! Let us know how it went!!

 

one thing I forgot to mention, make sure you have a tight fitting lid for your bucket, or you will get very wet very fast

 

the way we'd move that tank would be to put the filter media (especially the sponge) and the substrata in a bucket or container that you could over (with just enough tank water to keep it all wet).. the fish would be best off to be double-bagged and put in a cooler with towels to hold the bags in place (the less the fish move the better). then you can empty the tank and put the decor in the tank for transport. once you get to your new place, setup the tank, add the substrata, get the filter together and running along with the heater and fill the tank (with a garden hose if you can), then treat it with your tap water conditioner. lastly float and acclimate the fish, then release them.

 

Did anyone see the Good Morning American special last week about garden hoses? The plastic in them contains an alarming amount of lead. So much that it's not considered safe to drink out of them. Does lead effect fish as it does humans?

 

hmm.. i've never filled a tank with a hose since our tanks are 10 gallon or less, but hear a lot of people with larger tanks do that and haven't heard of any adverse effects to it.

 

Maybe it doesn't bother fish? Just thought I'd share about it, in case anyone likes drinking out of the garden hose!

:;qu Michelle

 

i've been drinking out of a hose at baseball for over 2 yrs. now and I don't think i've been poisoned, but I could look like this in a couple of hours

 

How many of us grew up in homes with lead based paint (for those members who aren't teenagers)? It's just one of those things they are finally realizing may or may not be harmful (or one of those things that they are over exaggerating on) But don't worry, I grew up drinking out of the water hydrant and hose at my parents house, and as far as I can tell I'm normal enough.

:;qu Michelle

 

we'll miss you both. :'( why don't they put warning labels on these things! I don't know how any of us are alive, EVERYTHING is deadly, toxic, dangerous or bad.. how did our parents survive!?!?!

 

I just used my python gravel vac to refill my tanks, much easier than trying to run a gardn hose through the house, or trying to fill countless buckets

 

we'll miss you both. :'( why don't they put warning labels on these things! I don't know how any of us are alive, EVERYTHING is deadly, toxic, dangerous or bad.. how did our parents survive!?!?!

I guess they do... in a very hidden spot on the back of the packaging. If you buy "camping rv hoses" they are safe to drink out of though.


:;qu Michelle

 

if it's not right on the end of the hose, we should sue! if you can get money out of mcdonalds for hot coffee being hot (truly an idiot for the ages there), why not?

 

"Only in America"

 

isn't that the truth? what does it say about us when hot coffee needs a warning label that it's hot, knives need a warning that they're sharp, peanut butter needs a warning that it has peanuts in it.. etc,

 

I also put a little bit of salt in the bucket to calm them down.

Just a note of caution here. Amnagria means aquarium salt. Not just house salt.

 

hmm.. i've never filled a tank with a hose since our tanks are 10 gallon or less, but hear a lot of people with larger tanks do that and haven't heard of any adverse effects to it.

I used a hose when I filled my 70 gall

Peace OUt Callum!