How do I transport 9 nine fish on a 8 hour drive

Hello everyone,

I am moving from San Francisco to San Diego. This is an 8-hour drive. I have to transport my 5 neon tetras, 2 albino cory catfish, 1 molly, and 1 platy. Any advice on how to transport fish on a long car drive?

I have a power port in my vehicle if I need a heater or air pump running. Are we talking buckets? Bags with air? USB pump? If anybody can share how they transport their fish!

 

an 8-hour drive plus some pit stops, plus setting up the tank on the other end, so more like 10 hours?

So, you could get some large fish bags and a cooler, and keep the filter media wet too! no need for electric.

 

Buckets or styrofoam coolers with a battery powered bubble box should work fine. Im sure its warm enough in SoCal to not have to worry about a heater. I'd be more worried about making a long pit stop and having the water get too hot from sitting in the vehicle.
Just keep that in mind.

 

They should be fine in bags. Fish being shipped are often in bags for several days without problems.

 

Those fish will be fine in bags. I have done it many times. Often it’s my fish travelling 5 hours then all day at an auction and hopefully bringing new fish home. With the auction not finishing till 2 am and the need to hang around to get your money it’s basically more than 24 hours. Let’s face it you can’t bag all the fish five in five minutes before you leave the house early in the morning. Many fish are bagged up the night before.

A polystyrene box with a good fitting lid is common practice.

In winter a hot water bottle can be used inside the box but not touching the fish bags . A towel is used to separate.

Proper fish bags without corners are the only legal bags you can take fish to auction in Australia. Available for a few cents each . You will need to separate the species. Bags with corners are death traps for aquarium fish but I see they can be used in American auctions. The likes of a corydoras in a corner bag is madness.

 

. . . Proper fish bags without corners are the only legal bags you can take fish to auction in Australia. Available for a few cents each . You will need to separate the species. Bags with corners are death traps for aquarium fish but I see they can be used in American auctions. The likes of a corydoras in a corner bag is madness.

That's why I use two bags, with one upside down in the other one. That rounds off the corners. I do that even when shipping shrimp.

 

The last time I moved was 22 years ago. I moved from Virginia to Illinois, a two day trip covering about 950 miles. It was September so the temperature was reasonable. I put the fish in a 50 gallon plastic tool box that was filled half way with water. I used a battery powered air pump to keep oxygen levels at a suitable level.

For a one day trip, it should not be an issue. If you expect the temperatures to be hot, you might want to use an insulated cooler.

Make sure you bring some old filter media in the container. When you reach your destination, you will need to get your aquarium cycled as quickly as possible. Having cycled media available will make that process go much smoother.

 

So most of you are pro-bags. One concern I have, is how do they have air for those 8 hours in the bags? I also have a 36L cooler that I will probably use for them.

The second version you guys spoke of was using a cooler/bucket and filling it halfway with water and just having an airstone working there.

 

When filling a bag with fish and water it is essential to have one third or less water.

For an 8 hour drive or even up to 24 hours ordinary air is used. For longer journeys oxygen is used to fill bags that travel many days in the post.

If you had a 14 inch common pleco then using a cooler and air stone could be considered. You would need to take extra water to do water changes when using an open topped container.

From all the auctions I have ever been to only once have I seen fish in a bucket. Some fish plastic bags can be big enough to hold gallons of water and a large amount of air.
Traveling with an open container in a car is not realistic. At least not if any heavy braking is required. That is not how small fish are moved around the country.
Every day thousands and thousands of fish are sent in the post .


Having a sealed bag and what that does to the build up of ammonia is a long story. it enough to say for the first 24 hours you want have a problem.
Taking extra conditioned water with you will mean you can get the fish out of the bag at your convenience. Or should you have an unexpected delay your can change water in a motel room.

Do not be concerned about air for 8 hours for 9 fish. As I mentioned use 3 bags, one or more for each species.

 

So it seems I will be going with the bag method in the cooler. Any tips on bagging? I saw above that corners can potentially stress or kill fish (like corydoras). I found some bags on Amazon, but they all have corners. How can I prevent this?
Also should I put new water in the bag or straight from the tank?

 

Somewhere on one of these videos Dean shows how to use masking tape on the outside to fold the corners of a bag up

The fish stay in their tank water. You could do a water change the day before if you don’t already do mul water changes each week? No need for new water .

Sorry I can’t spend time looking for the bagging video as I am away from home wi fi .

Edit
If you want to do everything right you don’t feed the fish for a couple of days before hand ( less poop in the bag ) that is more for a 24-48 journey but you did ask.

 

So most of you are pro-bags. One concern I have, is how do they have air for those 8 hours in the bags? I also have a 36L cooler that I will probably use for them.

After you get the fish in the bag, gather it up in your hand near the top and blow into it to get as much air into it as you can, then twist it a few times and secure it with a rubber band. I assume you've seen much the same process when buying fish in the store. They just use compressed oxygen instead of blowing into the bag.

Yes, I know that when we breathe we use some oxygen and replace it with carbon dioxide, but we don't remove all the oxygen when we do that. There's plenty left when you exhale (or blow into a bag).

As Flyfisha mentioned above, don't have the bag more than 1/3 full of water.

The second version you guys spoke of was using a cooler/bucket and filling it halfway with water and just having an airstone working there.

I'm not a big fan of that method, since the water will slosh around quite a bit as the car moves, though it should work fine.

So it seems I will be going with the bag method in the cooler. Any tips on bagging? I saw above that corners can potentially stress or kill fish (like corydoras). I found some bags on Amazon, but they all have corners. How can I prevent this?

When shipping fish or shrimp I double bag. After sealing the first bag I put it upside down in the second bag and tie it the same way. That rounds off the corners just fine.

Also should I put new water in the bag or straight from the tank?

I'd use tank water.

 

I have transported fish from small to very large fish for over 24 hours driving. Best one that worked for me was to put them in a plastic storage bin. I have a 120 volt inverter that I plug into a cigarette lighter for air pump attached to a sponge filter.

I use freshwater, add Seachem Prime, API Stresscoat and a little Aquarium Salt. I have not lost a single fish…