Moving With Fish And Tank Upgrade

I just moved to a new apartment and decided to use the opportunity to get a new tank for my fish (2 fancy goldfish). The (old) tank is still running at my mom's house with the fish and everything in it. At my apartment I have my new tank, filled it up, checking for leaks, checking the stand (just picked it up yesterday). So, how the heck do I do the rest? I've upgraded tanks before but I've never moved with fish. So I know I'm going to move over my established filter and gravel. I'm also going to add an additional filter that I'm not using right now for more filtration. How do I move my actual fish? I'm about 15 mins away.

 

I just moved to a new apartment and decided to use the opportunity to get a new tank for my fish (2 fancy goldfish). The (old) tank is still running at my mom's house with the fish and everything in it. At my apartment I have my new tank, filled it up, checking for leaks, checking the stand (just picked it up yesterday). So, how the heck do I do the rest? I've upgraded tanks before but I've never moved with fish. So I know I'm going to move over my established filter and gravel. I'm also going to add an additional filter that I'm not using right now for more filtration. How do I move my actual fish? I'm about 15 mins away.

A 5 gallon bucket and a battery powered air pump that's used for bait buckets should be enough to move the fish and your filter media in if you're that close. Your gravel isn't really necessary, the vast majority of your bacteria are in you filter's media so it's just an extra bit of hassle to try to move. Make sure to keep the bio media wet, and the water in the bucket moving a little with the air pump to keep the oxygen content up for the fish and the bacteria in the media. Make sure everything in the new tank is ready to go before you start, too. You want to be able to walk in, set up the filter and add the fish.

 

Good I don't want the gravel anyway haha. I have a couple big, like big rocks to cover the orange sticker that doesn't come of the bottom of the aquarium but other than that I like no substrate. I have a canister so can I just unhook that & go? Any acclimation procedure or anything that you recommend?

 

I would acclimate them other than that nothing special I can think of.

 

The only thing I'm thinking of I guess is differences in the tap water from one location to another but I got one of these fish from Hawaii. I floated the bag then plopped her right in the tank so I guess I can't be that much different. Nerve wracking. Thanks for your help!

 

Good I don't want the gravel anyway haha. I have a couple big, like big rocks to cover the orange sticker that doesn't come of the bottom of the aquarium but other than that I like no substrate. I have a canister so can I just unhook that & go? Any acclimation procedure or anything that you recommend?

If you just unhook and go with the filter, try and make sure it's the last thing you do before you leave and the first thing you hook up when you get home. If you get stuck in traffic or something, you can take whatever bio media you've got and toss some of it in the bucket with the fish. 15 minuets shouldn't be a big deal, though.

If it's in the same town it should have pretty much the same water, so I would probably just toss them in the tank after you get the filter up and running. You can test and compare the two taps if you're concerned or have reason to believe they're different (if it tastes or smells different, for instance). It might be tricky to do temperature acclimation from a 5 gallon bucket, but I guess you could catch them out of it in clean Tupperware and float that in the tank? I don't think I would bother unless there is a large difference between the bucket temps and the tank temps.

 

The only other thing I considered was bagging them from the bucket to float the bag, but that would just do more harm than good I think. Maybe I could do minI water changes to the bucket? Adding in the new tank water?