How do I move my 90gal fish tank with adult, baby & pregnant cichlids 45 min away without any of them dying?

Question

We're moving tomorrow.. and last night we realized there are a bunch of baby fish in our tank with the cichlids..... they are all protecting them, shifting off guarding.. its pretty cool...

We noticed one of the other cichlids... one of our biggest ones is pregnant.

We're moving about 45 minute drive away from where we are now....

What is our best way to move them, without killing them? I really don't want to have to get new fish, because I love these ones.

Any suggestions, or step by step on how to do it would be MUCHLY appreciated!!
Thanks!!

Answer 1

90 gallons is a pretty BIG tank.
No matter what you do, it's going to be stressful, and I'm not talking about YOU....but all those fish.
Don't be surprised if you lose any but, let's really hope that doesn't happen.

Putting all the fish in plastic bags containing the same aquarium water and then returning them to the tank as soon as possible after the trip is one way...perhaps the best way.

If you're really careful and have lots of help you could try emptying out "most" of the water and leaving enough in the tank for the fish to survive the trip while you and friends carefully lift the tank and place it in your vehicle, covering the tank to keep the sloshing water inside.

Be VERY careful NOT to tweak or bend the tank that might cause any loss of integrity or the sides to separate from the adhesive joints that might allow the tank to leak, or worse.

Another thing you could do...but you need a smaller tank like maybe a 10 or 20 gallon tank, is to use the same aquarium water in the small tank and move all the fish into that for the trip...again, being careful during the move.

Answer 2

I've moved my tanks (75 and 90) too many times, but I've certainly mastered it and never lost a fish either.

Step 1) Get yourself bags from the fish store - lots of them. Ziplocks are too short to hold much air and can split open. Also get yourself some coolers - styrofoam works fine too.

Step 3) Bag the fish with 1/3 water, 2/3 air - like the fish store does. Tie them off. I like to double bag since they can sometimes leak. Depending on size and aggression of the fish, you may want to put just one in, or a few. With small babies you can put quite a few. Put the Holding (term for a pregnant mouthbrooder) in one alone.

Step 3B) Keep the filter media wet to preserve the bacteria. I just move my canister filters full of water, but with hanging filters you can put the media in a bag with air and water just like the fish.

Step 4) Put these bags in the coolers. This accomplishes two things - it keeps the temperature stable, and keeps the fish in the dark, making it much less stressful.

Step 5) Set up the tank on the other end, plug everything in, let it run for a couple of hours to age and aerate (the fish will be fine in the bags for many hours). Then float the bags for 15 minutes and dump them in.

If you take good care of your tank right now, there is no need to haul all sorts of aquarium water over because the water will be clean and fresh anyway. If your tank is more neglected and you like to go weeks or months between water changes, then your water will be more stale and you'll want to put into buckets what you can and use it on the other end. I never bring more water then what's holding the fish.

I know it's only 45 minutes, but going through this ensures safe transportation and an easy move with no heavy, sloshing buckets of water, extra equipment, jumping fish, etc.

Tips: Don't feed the fish for a couple of days before the move, that way they keep the bags clean. Don't add medications or anything to the water, this is actually stressful to them and the wrong time to do such a thing. Do a nice waterchange before the move - even though you'll be dumping most of it, this will help the fish for the other side of the move. Never move the tank with water in it, that's a good way to stress the seals and cause leaks.

Answer 3

drain the water from it ,and then put some of the water in a gallon size zip lock baggie and add fish and seal and they should be okay for 45 minutes or so . good luck and carefull moving . set the tank up and soon as you get there and get the fish into a pot or something and make sure you provide an air source as soon as possible . good luck .

Answer 4

ok growing up we used to transport fish weekly over 75-100+ miles from one place to another and here`s what we did, you want to drain your tank not all the way just leave about 1/4 of the water in the tank, you don`t want your fish to get stressed out so i suggest putting medicine in the tank to try and keep the stress levels down not to much or you could hurt the young, about half of the recommended dose, you`ll need some air to put in the tank while tranporting them, i`d recommend at least 2-3 battery powered air pumps you`d use when fishing, if you find one that runs off your power points(cigarette lighter) that would be great, you might want to cover the tank with plastic wrap before moving it (to keep the water from splashing you and your car when moving it). if you don`t have the space in your car you can just put them in a 5 gallon bucket for transport instead of the tank, nets will stress the fish out and you could lose some of the young fish so i`d just pour them in the bucket and dump the excess tank water, cichlids are tough fish, and i`ve given you two options to chose from because i don`t know the space you will have available to you, you will need to get some medicine to take the clorine out of the water you put in the tank(when you refill it) as clorine in tapwater will prevent your fish from being able to breath and could kill them or you could leave them in the bucket till the water in the tank has set for at least 24-36 hours. the clorine will evaporate in that time and the water should be safe for your fish, (bucket mode) other wise you have to add the clorine medicine to the tank water as you refill it with the fish in it (tank transport mode) give the fish some of their favorite food when transporting them this will give them something else to think about while their world is sloshing about and helps calm them down, and drive carefully and watch out for sudden stops as you fish could end up in your lap or flopping on your floorboards, we used to transport bait fish in this manner and they are fragile fish, i just cut the size down as we moved 1000`s of fish at a time and you have a few, also you fish are much hardier than the fish we moved but i think the concept is the same, keep them alive till you get to your destination. i wish you luck on your move, and hope i helped you to keep your loved ones with you for a long long time best wishes and have a safe trip

Answer 5

Get a small tank -- it wil only be half full for spillage. Fill when at new place...