How to move fish?

[pouncermom]

Just wondering if anyone has moved fish before? We have a 55 gallon tank with about 30 fish.
Please advise what you did.

Thanks!!

[jmvan74]

Are you moving to a new home or just want to move the tank? Are they salt water or fresh water?

Freshwater: You can use some 5 gallon buckets. I would try to keep as much of the water they are in as possible, to avoid over stressing them. If they will be in there for a while you might want to invest in an air pump.

Saltwater: The same as above...they're just more delicate. My DH has always set up a small tank when we move to store the fish in until he can reset our 90 gallon.

When I moved my 10 gallon tank from my classroom to my home, I just used a bucket. No air. They were fine in there for several hours. ;) It was fresh water.

[pouncermom]

Thanks for your reply.
We are moving twice this summer. Once to temp housing until our house is built, and then into our house.
They are freshwater fish.

Thanks again.

[indie_girl01]

We moved 3 months ago and we had a 60 gallon fresh water tank that needed to be moved.

DH bought a 30 gallon water container (with a lid and handles) which we used to transport the water from the fish tank. For transporting the fish as such, we bought a smaller fish tank and transfered all the fish to it along with some water from the original fish tank.

We disposed most of the water from the fish tank and transported it to the new house in an almost empty state. Once we moved to our new place, we moved the water from the plastic tank and added fresh water to the fish tank and let it settle for a week.

After the first week, we tested the PH and when the levels were ok, we moved the fish from the temp tank into the fish tank.

I hope this helps.

[Kanga]

Save as much water as possible. I know its a total PITA (we moved 55 and a 29 at the same time) but it will help keep your ph, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates the same. If you are traveling far away, an inexpensive air pump will be needed to get oxygen into the water. You will need a thermometer also if you are traveling far to make sure the temp doesn't vary. If you are moving a few hours away, I would gradually let the temp drop in your tank to about 70-72 before you move so when you're traveling, the temp change isn't a shock. Then when you set it up gradually increase the temp back to 78 (I assume you have tropical fish)