Have you ever moved your fish across country?

AydenLincoln · Oct 9, 2023

If so how did you do it? Should I ship them? Drive them down? Come back on a plane to get them once I have the tank all set up? I would more than likely end up selling everyone except for Hewbie my pufferfish. He would be moving with me. So I know it’s been done before. How do I ensure Hewbie stays alive throughout the journey and minimize stress? I think the best way would be to have the tank already set up for him and come back on a plane to get him and fly him down.

Reefahholic · Oct 9, 2023

Herbie will get car sick.

trmiv · Oct 9, 2023

I did actually. We moved from California to NC. We had two fish we really loved and wanted to keep. Someone I met online in NC volunteered to hold them for me until we got there and setup. So I shipped the fish to them. We moved, I got a new tank setup and cycled and then went to pickup the fish.

Seneca · Oct 9, 2023

I moved all the fish in a 750 gallon system from California to New England.

First thing I did was set up a ~300 gallon ibc tote with the top cut off as a holding tank in New England (bottled bacteria, a 20 gallon sump full of pumice for filtration, etc).

I had to fly back and forth monthly for work. Every trip I brought 3, gallon bags of fish in my carry on. Some of my fish were pretty big; a 14 inch naso brevirostris, a similarly massed emperor angelfish(but not as long).

A few died in transit, like a nice clown tang that I think was too much of a spaz and must have used its oxygen, but almost everything made it ok.

They are happy in another 750 gallon tank I have set up here.

This was a year and a half ago.