Moving

[sstimac]

Ok folks I am moving in a few weeks. I used the search feature and came up with five pages of threads. Two of them pertained to moving from point A to point B.

Here is my plan of action. Let me know what you think.
I have four aquariums, a 46 gallon, 29 gallon, 20H, and a ten gallon. I also have unlimited access to 10 and 20 gallon styrofoam containers. What I will probably do is drain each tank to within an inch or so of the substrate. I will save half of the water from each tank in the styrofoam and place the fish in as well. I will move their tanks fill them up and get the fish back in.

My 46 will be different. It is heavily planted and has all my shrimp. I will save approximately 15 gallons of water from this tank. The rest of the water will be pre-aged and ready to go at the new place. I will pack the plants and shrimp in the styrofoam. Once in the new place I will prepare the tank and finally add the shrimp and plants back in. I will make preparations tomorrow to sell my discus and whiptail catfish back to the store.

I am only moving three blocks away, but the air temp is now in the single digits, wind chill is usually below 0. I also have unlimited access to fish bags of any size. Would it be better to bag them up?

Did I miss anything or do you have any other suggestions? I would rather not lose anything. I will not actually begin moving things for another ten days or so, but I want a plan so everything can be as smooth as possible.

[badflash]

If you move the water & filters first, them move the animals in a cooler, you'll be fine.

[Baby_Girl]

I also recommend using a cooler. It will help retain a warmer temp than the air, and it blocks light and visual movement which can REALLY stress fish and shrimp when they're out of their element.

If your tanks are glass and not acrylic, I would recommend to completely empty the tanks larger than 10 gallons. Including removing all substrate. The weight of that stuff will put tremendous strain on the glass while it's being tweaked and twisted during transport.

[sstimac]

I moved all my tanks today. As I said before the move I would be getting rid of the discus to prevent predation. I brought them to the competitors store and picked up a load liquids for my Bio-cube.

I thought that I had about 60-70 RCS in my tank based on observations made of berried females over time. I was so far off, I am ashamed. I seriously had at least 150 RCS to box up for the move. Not only that, but there are dozens of 5mm - 7mm ghost shrimp. I knew of only a few. I guess I had better luck than I thought with them.

All seems to be well my three berried females are still berried and feeding. It only took a few hours to replant and get everything back up and running properly. The shrimp are behaving as nothing had happened. I do hope though that I did not kill to many of the very small shrimplets, there were at least four dozen that were less than a quarter of an inch. Time will tell, and given their prolific breeding habits I am not sure I will be able to tell the difference. 13 RCS to well over 100 in just two months!

Thanks for the advise that kept my shrimp safe.

[Neonshrimp]

Good to hear about the results of your move. I guess the coolers really helped out in the transport.

I thought that I had about 60-70 RCS in my tank based on observations made of berried females over time. I was so far off, I am ashamed. I seriously had at least 150 RCS to box up for the move. Not only that, but there are dozens of 5mm - 7mm ghost shrimp. I knew of only a few. I guess I had better luck than I thought with them.

Shrimp have a way of hiding from us most of the time and then they pop up just when there are big changes or moves

[Baby_Girl]

thanks for the update, that's great news!

I, too, have learned that shrimp are sneaky at hiding. So in my invert-only tanks, I do a quick visual count then multiply my initial estimate by 2 to get a total for the tank. In my fish&shrimp tanks, I count the number of visible shrimp and multiply by more like 10.

[sstimac]

My 46 bowfront is an invert tank now, except for three Otocinclus cats. I have noticed since I removed the discus, corys, and whiptail that the shrimp are much more active, even the the shrimp that are less than a centimeter are more active. Yesterday I counted 12 of them right out in the open!

I did lose a ghost shrimp in the move, an 8cm male. That made me sad. He is the only shrimp that I have seen that did not make it. I also have two more saddled cherries!

[Baby_Girl]

I did lose a ghost shrimp in the move, an 8cm male.

are you sure he's a Palaemonetes? At 8 cm he sounds more like a Macrobrachium to me, unless that was a typo.

[sstimac]

typo: 3cm.

[Mayko]

Sorry this post isn't really on topic, but I have been reading for the forum for a while, and while I was waiting for my account to activate. Sstimac... I thought I noticed you said you live in Marquette, MI? I just wanted to say hello, I live in Marquette also . (although I'm in the Detroit area visiting family for the holidays right now)

Glad to hear you move was successful!

Mayko