I moved 3,000 miles with my fish -- Update after the move...

[NoDeltaH2O]

Well, the move is over. It started out in Emmaus Pennsylvania, about 45 minutes outside of Philly (it was July 6th and the temps were in the mid 80s F), and it ended 6 days later in Portland, Oregon, where temps were also in the mid 80s.

I'll give you the whole story here and at the bottom I'll give a list of my Do's and Don't's for moving fish great distances.


July 4th:
Two days prior to the move I broke down all of my tanks (29g, 20g, 10g, 5g) and put fish and shrimp in 4 separate 19gallon Rubbermaid tubs. I floated the live plants in the water to provide cover, food, and hopefully a little oxygen for the fish. I also set up filtration in the tubs that ran until minutes before we loaded the tubs in the car for the drive. I also put the hoods over the tubs until we left to provide for healthy plants going into the trip. I fed the fish lightly.

July 5th:
Gave the fish a healthy feeding of frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. I know ppl say not to feed fish prior to a long move because it will put waste in the water, but with all those live plants, waste was not my main concern. I figured it would be like a Last Supper kinda thing for them. Today we loaded all of our furniture onto the moving truck, had pizza for dinner, and slept on the floor of our apartment with 4 tubs of fish.

July 6th:
We loaded the 4 tubs of fish into our Toyota Tercel which we pulled behind the Penske moving truck. I bought one battery operated air pump online and decided to rotate it throughout the trip, giving everyone air part of the time. (Can we say cheap boys and girls!) I left the windows down so the car would not heat up hotter than the outside air. It was about 82*F as we drove out of PA, through West Virgina (for like 10 miles), and into Ohio. At each stop I switched the airstoneto a different tub. Somewhere in western PA at a truck stop I noticed a tetra and an SAE had jumped to his crusty demise. had the lids on loosely so hot air would not get trapped in. In Ohio at 9pm at my cousin's house I rolled the windows up on the Fish-Mobile and left the fish outside. Temps that night got down to 60.

Fatalities:2
High Temp:82
Low Temp:60

July 7th:
At 8am I went outside and measured water temps with my wife's digital chef thermometer. Temps was 72*F. Perfect. Found a dead Pristella (X-ray) Tetra. We drove through the rest of Ohio, through Indiana, into Chicago Illinois to stay with a friend there. Temps got up to upper mid 80s again. Water temp reached 82 by late afternoon. Fish stayed in car at night again.

Fatalities:1
High Temp:85
Low Temp:65

July 8th:
In morning checked water temp again and it was 73*F. Drove 720 miles from Chicago, through Illinois, through Iowa, into Kearney Nebraska, about 2 hours west of Lincoln. Arrived at 1:30am morning of 9th. Cared not about fish, happy to have finally found a hotel, and went straight to bed.

Fatalities:0
High Temp:87
Low Temp:63

July 9th:
Headed out early (8am), not wanting to arrive late 670 miles away in Wyoming at Aunt & Uncle's house. Made only 3 stops between Kearney, Nebraska and Crowheart Wyoming. (Sidenote: Wyoming is the most desolate places I have seen on Earth. The capitol, Cheyenne, WY is a tiny little cowpoke town with tallest building being the state capitol bldg.) It got HOT today with temps in 90s. Upon arriving in Crowheart, WY around 8pm, I inspected fish and found all to be well. Other than the 4 tubs of fish in the car, I also had excess live plants in three 5-gallon buckets in the trunk of the car. I took a look at them for the first time and found them to be in BAD shape, as they had got NO light for 3 days and had undoubtedly gotten VERY HOT in the trunk. I took the 3 buckets of plants out for the night, letting them get some morning sun the next day.

Fatalities:0, only my beautiful Hygro Polysperma and lotus nymphaea which melted to mush
High Temp:93
Low Temp:67

July 10th:
I put 3 buckets of sickly plants back in trunk at 11am, switched airstone to other tub, and headed out for 620 miles of travel through Wyoming, past Yellowstone, through Idaho, and into Eastern Oregon to Baker City, Oregon to stay with another Aunt & Uncle. We saw buffalo and elk near Yellowstone, but unfortunately did not make the time to go through Yellowstone (next time). Today it was really HOT again, in upper 80s. We made only 2 stops today, one in Jackson Hole, WY, (harrIsON fORd was nowhere to be found), the other in some place in Idaho that eludes me. Did the same thing at night, switched pump to new tub, rolled windows up, set 3 plant buckets outside to cool off and get am sunlight, left fish in car all nigth as temp dropped, cooling water off to a good temp by morning.

Fatalities:0
High Temp:88
Low Temp:66

July 11th:
Went for morning hike with family, collected some cool pieces of slate, and found 2 dead black kuhli loaches. I really liked those guys. First fish fatality that was really considered a loss. I had a really hard time finding some kuhlis that I could keep alive, and had had these 2 guys for over a year. We left around 1pm. Today we drove from Eastern Oregon, to Portland Oregon, 6 hours driving with NO stops at all. We arrived around 6 in the evening, unloaded the tubs of fish and buckets of plants and unpacked some essentials for the night.

Fatalities:2
High Temp:83
Low Temp:N/A (fish again indoors)

July 12th:
Set up the 29 gallon tank, but did not hook up CO2 yet. Tested water. KH is very low, about 2 Degrees, so I added Baking Soda to buffer water up to 6 Degrees in anticipation of DIY CO2 lowering pH. Water here comes from tap with a pH of 7.0, 0 nitrate.

July 13th:
Set up 20 gallon river tank. I CANNOT BELIEVE that all of my hillstream loaches, Glass Catfish, and Otos made the trip and are alive now on the 18th, almost a full week after the move. I thought for sure all of these guys would die as I have struggled to keep them alive in my tanks, let alone tubs in the back seat of a car spalshing down the highways!

Fatalities:6 Amano shrimp disappeared, 4 carcases left behind, 2 poofed

July 14th:
Did not set up the 3rd and final tank which will house my wife's overgrown Synodontis Euruptus. He seemed fine in the tub, and I was tired and sore from packing, driving, and unpacking.

July 15th:
Went to Petco on 185th Street to buy some frozen bloodworms and they had a Clearance table with all items selling for ONE dollar. I bought a 20gallon tank setup and 2 TetraTec UV sterilizers. My sister-inlaw bought an Eclipse 12gallon setup for one dollar. All items were brand new and in perfect condition!!! We spent $10 and had savings of $575.00!!! The UV sterilizers were listed at $159.99 each, but I got them for 2 bucks. AMAZING opportunity to get my sister-inlaw hooked on fish for cheap. I'll set up a planted tank for her No Water Change Style.

July 16th:
Set up the tank for the catfish. Aaahhhhh. Finished tank setups. Started running CO2 on the 29 and the 20.

July 17th:
Wrote this post. Oh yeah, tested some of the Rubbermaid tub water for nitrate and ammonia levels and it is zero on everything. I did NO WATER CHANGES between PA and OR, as my name suggests.


DOs:

• 
  Have a Win/Win attitude about the whole thing. I viewed any outcome as desirable. If all of my fish made it, then great, I would be happy that they lived and I was able to move them successfully. If all of my fish died, then great, I would have an opportunity to completely re-stock my tanks with new fish, at my leisure. I would not have to rush to set up tanks in a new home immediately upon arriving in Portland, and I would be happy. I did not stress about the fish while we were driving. Whenever we hit bumpy roads, my wife and I would look at each other and smile and say, "Splish, Splash!"
• Use Rubbermaid tubs, about half-full of water, allowing for room for the water to splash in the tub, not in your car
  
• get more than one battery operated air pump. I would have gotten the set of 3 if I had ordered a few days sooner. Give yourself about 2 full business weeks for regular shipping
• Keep a digital thermometer with you to check temps the first couple of days

DON'Ts:

• DON'T worry about taking the tubs inside each night and setting up filtration (if weather permits). I was fortunate to move in the summer. Winter-time would have been a HUGE problem for me as extreme lows are more of a problem than extreme highs in the northern states I traveled through.
• DON'T put too many plants in the tubs with the fish. The first night in my home back in PA I had the water surface covered with plants and ALL the fish were gasping at the surface the next morning. This is why I put excess plants in 5-gallon buckets as I had too dang many to have in the tubs with the fish.
• DON'T put plants in hot dark places like trunks of cars. The plants in the tubs with the fish that were in the backseat came out beautifully, but the ones in the buckets in the trunk came out UGLY and melted. Looking back, I would have put all of my excess plants in a 5th, and possibly 6th Rubbermaid tub(s) in the front seat of the car.
• DON'T feed the fish during the trip. Mine went 6 days without food with no problems. Healthy fish can fast for a while.

I hope my story can help those travelling really far, and reassure those travelling less than 3,000 miles that YES, it can be done, and more importantly, it can be done CHEAPLY and EASILY!

[Orion]

Glad to hear you and your wife (and fish) made it there safely. IMO that would very acceptable losses for the distance and way that you traveled. I would be thrilled if I had the same experence with the same outcome.

If I knew Petco was having that good of a deal, it would be worth to drive up there to check them out! lol What a deal on that stuff!

If I were to ever move like that, I would be very tempted to just sell everything, and start over when I got setup in the new place. With all the fish and supplies I have it would be easier to do that than to setup a mobile fish room in the back of the U-Haul.

I've always heard that there wasn't much in WY.

[lordroad]

What a great story... and it has a happy ending. Thank you for posting and detailing everything. This will help a lot of people, especially those of us with multiple tanks and/or large and complex systems.

Note: this would make an excellent sticky...

[revfred]

Interesting story ... and I like the "blow-by-blow" account. I've moved tanks and fish in the past ... but never quite so far. Picked up a lot of good tips from your journey when the "big move" comes in a couple of years.

[chichian]

Wow! That's impressive. Thanks for documenting your move. Your losses seem very minimal and that is great.

... and "Yay!" about the Petco deals! That seems like your reward for braving such a rough move.

[timisu87]

A 1 dollar sale... AMAZING!! great journey coverage.

[ohgollie_molly]

First off welcome to the beautiful Pacific Northwest and more importantly to the Portland Metro area... I myself live in the surrounding area.. btw, next time you find a great deal like that at Petco will you please call me!!! I NEVER find deals like that, EVER...

Secondly, congrats on a successful trip! I have made that same trek myself in a moving truck, minus the fish, as this is a new hobby for me. But I did have my cat. And our trip sucked! It was the most miserable time of my life, and to make matters worse it was technically my "honeymoon"... HA!.. I did come to realize one thing though... IF my young marriage could survive that trip, then my husband and I could survive anything... hahaha Here we are 2 1/2 years later! Anyway, I'm so glad you and your fish made it out here safely with few fatalities... And thank you for sharing your trip and all the details with all of us.

I hope you enjoy your new surroundings!

[hyunelan2]

That may be the longest post I've read all of on a forum, ever. I'd love to move to Portland. Even though I've never been there, everything I've heard, read, and seen pictures of looks like my paradise. The wife is still partial to the godforsaken suburbs of Chicago.

You should have bought everything you could fit in your car from Petco, and retired early selling it off on Ebay .

Congrats on the successful move, good luck in the Pacific Northwest.

[fishfloater]

great read.

[Balloon Fish]

Sorry to hear about the amanos and kuhlis and plants but at least you got all that stuff for $10 i wish my petco would do something like that . Was there a lot of stuff they had for sale or just a few things? In my opinion traveling so far with only like 10 deaths wasn't so bad, sometimes i can't even make it from my lfs to home