Loaches Online Forum

Hi everyone,

It's been a long time since I've visited and posted, sorry. {:

My husband and I are moving within the San Diego area, but we have a lot of work to do on our house before we can sell it. We're going to need to tent the house for termites, replace the carpet, redo the paint ...

I'm looking for someone in the area who will either board our fishes for a few months (we will gladly pay!) or take good care of our fishies as a new home for them. We have five thirteen-year-old yoyo loaches in a 50 gallon tank, five ten-year-old kuhli loaches and handful of corydoras catfish in a 12 gallon tank, plus a couple of plecos in each tank.

If you can help us, I would be very grateful.

I'm sorry I can only offer sympathy. I recently did a coast to coast move. Between house fix up & realtors saying crabby things about my 8 tanks, I kept weeding down my fish...hoping I could move my old favorites. If I had better timing it still would have been a major PITA but still sad.

But across town should be doable. Have you asked at local fish stores or clubs? Some lfs will board. Maybe a friend or neighbor would make room for tanks if you came over for maintenance? Good luck!

Check with a local LFS. Some will board fish. Also local fish clubs. If I was near you I would take you fish to board. Sorry about the hard decision you had to make. Your old fish are a testemant to your fish keeping skills.

As it turns out, one of my friends is willing to board them for us! I am so relieved.

I would love any advice you folks have about moving them. My friend lives very nearby (a five minute drive), so I was wondering if it would be possible to move them into big 5g Home Depot style buckets, transport the tanks and all the water, and just re-set up the tanks on the other end? Is that reasonable? I know the water will be murky and they'll be mad at me for a few days, but is there any other reason not to do it this way?

Also, how long should I wait before moving them again? I don't want to totally stress them out, but I don't want to be a burden on my friend, and I expect it will be two to three months until the work is all completed. We could move them into our garage after the tenting is done, leave them out there while we finish all the other work and until we sell the house, and then move them to our new home (into new tanks) once the house is sold. The tanks are heated, and since we're in California, I don't *think* they'd get too cold out in the garage ... I could always add another heater.

Again, is this reasonable? Will it work? I don't want to overstress them, and I desperately want to keep them. Any advice you have would be wonderful. <3

That's great! If your friend's water is the same or close in pH, KH & GH it shouldn't be that hard. I'd do some good gravel vacs & water changes to get rid of built up crud in the substrate. On the day you plan to move them use the big buckets with 5-6 inches or so of tank water, yoyos in 1, kuhlis & corys in another maybe a third for plecos, lids would be good for jumpers like yoyos probably are.
Remove decor & drain the tanks down to 3-4 inches above the substrate to make netting easier. Scoop out the substrate, even trash bag lined boxes will work. Keep the filter media moist-wet. Take tank(s) to friends, add substrate & decor & enough dechlorinated water close to their old temp to at least cover decor. Add heater, filters & enough dechlor'd water to get them working to clear any cloudiness.
Then I'd slowly acclimate them by adding the new tank water slowly to the buckets over at least 30 minutes, longer is better especially if water is much different, I've done it over a few hours with new fish from very different water. You may have to bale some out of the buckets after a while. You don't have to move lots of old tank water, the beneficial bacteria is mostly in the filters & substrate. Leave the lights out for the rest of the day & don't feed until the next.
I'd also leave the water level down a couple inches in the tank for a week or 2 for the yoyos. A "new" tank might get them dancing & you don't want jumpers.
Write things down for your friend & show how big a "pinch" of flakes or whatever is, how many pellets etc, "less is better than too much". Good luck!

IMO, moving fish is easier when it's a multi-tank process.

I'd just get a new 50 gallon tank and set it up at the my friends house. Match the water parameters, such as GH, KH, TDS, pH and Temperature. Throw some mature biomedia in it, like gravel or sand. Then let it cycle for a few days, if I have time. Then move the fish and the old filters to the new tank at my friends house. Then break down the old 50 gallon tank at my house when I have time.

I would like to do that, but don't want to burden him with the fish for an extended period of time. Trying to figure out how best to manage that. Hmm.

What a good outcome.

I have transported my fish in a 5 gallon bucket. Our state fair has an aquarium section and people bring the fish in a bucket, and bring the tank and set it up. WOrks pretty well.

Glad you found a solution and get to keep your fish.

I am in a similar situation, as I must leave the country for a month, and need someone to look after my fishes while I am away. Just wondering how you were able to find someone to care for your fish. I live near Humphrys San Diego. Please let me know if you have any advice, as I do not have anyone I know that is reliable enough to count on at the moment. Thanks.

Leanne wrote:Hi everyone,

It's been a long time since I've visited and posted, sorry. {:

My husband and I are moving within the San Diego area, but we have a lot of work to do on our house before we can sell it. We're going to need to tent the house for termites, replace the carpet, redo the paint

I'm looking for someone in the area who will either board our fishes for a few months (we will gladly pay!) or take good care of our fishies as a new home for them. We have five thirteen-year-old yoyo loaches in a 50 gallon tank, five ten-year-old kuhli loaches and handful of corydoras catfish in a 12 gallon tank, plus a couple of plecos in each tank.

If you can help us, I would be very grateful.

Where are you located, barrymorgan88?

barrymorgan88 wrote:I am in a similar situation, as I must leave the country for a month, and need someone to look after my fishes while I am away. Just wondering how you were able to find someone to care for your fish. I live near Humphrys San Diego. Please let me know if you have any advice, as I do not have anyone I know that is reliable enough to count on at the moment. Thanks.

As it turned out, so far we have not needed to move them or have someone else care for them. I'm going to have the fun of moving them tomorrow night, but just within the house-- we're getting the vinyl redone first, and then the carpet, so we're moving them into the kitchen tomorrow night. I'm told that the fumigation can be done after we move out, which is a huge relief.

I would offer to take care of yours, but right now we're in so much flux that (as you can see), I haven't even been to the forum in over a month. ^_^;