Hi

Well i have a few Questions to ask.

1-- I will be moving house in three weeks time. I have one Oscar fish about 11-12 inches long.
I have a long way to move 14 hours of driving to be precise.
Was wondering how long can i have our oscar out of his tank. And what is the best way to transport him. Could be nearly two days out of his tank.

2-- I have a new 6 foot long tank. bout 500L size.
This will be his new home for 2-3 months before moving again.
How do i go about setting this size tank up. Will only be him for about 6 months then thinking about getting a companion for him.
-- Just have normal stonegravel in the bottom and am running a Sacem Marathon 2000 External filter. (no idea how old it is) Trying to Keep costs down as moving to buy a new house.. If anyone can recommend a better filter if that one will not be good enough for the new tank.

Thankyou

Hi Fritzz and welcome.

Mate, I have just been through the same thing and we were also saving to buy a house but we only had to move 5 hours. That was about 12 months ago now and we bought the house about 5 months ago, probably closer to 6 now actually.

You probably don't want to hear this but we also had a 12" Oscar, Roy and though it was actually better to leave him behind with another enthuasiast. I'm not saying you have to but it was safer for him and easier for us. The flip side is that I wanted more than 1 Oscar and so less than 2 hours ago I just purchased 4. An Albino Longfin, a 2 tigers and an Albino Red.

If of course this is not an option I would suggest you have a tank set up where you will be arriving if possible. Transport in an esky (Ice Box) to keep the temperature stable, Airate the water using a pump a 12v to mains inverter. I would doubt you would need filtration but suggest you take at least 1/2 your gravel with you to keep your biological goodies. Also a good dose of antibiotics is hand before the trip but not during as it can reduce the oxygen levels in the water you little friend will be traveling in.

We though that since we knew someone who was willing to take him, Roy that it would just be much kinder to leave him and not transport him. I doubt thinking back that we could have run a suitable tank as we were at the In-laws saving up and there wasn't a lot of room, especially for a tank.

I'm sure I have missed something and the other here can offer far better advice. I'm only new here myself and the guys & gals in here (this forum) have excellent advice. Since we didn't make the trip it was only though about and not practiced.

Happy new year & again, welcome.

DadMac (Lake Macquarie, Australia)

i used to transport live fish before but the distance and
time is much less than what you have indicated. we travel
around 4 to 6 hours and our merchandise is more delicate than
oscar. they were live grouper for hotel's supply. the process:
we put big plastic bag in styro box, filled with cycled salt water,
put the fishes, inflate with oxygen, tied and sealed the opening
of plastic bag, put the cover of the box, and ready to roll.

in some ocasion, we had mechanical trouble and stayed overnight
along the road, the following day, we delivered and found out that
all supplies were in good condition. that is more than 24 hours.
the only difference was that there was no motion while waiting for
the back up truck.

just giving you the idea. nevertheless, i agree with DadMac.

HI and thankyou for the responses.

1--Would be very hard to have a tank already setup down there.
would mean having to buy one n the tank we have for him will come down with us.
I was reading that when setting up a tank that having good media n bacteria from his old tank would be good. Did have an idea of a 20L bucket filled with his tank water so i had something to start with.

But like u said if this doesnt work we do have the last option of leaving him with a friend that knows oscars.

if you can get a pumps tah run under AC/DC current,
yes you can. an styro box or big bucket could be an
option with a DC pump running to keep the cycle and
good bacteria alive in the filter. no running water
could starve the bacteria with oxygen and die. you also
put your oscar in the box instead of oxygenated plastic
bag. (DC pump should be 12V so that you can use car power
supply of 12V DC. i had use this kind of pump in 2006 but
my oscar did not make it because power outage last for 9 days)