What do I need to know to relocate my fish to our new home?

[koshki]

It's been a long time since I last posted, but I have enjoyed my pond since I first joined this group, because it was built using knowledge I gained here!

Hubby and I recently bought a house where we will retire soon. Our current house just unexpectedly sold, and we have to vacate by July 17th.

We don't have a new pond built yet. Our current pond is about 600 gallons and I have 6 large goldfish and 2 koi. I've had the oldest one since we built our original pond in 2013. The youngest I've had for four or five years, so they're all sizable fish.

I am panicking over all the things that have to be done, so I could really use a short list of what I need to do to keep these guys healthy during the transition, how to set them up temporarily, and how to get them from here to there. It's about a 3 hour drive.

TIA

 

[Criscar]

I won't have an experienced answer to this question, so look forward to others' responses, but it did occur to me that the amount of overlap time you have with the two properties probably matters? Will it be days or weeks that you have access to both homes?

 

[Tula]

As far as making the actual 3 hour drive, there are portable aerators that are battery operated. I would put the fish in a couple totes and use the aerator. I'd fill the totes with pond water and add a little Prime or other water conditioner to treat ammonia.

Once you are at the new house you could use a portable pool to house the fish while you dig the pond, or a large live stock tank. What kind of filter do you currently have? It should help to bring as much good bacteria from your current pond with you.....rocks, pieces of liner and the filter media. This will help seed your new pond with beneficial bacteria .

 

[koshki]

We own it now, but are not there full time until mid July.

 

[koshki]

As far as making the actual 3 hour drive, there are portable aerators that are battery operated. I would put the fish in a couple totes and use the aerator. I'd fill the totes with pond water and add a little Prime or other water conditioner to treat ammonia.

Once you are at the new house you could use a portable pool to house the fish while you dig the pond, or a large live stock tank. What kind of filter do you currently have? It should help to bring as much good bacteria from your current pond with you.....rocks, pieces of liner and the filter media. This will help seed your new pond with beneficial bacteria .

Very helpful!

 

[Jhn]

Will just add, put the containers you are transporting the fish in cross axle in your vehicle, so the larger fish don’t get nose burn bumping into the edge of the container when you are braking. Would bring some of the plants with you from your current pond, as well.

Have the temporary pool already setup and running at the new house, could even put some floating plants like water hyacinth or lettuce in there, also any filter media or other pond things that contain bacteria would keep them wet, to keep the bacteria alive as best you can. Lastly stop feeding your fish a few days before you move them.

 

[koshki]

Cross-axle...great idea.

I have a bog with some plants, but have given up on plants in the actual pond because Monstro keeps eating them all. I might try to extract some pond water into a bucket and grow some in there for a few days before we move.

What do you suggest to transport them in?

 

[koshki]

Oh, I forgot to mention that we are moving from city water to well water. I confess that I never test my current pond water. Everything seems to run so well with the bog.

Gosh, there is so much I need to pay attention to, just at the point when I have the least mental bandwidth to do it.

 

[brokensword]

welcome from another SE Michigander...whereabouts is the new home?

I'm on a well and have no problem. It might be wise though to test the pH of your city water vs the new well water, just in case the disparity is large. A stable pH is more important than a 'perfect' pH, but the fish may have adjustment problems if the gap is too large. You'll have to acclimate very very slowly so they can adjust. Plants and time will lower the pH if it's high. My well is typically pH of 8.4

 

[CometKeith]

It's been a long time since I last posted, but I have enjoyed my pond since I first joined this group, because it was built using knowledge I gained here!

Hubby and I recently bought a house where we will retire soon. Our current house just unexpectedly sold, and we have to vacate by July 17th.

We don't have a new pond built yet. Our current pond is about 600 gallons and I have 6 large goldfish and 2 koi. I've had the oldest one since we built our original pond in 2013. The youngest I've had for four or five years, so they're all sizable fish.

I am panicking over all the things that have to be done, so I could really use a short list of what I need to do to keep these guys healthy during the transition, how to set them up temporarily, and how to get them from here to there. It's about a 3 hour drive.

TIA

Hi and good luck with all your transitioning. I went through the same ordeal almost 5 years ago. We started building/rehabbing our new home and a few months into the process we decided to put our old home on the market. Well the first people that saw it made a full price offer under the condition they take possession in three weeks and we weren’t close to being done on the new place! I ended up digging the new pond while my new place was still under construction and the long and short of it is my fish moved in 8 months before we did!! I suggest you do what we did and buy a liner and dig a hole for the fish and do the landscaping around it later when you have time and just use some heavy rocks to hold down the liner until you have time to do things properly. When I filled the new pond with water I let the filter acclimate for a few weeks before I brought the fish over and it worked pretty well. I had to drain the old pond down a lot to catch all the fish. That was probably the hardest part!

 

[Gemma]

Hi, You got some very good advises so far so I just want to say that I'm in MI too (Oakland/Genesee county), and on well water ...my PH is top of the strip high but my koi don't seem to mind it, as long as I leave it alone and don't try to lower it...I love being on well water, I don't have to add anything to the pond, ever
Good luck with your fish

 

[Gemma]

A stable pH is more important than a 'perfect' pH, but the fish may have adjustment problems if the gap is too large. You'll have to acclimate very very slowly so they can adjust. Plants and time will lower the pH if it's high. My well is typically pH of 8.4

Good idea!

 

[koshki]

I would put the fish in a couple totes and use the aerator. I'd fill the totes with pond water and add a little Prime or other water conditioner to treat ammonia.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm starting to feel overwhelmed.

We're struggling to figure out how to transport our 8 large fish. How big should the container be (gallons per fish)? How many fish per container? Does shape matter? How long is it safe for them to be in the containers? It's a 3 hour drive, but there will be additional time on both ends, too.

I don't want to leave my fish, but I don't want to kill them, either.

 

[GBBUDD]

Before you transport stop feeding the fish. You dont want them to go in there shipping containers.
Me i would just double bag them get some bags from where you get your koi. A dose of o2 injected in the bag certainly wont hurt. Then stop at a pet at store and have them inject the o2. You can also add start right or stress coat to the water just follow the directions it helps the fish keep there slime coat. Which is crucial. You can also use totes with a lid but i'd expect your car getting a bit wet.
Like @Jhn said place the fish so that they are facing the side of the car not front to back. If you do go with the bins /totes/new rubbermaid trash can you can get a battery operated air pump.
And my self as far as a temp storage area at the new house. I'm sure I'd end end with more then i could build in 1 day or 30 days so id look at kiddie pools. Now in july even in MI you may need to put them in the garage or under some trees those little pools can get too hot laying in the sun. You will also need a net or cover of some sort koi can jump one heck of a long way out of the water the could easily jump out of any kiddie pool even if it was only 1/4 full. They do have decontamination pools as they are called 600 gallons temp storage if your thinking they may be in it for a long time but they are not cheap i beliew there 500 https://nam12.safelinks.protection....eIRueHdqM3LNZUp3P8c98al4Z72IOeGCk=&reserved=0
As far as difference in the water aclimate them like they were bran new fish to your pond you just dont need to quarantine them. Though if they need treatment now is a good time.

 

[Criscar]

Before you transport stop feeding the fish. You dont want them to go in there shipping containers.
Me i would just double bag them get some bags from where you get your koi. A dose of o2 injected in the bag certainly wont hurt. Then stop at a pet at store and have them inject the o2. You can also add start right or stress coat to the water just follow the directions it helps the fish keep there slime coat. Which is crucial. You can also use totes with a lid but i'd expect your car getting a bit wet.
Like @Jhn said place the fish so that they are facing the side of the car not front to back. If you do go with the bins /totes/new rubbermaid trash can you can get a battery operated air pump.
And my self as far as a temp storage area at the new house. I'm sure I'd end end with more then i could build in 1 day or 30 days so id look at kiddie pools. Now in july even in MI you may need to put them in the garage or under some trees those little pools can get too hot laying in the sun. You will also need a net or cover of some sort koi can jump one heck of a long way out of the water the could easily jump out of any kiddie pool even if it was only 1/4 full. They do have decontamination pools as they are called 600 gallons temp storage if your thinking they may be in it for a long time but they are not cheap i beliew there 500 https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https://www.huskyportable.com/aluminum-steel-framed-folding-decon-pools&data=04|01|[email protected]|135f7e4392734f46469808d942d07201|bfbb9a2b6d994e78b3c795005d555c8b|0|0|637614285307398914|Unknown|TWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0=|1000&sdata=LZaNGYnljbeIRueHdqM3LNZUp3P8c98al4Z72IOeGCk=&reserved=0
As far as difference in the water aclimate them like they were bran new fish to your pond you just dont need to quarantine them. Though if they need treatment now is a good time.

Just wanted to add that you can get relatively inexpensive battery powered aerators on amazon and they can run for up to 24 hours on one charge, if koshki decides to go that route.