Has anyone moved freshwater fish in a car cross country?

Try UPS Ground

take the fish out and put them in there one little cases/ boxes for staying in… then go around the world

I have taken Cichlids cross country. I took them in a ten gallon aquarium and I don’t recommend it. Perhaps the best thing to do is bag them like they do at pet stores. Let me check a couple links and I will add what I find.

I moved about 600 miles last summer with 4 fish, 2 guinea pigs, 2 hamsters, and a turtle. They all made it and are still doing fine. The fish are in a 10 gallon tank. We took about half the water out and put the tank on the floor in the backseat of the car. I made sure to pack things around it so that it wouldn’t slide around.

you should place them in plastic bags, 2 layers to prevent accidents, not too populated though. dont feed your fish before traveling. fill 20-30 percent water, 70 percent pure oxygen. tite rubber band, no feeding during transport.

Good luck.

koi kichi is right.

I have moved my fish from missouri to virginia (about 1100 miles) and none of them died. I took out about 3/4 of the water in their tank and bought a battery operated air bubbler and put it in their tank along with a lot of stress coat and they all moved just fine.

Yes!!! I can help. I just did it. I moved to florida. Get a 5 gallon pail. Put plasic wrap on the top. Do not fill the pail full of water. Half way worked for me. Go to an aquarium shop and purchase a $15.00 back-up air pump. It takes two “D” batteries. Poke a hole in the plastic to insert the pump hose. Use your original water from your tank to put in the pail. Tape the plastic wrap to the pail. Do not leave your fish in the pail in a parked car where temp is too hot. Put ice in the pail if you have to do this. (Just to cool the water)
Many stores told me the fish needed to be packed in ice to make them dormant OR ship them. Do not do this.
Also do not transport them in glass aquarium unless you have a van where it will be still. Car seat (I wouldn’t risk)
I have transported them in our motor coach in a 10 gal aquarium that I placed in the bathtub but filled the aquarium after I had it placed in the tub. Most recently I placed them in the 5 gal pail for a three hour trip. The most important thing is to have oxygen. check water temp and if it gets too warm put some ice cubes in the water. Good luck!!

I purchased a strofoam cooler and bagged my fish placing bags in coolerso they could not move around this worked great for a 300 mile trip lost 1 fish

Shellkate is right. Get a styrofoam box deep enough to accomodate the tall bags that aquatic dealers use. Use those bags- you can buy them in pet stores. If you can, use oxygen when you fill the bags. I’d do about 1 part water to 4 parts air/oxygen. And don’t feed for at least 24 hours beforehand. Put some Ammolock in or other product that detoxifies the ammonia that the fish excrete.

Put your fishes in those plastic pet store fish bags, but do 4 or 5 layers just in case the water leaks. You might want to “package” your fishes seperately depending on the size of your fishes.