Traveling with bettas

[spiff]

Next Friday, I am going home for spring break and bringing Apolo & Aragorn with me (as well as their five gallon tank). The trip is about 90 mins, or 2 hours if traffic is bad.

Originally, I was going to completely empty out their tank and refill it when I got home (it's uncycled so I need to do 100% water changes anyway.) I was planning on putting the boys in the cups that they came in (I know they are tiny, but I don't have anything else to fit them in). However, now I am a little worried about possible shock from the two different water sources since I don't know how much they vary. I did this with Marlin over Thanksgiving break, and he seemed okay, but I left him at home after break, and Apolo & Aragorn are coming back to school with me.

So, should I just empty part of the tank out to reduce the shock from the different waters? Or should they be okay? I changed 100% of the water two weeks ago, so it's not like the tank *really* needs to be completely changed right now.

[Jenny]

What I would suggest to do about the water is to get some empty jugs and fill them up with your schools water. If you have room for five one gallon milk jugs, you can bring home enough water for the tank, and not have to worry about shocking them at all. If you don't have room for that much water, you could just bring a gallon or so, and slowly add your home water to that. Then I would do the reverse on your trip back.

I wouldn't suggest moving the tank with water in it, because they will often break or develop leaks if lifted with water still in them.

The small cups would likely be okay for your trip, but your bettas might be happier in something larger, empty margarine tubs or something would probably work fine. Zip-loc bags also might work well. On a short trip like yours, you don't have to worry about waste building up, but the larger amount of water they are travelling in, the slower their temp will change, and the better for the bettas.

[starlight]

Someone I know moved to a new apt last year. He had dozens of tanks, many filled with fry. There were hundreds of bettas in 2g/5g/10g/30g/75g tanks. The move was roughly an hour. He lowered the water level to several inches and all arrived safely. Be sure to keep the top covered to avoid drafts. (In addition to the glass canopy, I'd Saran Wrap the top to seal it. This may be less stressful than putting them in small containers that will change temp rapidly. It'll be easier to transition them to your new water and any bio in the old water will help. I'd remove any rocks or other objects since you don't want them banging into them.

Another way to move them. Go to local fish store and ask them for a several fish bags. Fill with 1/3 water, 2/3 air and place in styro container. You should tie off the corners of the bag so the betta doesn't get caught and place in another bag. This is how bettas are shipped. This is better for your fish since they won't be hitting the hard sides of the little cups during the travel. The only thing is you may have different water parameters than they are used to.

Let us know how this works out.

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Jenny, I read your comments regarding breakage. Four inches of water in a five gallon tank shouldn't be a problem to move if you carry underneath it. I move my 5g without problems with small amounts of water. Just don't lift it from the top.

Still your suggestion of bringing 5 one gallon containers of water and the empty tank may be the best idea. I'd prefer using fish bags to cups of any kind. It's much easier on the bettas as they get pushed around during transit. Hitting the sides of a bag is easier on them than a hard container.

[palepinkvase]

When I have moved my Bettas by car, I have put them in about 8-10oz of water. I have bowls with lids that hold them and I punched some holes in the lids for air. I then placed the bowls snuggly in a small cooler - lid off. I feel like this keeps the bowls more secure in case I have to suddenly hit the brakes and I think it holds the temp. better. Also, I read somewhere that it is best to move Bettas with reduced light/visual stimuli to reduce the stress. I place paper between their bowls, so they don't flare at each other the entire trip. Jenny's suggestion with the water sounds like your best bet. You could try bottled spring water as a last resort. When I had some water issues, I moved my guys from home tap strainght into 100% spring water and they didn't show any ill effects. Have a good spring break! I am jealous, the U where I work has 2 more weeks to go.

ps - I don't feed my guys the day before the road trip.

[Celura]

How long can they last in the car? I'll be moving to Texas from Florida this summer and that's a 16-hour trip.

[Jenny]

I don't think a trip that long would be a probelm. Bettas don't need airated water, so that wouldn't be a problem, and waste shouldn't build up that quickly. You would probably want to check on them a few times mid trip, but I think they should be okay. If they can be shipped in boxes and survive, I don't think a sixteen hour drive should be too stressful for them.

[palepinkvase]

Celura -
I haven't gone that far by car, but I think it could be done. I have taken along clean ready-to-use water and a syringe for each fish. When stopping for gas or other reasons, I can suck off some old water and add some fresh.

[newbettamom]

Hi everyone! You may have noticed I haven't posted recently, that's because Bonnie, Cyde and I have come home to Maui. That was about 15 hours of travel on planes and through airports with them and they did wonderfully although they arrived quite pale. One thing I did that worked wonders was to tuck a Therma Care heating pad next to the travel containers. It is activated by the air and although the box says they stay warm for 8 hours I found it was more like 12. I checked the water often with my hand to the outside of the container (after a while you become quite used to what 80 degrees feels like!) just to make sure it wasn't getting too warm and if it was I just pulled the pad out for a while. Bonnie and Clyde travelled in 2 quart plastic containers filled with about 2 inches of water. These then went into a cardboard box lined with styrofoam (airlines orders). I kept the lid down on the cardboard box most of the way hoping they'd be less active and think it was time to rest, which also seemed to help. One last thing, don't feed them the day before the trip to minimize waste in the water. Hope this helps!

[Celura]

Great, thanks everyone!

[spiff]

Thanks for the tips, everyone.

I am going to ask my mom to buy a heat pad for the trip home, and to bring up larger containers or fish bags.

I was going to fill up the bucket I have at school for water changes with school water and bring it home, but now I don't want to do that, since knowing me, I will forget it at home. At home, I have two 16 gallon tubs for changing the water (one for clean and one for dirty). I am going to ask my parents to bring the clean one up, and I will fill it with some school water (maybe 7 gallons or so so I can do a water change during the week). Plus, the tubs have lids so the water won't splash around and then I can put stuff on top of it.

[palepinkvase]

Sounds like a plan. Let us know how it went and add any tips you come up with.

[spiff]

Well, the fish and I are home.

My parents brought the clean tub up and I filled it with some water. They brought two fish bags (with twisties) and a styrofoam cooler to bring the fish in. I wanted a heat pack, but my mom thought we didn't need one so we did without it. I put the boys in their bags and put a towel in the cooler to wrap around them. The trip home was very hot since we had to have the heat up full blast and no windows could be open (hey, you won't bring me a heat pack, you have to suffer for it!). I checked on the boys every once in a while to make sure they were okay and to add air to their bags. We finally made it home and I floated the boys in a diff tank while I set their tank up. Aragorn seemed fine, but Apolo was very pale -- his body was brown, instead of steel blue, and his anal fin was practically see through. He regained all his color in about 10 mins though. Then I set the tank up and let it heat up for a while (and I brought just enough water to fully fill the tank). I just put them in the tank and they are doing fine...flaring at each other like normal!

[palepinkvase]

Glad to hear that the boys made it home with you safely. Do you think Apolo just got stressed from the change?

[spiff]

He was probably just freaked out from being in the car and the temp changes, especially since the trip was longer than I imagined (over 3 hours isntead of 90 mins). When I take them back up to school next Tuesday, I am definitely going to get a heat pack, so hopefully the trip goes better for him.