Moving... What to do with fish?

[max384]

I'm in the process of putting my home up for sale, and I'm also looking for a new house to buy. I'm hoping that I buy a new house before my house sells, but in this housing market, it behooves me to list early, since houses often sit for a long time before selling around here. If our house sells early, we'll be temporarily staying with my in-laws.

So my question is, has anyone else been forced to temporarily house their fish? And if so, what's the best way to do it? Currently I have a 2000 gallon pond with a 55 gal filter. It houses 12 fish, 6 koi and 6 shubunkins. There are two 1-foot butterfly koi, two 8-10" koi, two 5-6" koi, and the six shubunkins are all between 4-7."

I worry about having a temporary container that would be big enough to house these fish, and a filtration system that could handle it. In addition, I'd assume I'd need a pretty mature bio filter right off the bat... Should I just pull some of the filter media from my existing pond?

 

[Dave 54]

Max my fried in Fort St John Canada brings her koi indoors each winter , she has a number of stock tanks and her burrel filtration can be stripped down so that one barel suports one stock tank each and every winter without loosing any koi somce she moved them indoors .
So if she can do this I feel sure you should be able to cbble something like this together so that your fish can be temporarily held.
I hope this gives you some ideas

Dave

 

[morewater]

Get a blow-up kiddie pool and inflate it in your garage. Aerate it and throw a pressure filter on it.

Tell the fish that they're on vacation and are at an all-inclusive. Fish are stupid. They'll believe it.

 

[max384]

Thanks for the advice guys

 

[Mmathis]

GOOGLE "Intex" pools. This time of year you can find them at most sporting goods stores. They make some that would be large enough to mimic what you have now in your pond. The ones I'm thinking about have rigid sides, and look like there is some sort of PVC-type frame. I would be leary of the inflatable ones -- too many things can happen in a short period of time [but that's just my opinion].

As far as filtration, is there any way you can convert what you have now to use with something like a pool? Last year I had to shut down my [almost] 3000 gal pond. I have a Skippy filter. I moved all my goldfish to a 300 gal. Rubbermaid stock tank and re-connected the Skippy to that. I never lost any of my bio-capabilities, was actually over-filtered, and carried on frequent water changes. Then, when it was time to re-fill the pond, did it in reverse. My water parameters never wavered and the fish did great.

 

[sissy]

yep same kiddy pool or stock tank and best is end of season on kiddy pools .Here I have seen houses stay on the market for years.Two of my neighbors have had there houses up for sale for over 4 years now

 

[max384]

GOOGLE "Intex" pools. This time of year you can find them at most sporting goods stores. They make some that would be large enough to mimic what you have now in your pond. The ones I'm thinking about have rigid sides, and look like there is some sort of PVC-type frame. I would be leary of the inflatable ones -- too many things can happen in a short period of time [but that's just my opinion].

As far as filtration, is there any way you can convert what you have now to use with something like a pool? Last year I had to shut down my [almost] 3000 gal pond. I have a Skippy filter. I moved all my goldfish to a 300 gal. Rubbermaid stock tank and re-connected the Skippy to that. I never lost any of my bio-capabilities, was actually over-filtered, and carried on frequent water changes. Then, when it was time to re-fill the pond, did it in reverse. My water parameters never wavered and the fish did great.

Thanks for the tip on the Intex pools.

My 55 gallon barrel filter is buried in the ground, and is definitely not removable. I'm leaving the entire pond (minus the fish) as is for sale with the house, including filter and pumps. Maybe I'll start shopping for another 55 gallon barrel. Then when I'm ready to build my new pond, I'll already have this barrel filter ready to go.

yep same kiddy pool or stock tank and best is end of season on kiddy pools .Here I have seen houses stay on the market for years.Two of my neighbors have had there houses up for sale for over 4 years now

Yikes! Don't tell me that! lol. I'm hoping for a rather quick sell!

 

[Mmathis]

@max384 Sounds like a good plan with your filter! If you are careful during the bio-media transfer [keep the media moist and move it as quickly as possible], you should be OK. Keep everything aerated. You don't have to use the same water, but do be sure to de-chlorinate/de-chloramine [we have both] your water before adding biomedia.

When I did my 2 moves, the biggest part was coordinating everything. You have to think ahead for where you'll temp store everything, how you'll get it moved, what order to do it in, etc. Whew!

 

[sissy]

Well where I live it is to far for people to drive to jobs so it is expected here .Some house sell for 20 and 30 thousand dollars and you can even buy houses around 15 thousand .I am 30 minutes to Danville and about 20 minutes from Martinsville .Most apply to the VDHD to get low cost mortgages and closings only cost 100 dollars .Sad to say there are lots of empty houses here .They just had a house auction and 2 small homes that have not been lived in for 10 years sold for a thousand dollars for both and each are on an acre of land next door to each other .Taxes 30 dollars a year

 

[max384]

Good news! I found a house! I close on July 17th. Looks like I won't hav eto worry about temporary housing for the fish.

Here's a thread I started on some questions on the next pond build: https://www.gardenpondforum.com/thr...-filter-bottom-drain-etc-advice-needed.17164/

 

[addy1]

fantastic max!

 

[tbendl]

Yay Max that's great news.