Finicky fish like discus are going to be quite a challenge I expect. I wish you luck!
May be worth contacting a large public aquarium type place for advice? Or the places that sell tropical fish to the shops, they must transport the fish large distances successfully.
Only thing discus need is clean warm water and good food ... give them that and they are easy to keep.
Thanks, I will call my Discus supplier.
Worth noting that shops usually import direct from the Far East. There is a big loss of the fish during transportation & then further losses after they've arrived. Aquatic stores are unfortunately the worst places to ask. However the local breeders are the good guys & I'm sure they will have some tips.
I'll make a thread about camper vans. It would be nice to know how much power I can draw.
Keith (
@DorsetDude ) pointed me here from your motorhome thread ... Not sure where you get your info from or who your discus supplier is (suspect Steve Punchard given you are in IOM) but proper importers of discus lose very few if any. I've handled a number of imports directly from Malaysia and Brazil with zero losses due to shipping. I've also shipped discus to shows as well as to folk who have bought from me, again without losses.
Discus are easy to ship, they really are, provided you do it right. Assuming these are adult or near adult then start by not feeding them for three days prior to moving, this will give them time to purge themselves so reducing any waste. You will need enough poly boxes to take the fish and enough strong polythene bags. The bags should be the thicker type of polythene as discus have sharp dorsal spines. You should double bag each discus separately and ideally put a liner between each bag, i.e. put the bag with the fish in in another bag that has a liner in it. If you don't have the thick polythene liners then use paper (newspaper etc) folded up. The liner has several purposes, the main one being to protect the outer bag from being pierced with the fishes spines.
When you come to bag the fish use clean water in the bags, don't use tank water. Use water that is of a similar temp to the tank, but be careful not to get it too warm - water holds more O2 the cooler it is. Place enough water to just cover the fish and if in doubt use less rather than more water. As a rough guide you want 2/3rds air to 1/3rd water in each bag, if you have access to oxygen then so much the better, but of not trap air in the bag (don't blow in it as your breath has low O2) and seal with an elastic band or two. Put each bag in the poly box and when the box is full seal the lid. Given it is summer I wouldn't use any heat packs. If you do, use one per box, tape it to the lid of the box and make sure there is a hole in the lid where the heat pack is - the hole only needs to be a millimetre or two wide, just enough to let air get to the heat pack.
They should be safe in there for 36 to 48 hours, if you use O2 that could extend to 72 hours.
When you come to un-bag them, don't bother with any of the floating nonsense, just empty the water from the bag and slide the fish into their new home, believe me the water in the tank will be way better for them than the stuff in the bag. Just make sure that the tank water temp isn't too high as the temp of the bag water will be low. I typically get the water to around 23/24C and then let the tank heater get the temp back up to discus temps (28C btw ...).
Adult discus may sulk for a while after moving them, but be patient and they usually come around.
Hope that helps.
