Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Fish transport?

Ok how can I keep fish alive who have been stressed?

I have a 2 hour heads up from when I need to pick them up. Trip is only 20 minutes.

Was going to use large rubber maid totes. Was going to use our own pond water and aerate it for an hour before we leave.

Any other tips?

The last trip the totes were filled with water from the shore line and was warm had six walleye 10-14". One lived to make it into the pond the rest made it to the fry pan.

Any tips or tricks to help me get these home would be great. They are quite stressed when I get them from coming in from the lake.

Cheers Don.

ice, ice, baby
very cold pond water, ice, pre-aerate, keep cold round trip to keep amount of O2 dissolved constant. More ice for the way home. Might have to acclimate lake fish to the cold pond water in your vehicle slowly.

A cheap aquarium bubbler or a simple 12v water pump to move water may help.

How cold is the water they are coming from? I would start them out in that water.

Once in your live well you can cool the water with some ice. I would freeze your pond water perhaps. This way you can be adding it slowly as it melts. Not too much too fast as to shock them. You are just trying to cool the water not "chill" it. Remember you will have to warm them back up to your pond water. once home start adding your pond water to the live wells via water changes. You can simply add it and let it over flow as you go or remove some fist. once you get close to pure pond water and pond temps you can release them.

I like to do the final pond water exchange and release as early in the AM as Possible so the surface water will not be as hot.

Thanks guys! Never thought about freezing our pond water. Save on the $3 per bag of ice. The water they will be in is going to be lake water but along the shore. So I expect it will not be very cold. Where they are caught yes it is cool but expect them to warm up then cool again in our shipping water.

Walleye have always been very strong fish but these guys went belly up fast on the first trip.

We will be getting back to our pond around 1 in the afternoon.

P.S. I can turn on the aeration on our pond before I leave to mix the pond too if that will help.

Donno:

Check pH of both BOW's. Try not to have greater than a 5°F temp difference between water or you will need to temper the water. The warmer the water, the less O2 it will hold. I would use a battery powered aerator during transport, even though it's only 20 minutes.

I'll post some cliff notes from here:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/af000e/AF000E02.htm

A need for adapting the fish to a lower water temperature may also arise before transport. Natural ice is used to cool the water; the ice of carbonic acid should be avoided. As a guide ratio, 25 kg of ice will cool 1 000 litres of water by 2°C. If the water contains fish during the cooling process, the temperature drop should not be faster than 5°C per hour. Direct contact of fish with ice should be prevented at the same time. The total temperature difference should not be greater than 12–15°C, with respect to the species and age of the fish (FRG recommendation, 1979).

The fish to be transported, except for the larval stages should be left to starve for at least a day; if the digestive tract of the fish is not totally cleaned, the possible time of transport is reduced to a half, though the conditions may be the same (Pecha, Berka and Kouril, 1983; Orlov et al., 1974). The fish with full digestive tracts also need more oxygen, are more susceptible to stress, and produce excrements which take up much of the oxygen of the water.

There's much more there, it's a good read for anybody transporting fish. There's more to it than just putting water in a container and moving fish.

+1 You can add your pond water slowly to the totes while you aerate them. This is how I stocked all my fish and, as far as I have observed, I have never lost one but I have always stocked in early spring or late fall.

Just my 1 cent....

How many fish and how many gallons/liters of water? Best water to haul in is oxygen rich well water, but with only a short, 20 minute drive, use the supplier's pond water, not your own! Temper and acclimate at your pond!

also, If you buy ice it most likely will be chlorinated "city" water

Good point Bobby. I had never thought of that.

What about salt? Should that be used or not bother.

For a 20 minute drive I wouldn't worry about using salt.

Thanks guys. My truck has a 115v plug that I am going to wire through the split window to the two totes. Freeze some pond water this week and give her a go.

Thanks Again.

For a 30 minute transport and tempering period, I wouldn't cool the water more than 4 or 5C (8-10F). I would Cool the water with some ice after you add the fish. Don't put fish directly from warm to cool water. For that short of a transport period, I would focus more on producing lots of fine bubble aeration in as much water volume as you can haul practically rather than cooling the water more than 2-4C. For the 30 min trip and tempering, I would want at least 20 liters better 30L for each 10"-14" walleye.
Since the fish have some degree of stress when you get them, I would slowly add a light salt dosage to reduce stress after they are added to the haul tank. 1 oz of noniodized salt per 2-3 gal of hauling water. Add your fish to the haul tank then slowly dissolve the salt to minimize any salt shock. Don't forget to slowly replace/exchange pond water in each tub to equalize the temps for 20-30 min when you get the fish to the pond especially if the hauling water is more than 2.8C(5F) cooler than your pond.

You can haul fish in garbage cans or other big containers with garbage can plastic bag liners up to 55 gal size. The liner can be tied shut around your airline to reduce sloshing spillage.

Let us know how this project works out for you. Have your kids get some pictures for us. Fish dead or alive.

To reduce loss, you can make a fish "hospital" like George did to revive his HSB. Buy one 6" Point Four Micropore diffuser, a .1-1.0 SCFM flow meter, a regulator and a small tank of O2. Run it at 40 psi, and have enough bubbles so they barely make it to the surface of the water. That will put more O2 into the water than straight air.

a few yrs back, u could buy a package of material that could be added to your live well in the bass boat that would help reduce death of fish to be weighed in at tournaments. Lost points if weighed in a dead fish. Not sure how well it worked, I never used it. But BPS carried it and it might be useful to your needs. Worth looking into I think.

Tracy

Dono, how do you plan to temper and acclimate the fish at your supplier to YOUR pond water at HIS place? Seriously, for a 20 minute haul, only TWO things are needed...enough water for the pounds of fish hauled (about 2 gallons per pound of fish or 18 liter per kg) and water movement with air or a small water pump. Adding salt, ice. your own water at the supplier's site or any chemical will cause you far more problems than solutions in such a short ride!

In fact, if you have twice the water to fish weight, you won't even need air for a haul that short!! KISS applies here

Last spring, I hauled two 16 inch albino CC in a cooler with about 10 gallons of water and no aeration...a 35 minute haul with air temperatures around 65-70. They did fine, and are now about 20" and three pounds. Back in the winter, I hauled an 18" albino CC in a 5 gallon bucket from the same source. It's now about 4 pounds and 22-23 inches.

I think CC could crawl around on the bank fifteen minutes out of water and survive. Bullheads twice or three times as long. I've watched bullheads crawl back to the water.

Other fish are not quite as sturdy.

That is what I am looking for keep it simple. Ok my plan is more water then needed and an air pump on the truck pumping air to air stones in the totes. I gave all my aquarium stuff away so I need to get a small air pump or steel grandmas O2 for the day...... tee he he. Just kidding grandma.