What options do I have when moving?

[FermezLaBouche]

Hello all!

This might seem a bit of a silly priority when the rest of my life is up in the air but I really need advice.
Due to many reasons I have been applying for jobs over 200 miles away. Now I have 2 interviews. If I get either I will obviously have to move, and I don't know what the options are with my fishtank.

I have a big, 300 litre community cool-ish tropical tank with a real variety of species. I absolutely love having them, and don't know what would happen if I move. I don't see that I could take the tank with me, as I would be probs moving somewhere smaller. But I don't know what to do about my fish. I don't really want to give them to a pet shop, as I've read they might use them for food to other fish. Also, I don't know what to do with my beloved Dojo Loaches. This sounds extremely sad, but I care about them like they are puppies - they are very friendly and even eat out my hand! I am absolutely loath to give them away but don't know what to do.

There are a few local freegle type groups near me - do you think I should give most of the fish away on there? And what the hell do I do about the loaches?

Local paper?

Theres lots of fish forums, you might be able to find someone near you who would take them?

I'd go for moving the lot and compromise on the rest of your living space - start collecting water bottles so you can move as much of that as possible, get a bunch of lidded plastic boxes for the fish, some buckets for gravel and plants, ideally move it on a different day to the rest of your stuff, and hopefully most of the fish will survive if you get them back in the tank within a day and let them calm down in the dark and add tonic. I've moved a 200L tank without much planning and on the same day as a house move and it was OK - lost a few tetras and platies but small loaches and corys etc were fine for some more years.

I don't think Freegle/Freecycle accept live animals including fish, though I've not heard of fish shops using decent healthy fish as feeders (suspect they might with platies that people bring in but not big ones) - could be wrong.

when we moved house (over 100 miles, took 2 days) we got a big polystyrene box from the aquatics shop and lots of bags

we put the fish in small groups into the bags with their normal tank water, put the bags in the box and put the lid on

that night we opened the bags and let some fresh air in, but kept the bags in the box

we took most of the water out of the tank (was 4ft long, no idea of volume), but left gravel in bottom and a few inches of water

that night we filled with new water, added conditioning stuff, left overnight to warm up

added fish next morning, all were fine :)

go and speak to your local fish shop, hopefully they'll be able to give some sensible advice :)

Thanks for these pieces of advice - you're giving me hope that I may not have to say goodbye to my babies! I think given the distance I would defo have to do it all in one day, probably with a rented transit van.... (er...Daaaaaaaaad?) Pleased to hear that for the most part the fish survived these journeys. Bumpybecky that sounds like an epic and torturous journey, but I'm glad all survived!

We will have to see now if I even get the bloody job, or else I've been worrying for nothing!