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Currently, I have a planted 30gal tank with a male betta and a few shrimp/snails. I'm very attached to my fish, and enjoy the ability to give him a tank much larger than the average pet-store betta fish.

Unfortunately, I am now facing a series of significant moves over the next few months/years, including some weeks of loosely structured car travel. These moves will involve spending several days at a time traveling (mostly by car), with occasional long stops. While I can set up a full tank whenever I stop for a few weeks, my 30gal takes up a ton of space in my vehicle, and it's nearly impossible to transport without draining. There's also the matter of getting set up at each new location and ensuring the water continues to cycle properly.

In short, I think my life is going to be way too stressful for my fish.

How do I cope with this?

In past, I have traveled with him in a large pickle jar. While I can't really heat or filter the water, it at least gives him somewhere safe to travel when we're in the car.

Has anyone had success creating some kind of "travel tank"? Something that you can easily transition from house to house without introducing extreme stress?

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    Heiko Bleher traveled many thousands of miles/kilometers with several aquariums in a modified Mercedes truck. He did it for years so the stress level seems to have been acceptable . I expect it was pretty expensive.
    – blacksmith37
    Commented Nov 14, 2018 at 22:19

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I don't know the exact situation going on, but I had a great deal of success using bait buckets. You can make your own media bags by getting the filter bags at your local pet store, along with some filter floss and ceramic rings. Just fill a bag up with the floss and another with rings or do both half and half with the rings on the bottom :) You can seed it in the established tank for a while and then tie these onto the bubbler in the bait bucket, I put an air stone at the end of it personally so the media I tie onto it does not just slide off and also to diffuse just how much air was being put out at once. This helps keep the bacteria alive for the cycle as well. I typically have an entire sump full of media just ready to go because I like to have it on hand. You can also get adapters for your car, so you can get a plugin heater for the bucket as well :) This makes traveling much less stressful on the fish and easier on you-I keep API StressCoat+ on hand as well and just do a couple drops each day in the bucket. I hope this gives some insight or help. I have moved across the united states twice with this method and all my fish survived.

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  • You can typically find bait buckets in the hunting and sporting goods section of stores like Walmart.
    – HeathenFatalis
    Commented Dec 4, 2018 at 21:53

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