Storms in the Midwest-

I'm in Missouri, and this morning was pretty rough. Luckily, this time, no severe damage hit my immediate area but our winds were wild, hail was coming down ranging in size from marbles to bigger than golf balls and the wind was horrible.

While we lucked out in my area, others weren't so lucky and it seems like this weather trend isn't over quite yet. Hopefully this weekend won't be too rough on everyone.

I am not getting affected at all, because I've been out of the country. I have lived in Michigan for the last 7 years, but at this very moment I am on the other side of the planet and won't be back for a few more months.

LOL! I probably have an idea of how you feel! When I was visiting Italy at one point, the Pope was in St. Louis- and while I was in Germany, President Bush (yeah, it's been a while since THAT trip) was on the cover of magazines there. Very surreal!

I'm up in WI, but I've been watching all the tornados accross southern IL and IN. I'm a volunteer with an organization that does emergency animal sheltering in disasters (and puppy-mill raids, and hoarder siezures) and I'm just waiting to hear if we've gotten called in. I hope everyone else on this list (and their pets) is safe.

By the way, this Saturday March 10 (the one-year aniversary of the Japan earthquake) the TV show Must Love Cats on Animal Planet is visiting Japan. Part of the show will cover the still ongoing rescue efferts for the pets still trapped in the nuclear exclusion zone. You can go to http://www.japancatnet.org for more info.

You can also go to http://www.wisconsinwags.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=214 to view a series of posts I wrote on emergency planning for pet owners (under the pen-name of Redshirt). Now I've got to get busy and finish the series.

(03-05-2012, 04:36 PM)Karenskatz Wrote: I'm up in WI, but I've been watching all the tornados accross southern IL and IN. I'm a volunteer with an organization that does emergency anaimal sheltering in disasters (and puppy-mill raids, and hoarder siezures) and I'm just waiting to hear if we've gotten called in. I hope everyone else on this list (and their pets) is safe.

By the way, this Saturday March 10 (the one-year anaiversary of the Japan earthquake) the TV show Must Love Cats on Animal Planet is visiting Japan. Part of the show will cover the still ongoing rescue efferts for the pets still trapped in the nuclear exclusion zone. You can go to http://www.japancatnet.org for more info.

You can also go to http://www.wisconsinwags.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=214 to view a series of posts I wrote on emergency planning for pet owners (under the pen-name of Redshirt). Now I've got to get busy and finish the series.

We don't mind you to post them here too.
I think fish would be the hardest to take care of in case of an emergency or disaster. You just can't carry the fish tank with you lol. It is easy to get your dogs and cats into a car and run for it.

Fish are tricky when it comes to evacuation. Other things that live in glass tanks (like lizards) can be bodily picked up and put in anaother container, but with fish you have to move their environment with them. Not exactly grab-and-go. All I can think of is to keep a supply of clean five gallon buckets near-by, along with whatever you'd use to bail water and transfer fish, plus a bag of what you'd need to get by for a few days like food, tank chemicals, aerator, etc. I would also prioritize which fish are the most important and load them first because you might run out of time or space. I don't know anything about fish, but I'd think that they could survive in the buckets for a few days. If it looks like you will be out of your home for longer than that, hopefully you will be out of the affected area and can buy another tank. (Hey, fish experts; can you keep fish in a plastic tote bin? Or is there something toxic in the plastic that would hurt them?)

Thanks for letting me post my Emergency Preparedness series. I was just going to ask the Administrator if I could.

Not a chance to evacuate the tropical fish in a non tropical environment.
Can't take the heater.
Can't take the filter.
Can't take the air pump.

They need all of the above to be alive for more than a few days.

Without a heater, the tropical fish will freeze to death.
Without the filter, any fish will die of ammonia poisoning.
Without the air pump, the fish might die of oxygen starvation.

Basically, it is no good to take the fish with you if you can't provide constant source of power to run those equipments.
Cold water fish like goldfish might live a little longer under the same situation, but won't live for very long.

You can keep fish in plastic bin, as long as you have a cycled filter system, and a heater if they are tropical. Air pump is needed if the water temperature is quite high.
I know some people who use trash bin to store water for the next water change.

Some of it depends on the fish, I suppose. Bettas can be transported- actually, many people do use bin type houseing for them. Strong plastic bins can tolerate heaters (if in doubt, get a suction type and put it on a piece of slate on the bottom) - 10 gallon buckets can easily hold a running marineland magnum HOB filters, and totes can be used for other types of fish- rigged to suitability.

This shows a temporary goldfish setup I had (no heater needed in that warm room) that was made from scraps around the house:



Stores sell heating tape as well, or you can order it online and if you *have* to have fish in bowls there are heating pads you can buy to set them on.

You can heat fish temporarily by having them in a tank that is in a larger tote with a heating pad/blanket tucked around it and/or over the entire makeshift setup. If absolutely necessary, you can use the tote the tank sits in as a bath itself, adding warm water around the tank in order to help maintain temps without shocking the fish with temp changes in their immediate environment.

It's always good to have aquarium salt onhand, as it does help in situations of stress, ammonia burns or with other small nicks/issues including ich that can come up in unexpected circumstances.

I keep emergency supplies, noteably the above- along with medications, breather bags, rubber bands, foods, new steralite bins (lidded) and styrafoam coolers available at all times since I do live in an area prone to flooding and power outages.

If we have to evacuate I can bag the fish, gather their items and pull the filters out of the tanks for future use in temporary setups. Regular HOB filters (rectangular ones) dont work in buckets but will in totes. I also keep a fair ammount of air tubing, air pumps and sponge filters available because the sponges work great and are better than nothing.

Hey, OnyxGuide,
Nice setup.

Very detailed information on how you deal with emergency situation for your fish.

May I also add that one of the the water conditioners I use - Prime, has the function of detoxify ammonia and nitrite up to 48 hours? It is very useful for short term ammonia build up.

My most worry is the filter system. Beneficial bacteria will start to expire after 24 hours if without a source of ammonia. Since I am using a canister filter for my main aquarium, it is not easy to just take it apart and sink the filter media in the tank water.

What we need for emergency such as power outage is a power generator.

I live on the border with Canada, which means it is a very cold place. If the power outage take place for more than a few hours, then I would worry the safety of my tropical fish already. It actually happened once for only 1 hour during the winter of 2010, and it worried me to death lol.

Goldfish are easier to take care of in the case of emergency. Tropical fish are more of a pain on the back to deal with if you are not living in a warm place. (moving to Florida might help haha. It was in the middle 70F on 1/1 when I visited Disney a few years ago).

It is just so much easier to take care of dogs and cats in case of emergency.

Onyx; Thanks for the great tutorial! Very clear and detailed. May I use it for part of my series on Emergency Preparation for pet owners? (With credit of course!) Likewise you, Ram? I'm out to educate people, and I'm certainly not expert in everything. I plan to use your forum to pick the brains of bird and reptile people as well. Cat, dog, pocket-pet, and horses I have down pretty well, but I still welcome feedback; there's always more you can learn.

I do encourage having a generator for rural shelters and kennels and for livestock (mostly to run the well pump) but it never occured to me to have one for the fish tank!

Anyone can feel free to use it , thank you! Fish can be as rewarding as they are a pain at times- but when it comes to their well being, the more knowledge the better!

(03-07-2012, 07:39 PM)Karenskatz Wrote: Onyx; Thanks for the great tutorial! Very clear and detailed. May I use it for part of my series on Emergency Preparation for pet owners? (With credit of course!) Likewise you, Ram? I'm out to educate people, and I'm certainly not expert in everything. I plan to use your forum to pick the brains of bird and reptile people as well. Cat, dog, pocket-pet, and horses I have down pretty well, but I still welcome feedback; there's always more you can learn.

I do encourage having a generator for rural shelters and kennels and for livestock (mostly to run the well pump) but it never occured to me to have one for the fish tank!

Hey, Karenaskatz,
You are free to use the knowledge from this forum.
We would appreciate it if you add a back link to the threads on our forums every time you use any of the reference here. That might help to bring in some more people. Thank you!

Thanks, Admin. I would like to begin with my emergency planning posts. I think the General Pet Discussions area is the best, since I cover all pets. But should I post each one as a separate topic? Running them all under one topic, interspersed with comments I think would get ungainly and confusing. How do you want to do this?

If it is about pets, then you can post it in the General Pet Discussion.

You can post a thread and keep editing the first post while add new replies to it. A new homepage is currently under reconstruction with Wordpress on a testing page. Once it is done, there will be an article and database section. We will be adding the most useful posts to that section as official articles and information, if the members who post them allow.

OK; I guess we work it out as I go.