Advice on Moving a Tank

[Brother Michigan]

Quick background: I'm a moderately experienced freshwater aquarist who has just set up his first shrimp tank: a Spec III housing seven Blue Dream neos. The tank is currently occupying space on my kitchen counter, but its ultimate destination is my desk at work. The commute is only about twenty minutes and the route is relatively straight, being mostly freeway. Given the short distance, would you recommend attempting to net the shrimp and bag them for the move or to simply drain about 2/3 of the water and be as gentle as possible along the drive? The colony is quite new and I would, of course, like to stress them as little as possible.

 

(Pic because who doesn't like pics? Please forgive the algae; I let things go a little wild before they showed up so that there would be plenty for them to graze on.)

[Nat]

I'm not an expert, but here's what I'd do:

Scoop out most of the water, with whatever shrimp get in the scoop, and transport that in a bucket. Put any rocks or heavy/hard things in another bucket, so they don't slide around and squish anything. Leave just enough water in the tank to cover any shrimp that may be still in it (1/2 inch above the gravel or so), and drive carefully. When you get there, put back the rocks and then the water/shrimp in the bucket. (I'm assuming that bringing the water is a good idea, so there's no sudden change in parameters. Easy with a small tank, hard with a big one--I'm not familiar with what size your tank is.)

[Brother Michigan]

Thanks. That's about what my plan has been, so I hope it won't stress them out too much. Unfortunately, all of them started acting a little crazy over the weekend so I'm a bit worried that something already has them stressed even though there have been no changes to the tank since I set it up and all of the water parameters seem to be fine.