shiping fish? any advice?

[fungia]

anyone ship fish before and have advice? anything special you need to do? how much water do you need for a small fish like a basslet? how about big fish like tangs?

thanks!

 

[Len]

I've shipped fish and there are a couple of pointers I can offer:
Use as much water as you can. The more water, the less foul the water after shipping and the less likely a fish will be frequently knocked around in the bag.
Double bag with at least 4 mil plastic bags. Thicker is better. Nothing is worse then a hole in the bag Make sure the rubber band tie is tightly secured as well.
Make sure the bag(s) inside the shipping stryo box (always use styrofoam boxes) are secure and tightly packed. Don't have them loose or they'll roll around and knock fish about. Use air filled bags or newspaper filling if need be to fill the box up so everything is snug.
Check the weather. If it's cold, use heat packs.
And obviously, ship only with next-day air services

I think that covers it. Hopefully I didn't miss anything.

 

[fungia]

thanks.

do you just use tank water or do you use new saltwater? also, do i need to put air or oxygen in the bag?

 

[Lifer]

Industry standard is 1/3 of bag content being aquarium water. Do not use new water. Yes, you pretty much have to use pure oxygen. Don't just fill the bag with as much water as you can and then put in oxygen. Observe the 1/3 rule as stated above. If you need more water volume, just use a bigger bag.

 

[Len]

FWIW, I've always shipped fish in with compressed air and not O2. Is O2 significatnly better?

 

[AllenF]

Atmospheric "air" is 21% oxygen.

The air that an average person exhales is %16 oxygen.

I would not recommend shipping with 100% purified 02, but if you had some way to enrich the O2 content up to say 40% I would think that might be a good thing.

Doubt anyone does this though.

 

[Len]

Hmmm, posted this question in the industry forum and Steve there said to use oxygen too. It sounds overkill and dangerous to me to, but if the industry people are saying so, I'm gonna try it. Compressed oxygen is harder to find though (have compressed air already because of SCUBA).

 

[Lifer]

I've used pure O2 for over ten years with no prob.

 

[Anonymous]

In my own opinion, you're pushing it if you expect to ship an animal safely without using O2 (species-dependent, of course) for longer than 8-10 hours, and I'd only try it on really small, rather inactive fish.

With fishes like tangs and porkys, you are obliged to take those thick bags, fold a piece of newsprint to create an envelope of two or more layers, and place this inside one bag, then placing another bag into that to create a bag-paper-bag sandwich. THIS WORKS! I prefer to use it for everything-I think it helps cushion temperature changes (not much, but EVERY bit helps, eh?), and it creates a darker, more secure environment for the fishes. I also think it can help in the presence of many hard corals (prevent banging, you can use bits of styro in between bags for those). Another way to get something similar would be to use pieces of black trashbags (they're chemically inert without any anti-additives).

Be SURE to twist those bags with AS MUCH O2 in them as you can (whoever said it is right, industry standard is about 1/3 total volume being water, although aged, unused water is acceptable/applicable in some applications), then fold over when banding and twist again. Be sure to band damn tight, too. Are these things going in a plane? If so, ensuring the tightest seal is of paramount importance. Do not underestimate the powers of atmospheric pressures (or the lack thereof).

When packing into the box, you want to ensure a few things:
*Don't let the specimens bounce about the box
*Don't let the bags roll around
*Allow sufficient room for expansion when at altitude--this is often done by alternating bags filled w/air loosely sealed and not filled tight
*Pay attention to the weather!
*As much styro as possible, you really do want ALL sides covered with styro, and in as sealed a configuration as possible (some vendors'll ship in a box with styro panels, instead of a formed box--mina don't like those)

Does this help? Oh yeah, don't feed the day before shipping.

 

[fungia]

ok i just shipped the fishs. i hope they get there. i followed you guys advice and made sure it fit perfectly in box without any rolling around touching the stryo. i went to the lfs and used some oxygen. i hope i left enough room though. the fit was pretty secure so if there is expansion i dont know if it can fit it. but other then that everything i did was like you guys suggested so im crossing my fingers.

first time shipping fish is scary

 

[AllenF]

Hmmm

I dont want to sound mean, but I belive some are confusing "air" with 02.

They are not the same thing. Air is mostly comprised of other gases to the tune of 79%.

Of course you want 1/3 water and 2/3s "air".

What we were talking about was adding medical grade purified oxygen directly into the shipping container.

This would be difficult to do if you were going for 100%.

Even with a medical oxygen mask hooked up to a flow meter that is turned up to wide open and a non-rebreather type mask on the patient and both external valves plugged and a very tight fit, the pt STILL only gets about 60% oxygen because of the atmospheric gases getting in around the edges of the mask and the patients exhaled gases mixing with the inhaled oxygen.

So to put in 100% pure oxygen you would need some pretty specialized equipment, and I dont think that is what the posters above were saying they do.

Now I work in the health care industry AND NOT in the fish industry. So it IS POSSIBLE that they have some sort of appartus designed to fill the bags with pure oxygen.

Can anyone clarify?