Mitch,
You are absolutely right about the garbage in and garbage out. Definately shows up from the very beginning which is the collection process.
We hold our fish in our new arrival systems with medication for normally 24 hours....sometimes longer. If the fish aren't ready, they don't come out. Some species we keep in their until sold. Like Semilarvatus "Golden" Butterfly, we have see much better results holding them in the medication to avoid red sores on their sides. Same goes for some clownfish that won't break down with white slime when shipped too quickly. As I write this....I think of the recently stressed out PNG shipment we just took...first shipment and had an extremely long flight...more than normal, and we did ship some fish pre-maturely that looked good, but broke down. Only a couple dozen clownfish, but in hind site, we should have held them longer.
I think that some losses are due to skipping the ammonia detox step during acclimation. That will surely lead to losses after a few days. I hope that more people use this simple step and enjoy the results.
Another question mark is clearly the temperature changes during shipping, and also the handling by different carriers. If the airlines would all handle the livestock with care, and in the same fashion, we would probably see more consistent results.
Big Bob is correct about the dimensional weights. Most of the airlines are now "dimming out" the shipments and will charge. We are trying to fine tune the pack where as we are always hitting the most efficient weight per box. We can just pack a lot more fish per box, and keep the weights maximized....that's the art, and the ticket!
Like I said...it's a work in process...and over the last 5 years, we have been testing it. Now we are just marketing it. As the airlines adjust, so will we.
Regards,
Eric
You are absolutely right about the garbage in and garbage out. Definately shows up from the very beginning which is the collection process.
We hold our fish in our new arrival systems with medication for normally 24 hours....sometimes longer. If the fish aren't ready, they don't come out. Some species we keep in their until sold. Like Semilarvatus "Golden" Butterfly, we have see much better results holding them in the medication to avoid red sores on their sides. Same goes for some clownfish that won't break down with white slime when shipped too quickly. As I write this....I think of the recently stressed out PNG shipment we just took...first shipment and had an extremely long flight...more than normal, and we did ship some fish pre-maturely that looked good, but broke down. Only a couple dozen clownfish, but in hind site, we should have held them longer.
I think that some losses are due to skipping the ammonia detox step during acclimation. That will surely lead to losses after a few days. I hope that more people use this simple step and enjoy the results.
Another question mark is clearly the temperature changes during shipping, and also the handling by different carriers. If the airlines would all handle the livestock with care, and in the same fashion, we would probably see more consistent results.
Big Bob is correct about the dimensional weights. Most of the airlines are now "dimming out" the shipments and will charge. We are trying to fine tune the pack where as we are always hitting the most efficient weight per box. We can just pack a lot more fish per box, and keep the weights maximized....that's the art, and the ticket!
Like I said...it's a work in process...and over the last 5 years, we have been testing it. Now we are just marketing it. As the airlines adjust, so will we.
Regards,
Eric