Fish Shipping Question-keeping them alive?

Question

Ok, I liked my past responses lets not lower the bar :). I have some marine fish im gonna be shipping. I dont have a water tight enclosure so they will be bagged which isnt a problem based off past feedback. NOW the big question is keeping them alive. The trip will be a maximum of 16 hours hopefully less hopefully. Now heres my main concern. Air in the bags. How much air is necessary per fish to be safe. I have these bag buddies 1 tablet per gallon it aerates the water as well as slightly sedates them(its made for fish nothing im putting together) so that theyre less stressed. I want to get my fish there alive. Please let me know your suggestions on this(how much water per fish, how much air per bag, things to add per bag ect..). Also please tell me the success rate on shipping. And please dont answer with give your fish away and buy more these are salt water not freshwater they arent cheap and they are my pets. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Shipping done properly is nothing to worry about as fish are shipped all over the world every day with good results. Odds are very good your fish have already seen at least two, probably 3 over night shippings before you got them. Use the largest bag available to you and use only enough water to allow the fish to swim when the bag is packed. The rest should be filled with air or even straight O2. The more air the better and the air is actually more important than the volume of water. Try talking to a health care store that services O2 tanks for people with breathing difficulty and they may well work with you to work out the loan / rental of a very small O2 tank and you paying for the O2 in the tank. Combined with the bag buddies you should be fine. I have never used bag buddies or any thing similar and have shipped literally well over 10,000 fish with very, very few loses. Off hand I would say well under 100 fish lost total. If I were you I would be tempted to try out a bag buddy over night on your most expendable fish before using them on all of your fish... just in case.

You have far less to worry about than you might think.

MM

Answer 2

I've never shipped fish but have had them shipped to me after ordering off liveaquaria.com. These are usually in the bags for 24 hours or more. They use about 50/50 water and air, pure oxygen is better if you have access. It's better to use 3-4 bags per fish in case the outer one gets punctured. Also, use hot or cold pads if shipping to a destination that has hotter or colder temperatures. It would be good to visit your LFS and try to get a styrofoam box to help with climate control.

I think your fish will be alright if you use the suggestions here and in other resposes. Good Luck

Answer 3

I know that there have been good result with people shipping their fishes domestically across state using Kordon Breathing Bag and bag baddies or AmQuel.

I can't remember the actual site but it's probably in krib that I read about it. Search the internet for "Kordon Breathing Bag" and you'll probably find them.

Good Luck.

Edited : This is recommended only if you don't have access to bottled Oxygen. The bag allows oxygen to flow into the bag through the plastic (membrane) so you needn't have any air in the bad at all. :) Cool stuff.

Answer 4

1 gallon per fish per 24 hour period stress coat in bag, 50/50 water/air. shipping must be in a styrofoam container to minimize temp loss

good luck

Answer 5

least confusing issue is to partly fill a cooler with their tank water, and positioned the fish in there. If the lid is tight-installation, it will be nice. A cooler is physically powerful by using fact the temperature will stay greater good. Plus, that is dark and quiet, so the fish isn't unduly under pressure. that is how i could do it!