Shipping Fish

What is the best size bag to use for bringing fish to the auction. The fish are @1.5"

How many per bag...and will they kill each other?

I generally use 6" bags for small fish. Remember 1/3 water; 2/3 air (or even 1/4 water; 3/4 air)...

Matt

dogofwar said:

How many per bag...and will they kill each other?

I generally use 6" bags for small fish. Remember 1/3 water; 2/3 air (or even 1/4 water; 3/4 air)...

Matt

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+1
I have been using 6x18x2 (6" wide, 18" long, 2mm thick) for shipping fish at that size.

I really doubt that anyone is using pure O2 to ship their fish. The fish would suffer from oxygen toxicity very quickly. Using medical oxygen, which I suspect is what most people use, has an oxygen concentration about 50% higher than normal air, i.e., 150% of normal air. That is to say, normal air has an O2 concentration of about 21%, medical oxygen has a concentration of about 30%. Anything more than 250% of normal air is deadly. 250% of normal air would be an O2 concentration of a little more than 50% of the total gases.

That said, I don't use O2, don't see a need if the fish are handled properly before putting them in the bag and if bagged properly. I do now use a small 1/2" cube of polyfilter in the bags if I expect the fish to be bagged for more than 12 hrs. Haven't had any trouble with the poly so far, but I've only been using it for about 1 year.

I agree wih Mr. Killie concerning the use of Oxygen for shipping. I ship year round, Xeno's, Paracyps, Cyp's, you name it , and have yet to use oxygen. Ive had Cyps lost in transist for 2 days, still fine , as long as tempertures are correct. Most important is healthy fish + clean water, I dont care what species of fish are being shipped. Also, better off using a 8 inch bag oppossed to a 6in. for shipping 5-6 juvies at 1.5in. Keep in mind if your bag is delayed a day, or lost, the bit of extra air and water will be a big help to the survival of your fish.

So do you all declare your boxes contain live fish, are fragile, or do you just tell the postal worker that there is water (required declaration of liquids present) in the box in a sealed container?

IME writing "Live Fish" or anything to indicate fragile contents/special handling on the box is a bullseye for extra abuse. Seriously, all the boxes crushed or damaged in shipping were marked, while just packing them securely and sending them along like any other box is much more likely to get them there intact. Not just fish, but anything I've sent or recieved has been that way.

I totally agree with Todd on this. The people handling the boxes really are not going to care what the box says or make special handling decisions when they are dealing with hundreds of boxes. When I ship I put the name address, cell phone / home phone of who I am shipping to and that is it. I usually have my fish sent to my work place as since there is always someone here to accept them. The phone number is if they get delivered to the wrong address. Yep it happens.
I once had 4 boxes of fish shipped to me to the airport from a Florida fish farm. Now fish boxes usually have keep warm / live fish etc written on them. I got to the terminal to pick them up and found out they got bumped by other freight, that they would be on the next days flight. I asked what freight bumped them and they told me 3 boxes of oranges. I asked why the oranges were sent instead of the fish and the guy told me that the oranges were perishable.........

JasonC said:

So do you all declare your boxes contain live fish, are fragile, or do you just tell the postal worker that there is water (required declaration of liquids present) in the box in a sealed container?

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I mark them as fragile and perishable. As of 2010, the USPS put in their fine print for express shipping that any boxes containing live animals can take up to a day extra in transit so that they can be placed in a specific part of the plane. Since we provide the air for our fish, this i snot necessary. My local consumer affairs rep and the Post Master suggested at this point I stop labeling live, and just switch to perishable.

toddnbecka said:

IME writing "Live Fish" or anything to indicate fragile contents/special handling on the box is a bullseye for extra abuse. Seriously, all the boxes crushed or damaged in shipping were marked, while just packing them securely and sending them along like any other box is much more likely to get them there intact. Not just fish, but anything I've sent or recieved has been that way.

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I have had one damaged box in 5 years of shipping. They are all labeled fragile or perishable in some way.

I have never had a problem with a marking boxes "Live Fish" (and that's how I mark them) from USPS. I've found that USPS folks have actually gone the extra mile to take care of them. Just so the box isn't wet or damp, they have no problems.

UPS, on the other hand, hasn't gotten the memo to all of their people that shipping live fish is even permitted. I now try not to do ANY business with UPS but I've been turned away from multiple locations...locations from which I've both shipped and received fish...with both labeled and unlabeled boxes of fish. If the random guy staffing the place (incorrectly) interprets that you can't ship fish, sorry about your luck. Even if you show him the box marked "live fish" that was previously sent UPS.

I've had the same issue with a couple of FedEx / Kinkos locations...but not others.

I try to do all of my shipping either USPS or airport pick up.

As an aside, a way to improve your chances of live arrival is to have the USPS (or other carrier) HOLD FOR PICK UP (CALL CELL NUMBER ###-###-####). My post office calls me as soon as they find the box (sometimes before they even open) and have it sitting for me near the counter (in the warm part of the building). This sure beats an extra several hours touring the area in the bumping around in the back of a cold/hot truck...

Matt

dogofwar said:

As an aside, a way to improve your chances of live arrival is to have the USPS (or other carrier) HOLD FOR PICK UP (CALL CELL NUMBER ###-###-####). My post office calls me as soon as they find the box (sometimes before they even open) and have it sitting for me near the counter (in the warm part of the building). This sure beats an extra several hours touring the area in the bumping around in the back of a cold/hot truck...

Matt

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Absofrigginlutely!!!

I never mark any of my boxes live fish. Our local hub in Harrisburg will pull all of those boxes from the line and put them aside for special handling. It also will void their on time delivery guarantee.

Once a package is marked "live fish" they are required to pull that box for hand sorting which means delays. Those delays on express shipments can be really bad when you pack a breeding pair of discus for express and it takes 4 days for their "special handling".

Well, thanks to this thread and some input from a few folks, I successfully shipped out my first three boxes of fish this week. One box of about 15 fry to South Carolina, one box of 15 fry to Indiana, and one box with about 30 fry and eight 2" juvies to Tennessee. No DOA's in the shipments to SC and TN and only 5 in the IN shipment. I exchanged boxes with the guy in IN and he sent me bag buddies to use in the shipment. I think that the DOA's are attributable to the bag buddies, the fry weren't big enough to handle the sedatives. All in all, I am very relieved to have been through the process and now have a lot more confidence for shipping fish in the future.

I used clean water that I left in a bucket in my fish room overnight to acclimate to temperature. I double bagged everything with 3 mil bags from kensfish.com. I also used a 72 hour heat pack in each box. One other handy thing that I picked up from a guy who shipped fish to me was to use fiberglass batt insulation to set the bags in to take up any extra space in the box. It's a bit itchy, but it sure does keep the heat in the box and keeps the bags from sloshing around.

Congrats Jon!!!

good job Jon gives me the confidence to give shipping a try also

Styro peanuts are better for packing, weigh less (though not a big deal with flat rate boxes) and they don't leave you itchy after handling them. I've received a few boxes that used that for insulation rather than styrofoam, and it does work for that purpose, but I still prefer styro for lining boxes too.

Good stuff, Jon!

Matt