Shipping Fish
by Don Zilliox
First published in Some Things Fishy, Newsletter of the Tropical Fish Club of Erie
County, N.Y.
Aquarticles
Soon after I got involved in breeding fish I found out that I wasn't able to find those I
was interested in locally, so I started to go to as many club auctions within a close
distance where my one way travel time was under two hours. As it turns out, all the other
hobbyists felt the same way and all the same fish showed up at all the auctions. A friend
told me about the North American Fish Breeders Guild but I told him that I didn't know how
to ship the fish. Well I opened a can of worms with that statement. Everybody has their
own idea on how to ship fish. I have tried them all and this is how I now do it myself.
Go to your local fish store and ask them for a fish shipping box. They all have them
and usually are glad to get rid of some. The most popular is an 18x18x9 styro inside a
corrugated cardboard box, which nowadays comes with pretty fish painted on all four sides.
You'll need good strong plastic bags and rubber bands. Newspaper and those small Styrofoam
"peanuts" used to package breakable items for shipping should always be on hand.
Once the material is collected you are ready to go.
Always try to ship fish that are around the 1" size as they seem to travel the
best. At least one full day before shipping NEVER feed those particular fish. If I have an
extra tank I collect them and put them by themselves, for ease of handling and to
cut down on their stress at the time of bagging. For most fish I ship I use a
6"x14"x2.0 mil bag and only use enough water to take up about 25% to 33% of the
bag. At this point, air is more important than lots of liquid and when shipping you will
pay by weight. Just make sure the fish are fully covered with water while the bag is lying
on its side and that is enough. Never blow into the bag to swell it up but rather grasp it
quickly and all the air you need will be trapped inside. If you have oxygen available some
say it's much better but I have never used it. Some hobbyists use some kind of sedative or
drug to calm the fish down and I use Jungle Bag Buddies. After sealing the bag with the
rubber band, invert it into another bag of the same size and seal it again, this time very
tightly. Never, I say NEVER put pairs in the same bag, especially cichlids. If the fish
are not sexable you should have no problem but still never put more than six in the same
bag. Label all bags clearly, as sometimes the person at the other end does not know what a
particular species looks like. (These bagging instructions should also be used when taking
fish to an auction.)
Along the bottom of the shipping box I lay a few sheets of newspaper so it comes up
along all sides. This also helps a little in insulation and absorbs any water that may
leak from one of your bags. Throw a thin layer of those Styrofoam "peanuts" in
next and then place down your bags. Less bags, more "peanuts" as they don't
weigh anything and they stop the bags from rolling around. Fill in the remainder of the
box with Styrofoam and newspaper but before you seal it up, don't forget to enclose a
letter with breeding information, hints or just a note; but to be on the safe side,
enclose it in a plastic bag. Now seal the box, and I've found that duct tape works the
best. Just across the top and a few extras near each end will do. If you worry a lot run
it all around the box, but I don't think it's necessary.
How to ship? I live very close to the Buffalo airport, which has its own U.S. postal
mail facility, open 24 hours a day 365 days a year. I try to ship Priority Mail which
takes two days for a normal trip and will be delivered to the recipient's door and costs
about $8 to $10. Also for a small fee of under 50 cents you can get a tracking number so
you can check the progress of you package on the Internet. Express Mail costs about $35 to
$40 and gets there in 2 days (so they say). The last box shipped to me that way took five
days from California but the sender got her money back AND the fish were still all alive.
UPS sometimes accepts fish but you will have to check with them. In all instances, ship on
Monday to be sure it isn't held over the weekend someplace. If you ship in cold weather,
go to a local sporting goods store and buy some hand or body warmers, or if it's too hot,
buy some thin freeze packs and put them on the bottom but slip newspaper between them and
the bags of fish.
By all means let the other person know exactly when you plan to ship and have them call
or e-mail you when it arrives. I didn't hear from a guy for over two weeks and when I
called him he said, "Oh Yeah, they arrived in two days". "Thanks a
lot!" I thought. Be considerate of the other guy and make it just as easy for them as
it is for you.
Ship once and you'll wonder what took you so long to try it before. A whole New World
of fish will be opened to you and the best part is that most breeders would rather trade
for something else than get money from you.
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