Shipping & Receiving Fish

Shipping and receiving fish is no real difficult task. After all, how do you think your local fish shop and others receive fish? Shipping fish is no more difficult as receiving fish, whether from your local fish shop, or through the mail from ordering on-line. Below, are some helpful tips for shipping fish and receiving fish and eggs through the mail to acclimate into your aquarium.

All you need is shipping bags, some backing materials and a Styrofoam box. And of course just a little preparation and organization.

You can get the shipping bags from your local pet shop. You can get Styrofoam boxes also from your local pet shop or your local veterinarian, who receive many of their supplies and medicines this way.

The most popular is an 18x18x9 story inside a corrugated cardboard box, which nowadays come with pretty fish painted on all four sides. However, a plane story box or one smaller than the 18x18x9 are also suitable, so long as there is enough room to put some packing materials inside the box with the bags of fish. Newspaper and those small Styrofoam "peanuts" used to package breakable items for shipping should always be on hand.

Always try to ship fish that are around the 1" size as them seem to travel the best. At least one full day before shipping NEVER feed those particular fish. Fish can live far longer without food, than they can in water that has the ammonia level increasing from fish waste. For most fish you can use a 6"x14"x2.0 mil bag and only use enough water to take up about 25% to 33% of the bag. The volume of air is more important than the volume of liquid for the fish. Also by shipping you will pay by weight. Just make sure the fish are fully covered with water while lying on its side and that is enough.

Never blow into the bag to inflate it, because you will be adding CO2 instead of fresh air. Rather, grasp it quickly and all the air you need will be trapped inside or put some air in the bag using a small air pump. For fish species that are usually very active and easily made anxious, you can use some kind of sedative or drug such as 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.

Don't put pairs in the same bag, especially cichlids or more aggressive fish. 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 shipping 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. 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 with shipping tape.

How to ship?

I have great success by shipping United States Post Office Priority Mail, which takes two days for a normal trip and will be delivered to the recipients 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.

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 to 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've found the folks at my local post office to be eager to help in making sure I am shipping correctly. Likewise, they get just as excited to call you to let you know that if you are receiving fish that they are in and you can pick them up at the post office immediately.

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.

Amen to priority mail.

can they live for long in the bags? I have beeninterested in getting some crdinals and pygmie corys over the net but wasnt sure if they would be ok going priority mail?
Also do you have to put anything special or fill out any special paper work? because i wouldnt want them throwing the box on the dock...

Well Im going to put some bettas for rykitten , So I better learn.

I've ordered lots of fish online and they have arrived alive and healthy 100% of the time, even in the dead of winter. When mine come, the company calls me to tell me they've been shipped and then when they arrive in town, the fed-ex man calls to tell me what time he'll bring them to my house. The boxes say LIVE FISH all over them. I've been very satisfied.

as for shipping priority mail, do you have to tell them it is fish? or is it not allowed? on another thread it was incinuated that shipping fish priority wasnt allowed.

55 who wrote this article? You need to credit them.

shipping fish
here is the original link, 55 should have given credit, it's only right.