Shipping Fish

[Fishkeeper2004]

I know that all LFS get there stock from having it transported via veichle or ship, but do you think its right? Deaths are large in the amount of stock LFS recieve. And do you think its right for normal fishkeepers (Just like us) to ship them ourselves, when maybe we could be doing it wrong?

I have always said I would never ship fish, but if I was confident on how to do it - I may change my mind.

 

[ncjharris]

Its pretty much the only way, unless all LFS had to breed the fish themselves.

To be honest I have never really thought about it. Those that do it have the experience, and it must be cost effective, or none of them would exist.

Take for example some marine fish. There are some (tangs for example) who have a very complex breeding pattern involing huge expances of ocean, specific times of the month, large amounts of fish just to get the eggs fertilized, let alone hatching.
There is no way these conditions could be re-created in your LFS or suppliers warehouse, so the fish we see and that are kept have to be caught from the wild.

Its the way it is.
There are plenty of people out there who do it well - some one will be able to give you some advice.

 

[consp]

I know a breeder that supplys most of the shops in my local area that let in the publkic should they wish to buy a fish. It's a bit chaotic in there sometimes because there are so many fish and so many jobs to do but the choice is amazing (and the prices too )

I beleive some people should take more care in transporting fish but apart from that, if you want the hopbby of fish keeping to remain then you can want no more than that.

Yes, the process of transportation can be cruel. Some may die, some fish may become ill... But if you are involved in the hobby you are part of it and you are condoning it. It isn't so bad if you are catching from the wild for your own tank but even then you have to get them home somehow and they may be even more stressed by the process as they have led a compeltely natural life until then.

I beleive that if somebody is a fish keeper and disagrees with transporting fish than they are hypercritical. Anywhere you aquire a fish from... you will always have to have it transported to your location in one way or another.

 

[guppymonkey]

There are good ways to ship fish and there are bad ways. I recently ordered some fish and they arrived dead because the person I bought them from didn't put a heat pack in the box with them. I live in upstate new york so heat packs basically a necessity. That was a bad way to ship fish. A lot of pet stores recieve their fish by the hundreds and the fish aren't in very good health as a consequence. When there are 200 fish in a bag there is no way that they are going to be in the best shape. Its only usually in instances of overstocking the bags or not keeping the temperature at a good level that most fish become sick or die in shipping. There are obviously always going to be the occasional deaths during shipment from stress and things like that but the majority of problems are easily avoided as long as you don't take the cheap way out. Most fish distributors always take the cheap way out and thats why their fish get sick and die.

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

I have been looking for heat packs in my area, but all the LFS's just say they dont stock them.. are they readily available over the internet, and how much do they cost?

 

[kris-b-]

I have been looking for heat packs in my area, but all the LFS's just say they dont stock them.. are they readily available over the internet, and how much do they cost?

Have a look on ebay, I noticed quite a few on there last week