GBRs survive five days of ground shipping in December

[PNWaquarist]

So I ordered a pair of GBRs from a breeder in SoCal last week. They shipped on Wednesday and were supposed to arrive on either Friday or Saturday. Nothing on Friday and nothing on Saturday. Heat packets only work for 72 hours. Uh-oh. On Sunday morning, USPS listed the fish as recently having arrived at Portland (two hours away). Uh-oh. Rather than bringing them to my door this afternoon, USPS left them outside in the mailbox. Uh-oh.

I opened the box, pulled away the packaging and saw two still fish in the bag. Uh-oh. I picked up the bag and - whoah! - they began swimming around. Bag was full of fish poo, but they were alive AND had decent color! The heating pads were still slightly warm and the water in the bag seemed to be either at or slightly above room temperature. I was pretty surprised. Thankfully, our weather has been relatively mild over the past few days (mid-40s to mid-50s).

After transferring into a large Zip-lock bag and acclimating, they seem to be doing OK (knock on wood) and spent their first couple of hours in their new home at the front of the tank, watching me watch them. I don't know how well they'll do over the long-term, but I couldn't have asked for a happier ending to this mess.

[SonicsDC25]

+1 happy that everything went alright and the fish for the time being are doing well

[Brookster123]

What a ride!! Craft brewed gbr seem to be decently hardy huh?

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[PNWaquarist]

Thanks, Sonics. They are indeed hardier than I expected. I cut their acclimation short by 15 minutes yesterday because they kept trying to jump out of the bag.

They didn't seem interested in eating yesterday, but were at the front of the tank again this morning when I turned on the Christmas tree lights on the other side of the room. I'll leave the aquarium lights off for another day, just in case they're more stressed than they appear.

[Mr Fisher]

Glad they made it! I've had usps drop the ball twice on me, fish were in transit around 10 days each time and thankfully they lived

[PNWaquarist]

Originally Posted by Mr Fisher

Glad they made it! I've had usps drop the ball twice on me, fish were in transit around 10 days each time and thankfully they lived

I know that the breathing bags are good for a week and a half or so, but I would've guessed that ammonia poisoning and/or hypothermia would've killed them off by then. Good for you (and them, of course).

My new rams are all over the tank right now and one of them occasionally chases some of my tetras. So far, so good. I imagine that they'll mellow out in another day or two.

[ChaosTropicals]

That's amazing. i would've expected the worst out of that, but if they can with stand that you got some pretty strong fish!