Shipping fish - Am I doing it right?

[Mr Krabs]

So I got all the equipment I would need to ship a fish

*Breather Bags
*72 hour heater
*Foam insulation
*Ammonia reducing pad
*2 day shipping


But just to make sure, I made a video of my equipment and my testing phase. I also show in the video the Ammonia levels in PPM with the master test kit after the testing was done.

The 5 test fish did very well and are back with their bothers and sister in the main tank



The video is unlisted because I'm not sure how well I actually did. If I did well, I was going to make it public to help other people know what to get for shipping a fish. But I will leave that up to you all!

I do refrence selling fish at some points, please disregard that for this discussion. I'm not in this thread to sell anything, I just want to make sure that when I do down the road that the fish will be okay. Thanks for understanding

[Mr Krabs]

Okay, so I after thinking about it, maybe it would be easier to simply type out what all happened with my test fish instead of using a video.


So I had 5 young platty in 1 breather bag with an ammonia reducing pad for near 80 hours inside of an insulated box at 75*F

All the fish did very well and were healthy. They are now back in the main tank they came from.

The fish did not fast for 3 days like most people do. I needed to know how well the amonia reducing pad would do.

after 80 hours I found that the ammonia in the bag reached 1PPM using the API master test kit.

Using 2 day shipping, they would only be in the bag about 50-55 hours at the most. that would mean less concentration of ammonia.


Do those results seem acceptable?

[Autumnsky]

Fast the fish and they produce less ammonia, so will be safer in transit.

For later in the future you can always add a chunk of bulk filter pad to your tank filter. Then get it full of BB, say for 6-8 weeks and cut a chunk of it off and add to the bag as well

here is a good solid article
Shipping Fish and Invertebrates - Aquarium Advice

[Mr Krabs]

A gentleman wants to buy 5 of my Chinese trapdoor snails. He insists that all I need to do is use a small flat rate box from USPS with no insulation , no heater pack , in just a ziplock bag with the snails wrapped in paper towel and a little bit of water.


I understand the paper towel and the little bit of water part, but with weather going down to about 48 degrees Fahrenheit where I'm at, and where he's at get up to about 80 degrees Fahrenheit, is this actually safe to do for the snails? I'm still new to this and want to make sure it goes well

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[Fresh2o]

The snails will probably do fine if they are attended to promptly (e.g. - not left out on the recipient's front porch all day in the sun). Then again, a small flat rate box usually fits in most mailboxes and would not be left out in the open.
A small flat rate box should allow you to pack some insulation into it such as bubble wrap or newspaper. This will also prevent the contents from shifting around in the box.


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[Autumnsky]

Just make sure to trap a little bubble of air in with the snails and moist towels, they still need O2.

[Mr Krabs]

I have a test set going right now. We shall see how they do. Thanks guys!

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