How to ship in the US - Advice

[kribensis12]

Hey!

So I'm nearing the stage for my first batch of Apistogramma Cacatouides to be ready for shipping and am currently offering to ship Dark Knight Rams and Gold Rams (check out here ) but I've never shipped live animals before.

Questions:
1. Where do you source your supplies from?
2. How do you get a shipping estimate and from who do you find to have the best rates?
3. At what temperature do you begin to offer a heat/cold pack?
4. How many fish per bag?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[emeraldking]

If you would do the most correct way, it would be 1 fish per bag. But that will result in a bigger package and weighs more. But I myself use breathing bags. Those come in several sizes. You can fill up the whole bag with water. If the bag moves, the water inside stays stable. Which doesn't stress the fish. The bags breath, they let oxygen in and releases CO2. The package can remain smaller. depending on the size of those fish and the size of the used bags, the number of fish can differ per bag.
Depending on the kind of fish, compared to the outdoor temperatures, a heatpack is needed or not. In a styrofoam box, the temperature will stay stable for a longer period of time.

Right now, I've got a package ready to be send out to France.

It should be on destination within 48 hours. There's no heatpack involved. It's around 18°C at day and about 10°C at night. The box contains a number of Campoma endler strains.
During winter, no fish will be shipped. Not even with a heatpack. I've done it once, shipping fish abroad while we had snow and it was freezing. The ones who ordered them persisted that those fish should be shipped during that period. I've warned them up front what the risks were. Well, and it really went wrong. But I've warned them and I told them that the risks were al theirs and not mine anymore. I really had problems with those people afterwards. So, I've made a statement that no fish will be shipped abroad during winter. Officially, it was still fall but it was almost December and we already had an early winter condition.
If fish should be shipped domestic, I can pack them in a way, that no harm will be done to them. And it's just a day that they're on their way.

 

[Sgooosh]

If you would do the most correct way, it would be 1 fish per bag. But that will result in a bigger package and weighs more. But I myself use breathing bags. Those come in several sizes. You can fill up the whole bag with water. If the bag moves, the water inside stays stable. Which doesn't stress the fish. The bags breath, they let oxygen in and releases CO2. The package can remain smaller. depending on the size of those fish and the size of the used bags, the number of fish can differ per bag.
Depending on the kind of fish, compared to the outdoor temperatures, a heatpack is needed or not. In a styrofoam box, the temperature will stay stable for a longer period of time.

Right now, I've got a package ready to be send out to France.
View attachment 143763View attachment 143764
It should be on destination within 48 hours. There's no heatpack involved. It's around 18°C at day and about 10°C at night. The box contains a number of Campoma endler strains.
During winter, no fish will be shipped. Not even with a heatpack. I've done it once, shipping fish abroad while we had snow and it was freezing. The ones who ordered them persisted that those fish should be shipped during that period. I've warned them up front what the risks were. Well, and it really went wrong. But I've warned them and I told them that the risks were al theirs and not mine anymore. I really had problems with those people afterwards. So, I've made a statement that no fish will be shipped abroad during winter. Officially, it was still fall but it was almost December and we already had an early winter condition.
If fish should be shipped domestic, I can pack them in a way, that no harm will be done to them. And it's just a day that they're on their way.

nice!

 

[I Like Rare Fish]

I have only been on the recieving end. I got a box insulated with memory foam, newspaper, and some hard kind of foam, and I got 3 bags for 6 fish. He shipped 2-day shipping, as overnight was 100's of dollars. The fish I bought didn't need heat packs, as they were coldwater fish.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

I too have only received them. The seller will put the same species in bag unless they are too big or they would fight. They rubberband the first bag and put it in a second bag and rubberband it closed. They nearly all use insulated coolers (or just panels of syrofoam insulation you assemble inside the bag. If you've never shipped anything this will be a major learning experience you can uses USP, FedEX. USPS and DHL in the US. If you are shipping domestically it's not so bad. Measure the box LxWxH. and weight the box. Since you probably don't have a shiipping scale try using a humans scale. Get on the scale and weigh yourself. Then pick up the box of fish and all and step back on the scale - subtract the difference to get the weight of the box. Go to the website of the shipper. USPS will unlikely be the cheapest, DHL will likely only be the cheapest if you are shipping internationally (and you'f better find out from DHL if all these things are allowed to be shipped to another country - very often they are not because if they got lose they might compete or destroy the native wildlife. Try FedEx first and just put in all the info you took when you were measuring and weighing the bag and plug that plus the destination of the shipment and how fast you ship (overnight is standard on live fish) Add in the cost of your materials (that includes a cold pack in a large part of the US - if it was to me in KANSAS you'd need two coldpacks I would pick up some stickers that inform the driver that the pakages contain live animals (or there are certain bands on some livestock being shipped to other states so you need to find out about that too. Get some stickers to indicate which way is up. You can also be 99% sure that the handlers will see all those stickers and will still throw the box as hard as they can. Because a lot of them are underpaid jerks. Oh make sure you insure the box (if they'll allow it for wild animals) and pay the shipping. Shipping protects the SELLER not the buyer so if the items arrive damaged YOU file the claim and the shipper will also verify stuff with the buyer. If they agree they are responsible then they will pay YOU and YOU will repay your buyer. My husband and I ran a small business (about 3-4 million dollars the first two years) but we only MADE about 10-20-% off that total amount. We designed and build servers and Desktop PC's (with windows and lights before anybody else was) But a $1200 sale would only net us $120 so it was important that we kept damages to a minimum. We never did have to pay a damage claim because we were very good at packing items we sold - but of course the more careful we were, the less money we typically made. These packing materials are not cheap. Eventually we were selling enough that we could get boxes and packing peanuts at a big discount - and we also got discounts as a business seller. We didn't just sell on Ebay but our ebay sales put is in the "Gold Power Seller" level where we had our own ebay representative to help us as well as a Paypal representative to help us Paypal routinely sent us packing tape. And one year Ebay sent us a TY Beanie Baby (one for each powerseller only) so i wouldnt be surprised if that was worth a lot of money.

If you are going to do this regularly on Ebay, Amazon or somewhere else - appearances are very important - so always use new boxes and other stuff. It shouldn't be packed in a house where somebody smokes because the styrofoam will pick up that smoke smell. After 4 yeas we had to go out of business - there were only about 3 of us small sellers of servers and custom PC's on Ebay. but that 4th year Dell came in and sold thousands of refurbished servers and at prices less that we could even build one for plus they offered good warrantiess. So we just couldn't complete AND all the big PC makers were adding flashing lights and stuff just like we did and even building Desktop PC's that were water cooled which we hadn't had much success with. But it's pretty cool to run a business out of our house (Our bedroom was the "shipping department) and my office was "accounting". We had a 16 yr old son and an 8 yr old daughter and all four of us would be down in the basement building computers. We had one customer only want 24 "dumb" terminals connected to a single server - it was so simple to build a dumb terminal that my daughter build most of those. Then we had one company send us a paint chip and wanted all their servers to be painted that color of green and to help them make a logo for them too. Our son had a part-time job painting cars so we purchased the car paint and made up a makeshift "booth" to spray them in (Dell would never have done that for such a small number so we got a lot of those kind of orders) But that was a LONG time ago when my husband was alive and now my 8 yr old daughter is 31 and a Network Techician. In Middle School she built a computer as a gift to her father (my first husband) and she did it without any help - just with all our left over parts - then she built one for herself (pink with lights)

 

[I Like Rare Fish]

Styrofoam! Thats what I was thinking of. My seller triple-bagged the fish.

 

[kribensis12]

Thanks for the advice so far! Anyone have suggestions on where to get the most affordable/quality shipping materials in the US?

Is it recommended to add a chemical such as an ammonia remover during transit?

 

[Slaphppy7]

[VIDEO]

There's plenty of other vids on how to ship on the 'net

 

[kribensis12]

[VIDEO]

There's plenty of other vids on how to ship on the 'net

Ya know - It had not even crossed my mind to use Youtube. I googled it and read a few articles but never thought to use youtube.

 

[FishHobby99]

I have purchased fish on eBay. Fancy guppies from next state over and a betta from Texas. They came in double plastic bags placed inside a tiny styrofoam cooler. One guy used FedEx, the other USPS priority mail. All safe & heathy.

I use YouTube for all kinds of instructive vids. Some good stuff there!

 

[Charles W. Coles]

Hey!

So I'm nearing the stage for my first batch of Apistogramma Cacatouides to be ready for shipping and am currently offering to ship Dark Knight Rams and Gold Rams (check out here ) but I've never shipped live animals before.

Questions:
1. Where do you source your supplies from?
2. How do you get a shipping estimate and from who do you find to have the best rates?
3. At what temperature do you begin to offer a heat/cold pack?
4. How many fish per bag?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I have purchased fish on eBay. Fancy guppies from next state over and a betta from Texas. They came in double plastic bags placed inside a tiny styrofoam cooler. One guy used FedEx, the other USPS priority mail. All safe & heathy.

I use YouTube for all kinds of instructive vids. Some good stuff there!

I have been shipping fish for quite a while now and to start with I treat my fish tanks with API Stress Coat + and Stress Zyme about a week before shipping and again on the morning of shipping. I use ULINE insulated shippers from uline.com and 3x6 inch fish bags and rubber band them shut after twisting the bag top shut. I used to use the USPS but they are so unreliable any more I started using UPS and FED EX. they are more expensive but I have not had any DOA fish or plants since I started using them. I get my bags and rubber bands and heat packs from AQUA BID. I only use Heat Packs when the temperatures are like freezing or colder because the insulated box keeps them safe except for your cichlids or a warmer water fish like I ship alot of Freshwater Angelfish and in the colder temps I will use a 72 hour Heat pack. Make sure to keep the bag and Heat pack separated with some sort of dunnage. Small fish like guppies, swordtails, Platies, tetras, or dime to quarter sized Angelfish I will bag 6 in a bag. Larger fish I will go 2 to 3 depending on how aggressive they are. I started out experimenting with supplies and fish. I would package them up and put the package outside for 3 days and bring the package in and open it to see how they did, until I got it right.

 

[Charles W. Coles]

I have been shipping fish for quite a while now and to start with I treat my fish tanks with API Stress Coat + and Stress Zyme about a week before shipping and again on the morning of shipping. I use ULINE insulated shippers from uline.com and 3x6 inch fish bags and rubber band them shut after twisting the bag top shut. I used to use the USPS but they are so unreliable any more I started using UPS and FED EX. they are more expensive but I have not had any DOA fish or plants since I started using them. I get my bags and rubber bands and heat packs from AQUA BID. I only use Heat Packs when the temperatures are like freezing or colder because the insulated box keeps them safe except for your cichlids or a warmer water fish like I ship alot of Freshwater Angelfish and in the colder temps I will use a 72 hour Heat pack. Make sure to keep the bag and Heat pack separated with some sort of dunnage. Small fish like guppies, swordtails, Platies, tetras, or dime to quarter sized Angelfish I will bag 6 in a bag. Larger fish I will go 2 to 3 depending on how aggressive they are. I started out experimenting with supplies and fish. I would package them up and put the package outside for 3 days and bring the package in and open it to see how they did, until I got it right.

I forgot to add I only Double bag the large Angelfish and other spinney finned fish

 

[FishHobby99]

I have been shipping fish for quite a while now and to start with I treat my fish tanks with API Stress Coat + and Stress Zyme about a week before shipping and again on the morning of shipping. I use ULINE insulated shippers from uline.com and 3x6 inch fish bags and rubber band them shut after twisting the bag top shut. I used to use the USPS but they are so unreliable any more I started using UPS and FED EX. they are more expensive but I have not had any DOA fish or plants since I started using them. I get my bags and rubber bands and heat packs from AQUA BID. I only use Heat Packs when the temperatures are like freezing or colder because the insulated box keeps them safe except for your cichlids or a warmer water fish like I ship alot of Freshwater Angelfish and in the colder temps I will use a 72 hour Heat pack. Make sure to keep the bag and Heat pack separated with some sort of dunnage. Small fish like guppies, swordtails, Platies, tetras, or dime to quarter sized Angelfish I will bag 6 in a bag. Larger fish I will go 2 to 3 depending on how aggressive they are. I started out experimenting with supplies and fish. I would package them up and put the package outside for 3 days and bring the package in and open it to see how they did, until I got it right.

Wow! Sure sounds you know what you’re doing. My shippers/eBay sellers did say heat/cold as needed, but none used & all was good.

 

[kribensis12]

. I used to use the USPS but they are so unreliable any more I started using UPS and FED EX.

Wow - that whole post was helpful!

When it comes to getting a shipping estimate, how do I do that? for example - USPS has a priority mail box which is 2-3 day delivery, but I have been unable to find what it would cost to mail one of those overnight.

I would expect that most boxes would be under 2lbs - how do I estimate shipping based on zip code?

 

[FishHobby99]

I have always found the USPS site difficult. But they are always very help when I go there