How to transport a lot of fish?

[Colin_T]

Eskies (coolers) or big buckets with lids are better for big fish. The big fish often puncture the plastic bags and run out of air or water. That can't happen with a bucket. Small fish are fine in plastic bags but you need access to the bags and not every pet shop is willing to give them away.

Most people that keep fish have buckets for water changes, so it's not a big step to use those buckets for transporting fish.

You can drill a 6mm hole in the lid and put a rubber grommet in the hole. Then push some airline through the grommet. Have the lid firmly fitted to the bucket and an airstone on the airline, and put the fish and some water in the bucket.

I used to collect fish and transport them hundreds of kilometers this way and never had an issue. I used 45 litre plastic rubbish bins with lids and put them on the back seat of the car. I used seat belts to hold them in place. I used a power inverter that ran off my cigarette lighter in the car to run a normal airpump for air.

The biggest issue with transporting fish in a car is over heating. Cars heat up and the water can warm up pretty quickly. If you have a long way to travel, have the car's air conditioner on while transporting the fish. It will stop the interior of the car getting hot and cooking the fish.

 

[FishHobby99]

Eskies (coolers) or big buckets with lids are better for big fish. The big fish often puncture the plastic bags and run out of air or water. That can't happen with a bucket. Small fish are fine in plastic bags but you need access to the bags and not every pet shop is willing to give them away.

Most people that keep fish have buckets for water changes, so it's not a big step to use those buckets for transporting fish.

You can drill a 6mm hole in the lid and put a rubber grommet in the hole. Then push some airline through the grommet. Have the lid firmly fitted to the bucket and an airstone on the airline, and put the fish and some water in the bucket.

I used to collect fish and transport them hundreds of kilometers this way and never had an issue. I used 45 litre plastic rubbish bins with lids and put them on the back seat of the car. I used seat belts to hold them in place. I used a power inverter that ran off my cigarette lighter in the car to run a normal airpump for air.

The biggest issue with transporting fish in a car is over heating. Cars heat up and the water can warm up pretty quickly. If you have a long way to travel, have the car's air conditioner on while transporting the fish. It will stop the interior of the car getting hot and cooking the fish.

The coolers we bought were about the same size as your bins. we used lots bungie cords on that trip!

 

[itiwhetu]

How do you think the importers and distributors move large fish, and why do you think they move them in the way they do?

 

[Colin_T]

How do you think the importers and distributors move large fish, and why do you think they move them in the way they do?

They put the fish in bags with a tiny bit of water and lots of air. This minimises weight and maximises the number of fish being shipped. These means the price per fish is less over the cost of flying the fish around the world.

Big fish get dosed with MS222 (fish anesthetic) and bagged up too. But most people don't have access to that and if they put big fish in bags, the fish usually spike the bags and run out of air or water.

You can put newspaper around the first bag to help reduce the chance of the fish puncturing all the plastic bags. It usually works but not always.

 

[FishHobby99]

I once dosed & bagged my husband to fly him around the world (cargo) but Tom, the mighty catfish, sat on my lap in a small cooler.

 

[Caesar]

They put the fish in bags with a tiny bit of water and lots of air. This minimises weight and maximises the number of fish being shipped. These means the price per fish is less over the cost of flying the fish around the world.

Big fish get dosed with MS222 (fish anesthetic) and bagged up too. But most people don't have access to that and if they put big fish in bags, the fish usually spike the bags and run out of air or water.

You can put newspaper around the first bag to help reduce the chance of the fish puncturing all the plastic bags. It usually works but not always.

When we were bringing in lince catfish we literally shipped them in Rubbermaid containers, with bags fitted to the container. Then just box around the Rubbermaid MS222 unfortunately wasn't sitting well with them, so we had to improvise haha, it was interesting.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Maybe when I transported angels in a 5 gal. bucket on a 3 hour drive, it was fairly high speed and there was a bit of hard braking as well as speedy turns.. Maybe it was my driving and not the bucket that killed the fish.

As for shipping, I do smaller Hypancistrus plecos from the Rio Xingu (max. size about 5 inches TL).. They live in warm water. I am more worried about them not being warm enough along the way than I am about insuring they have plenty of air. I use heatpacks except for the 2.5 - 3 warmest months of the year.

Also, here is how you transport big fish (pardon the German)