Shipping Live Fish

[guppymonkey]

I have been thinking about shipping some fish across the country but I have no idea how to do it. Obviously they need to be in an insulated box but are there any certain procedures that are followed? What does it cost to ship fish?

 

[newfishies]

i just got 3 small bags of guppy fry shipped from tennessee to massachusetts. the cardboard box was lined with styrofoam, there was a heat pack and the fish were all double bagged. the postage was $4.90 i think...HTH this is my only experience with shipping and now5 days later all 19 babies i got are doing fine...

 

[nino]

i just got 3 small bags of guppy fry shipped from tennessee to massachusetts. the cardboard box was lined with styrofoam, there was a heat pack and the fish were all double bagged. the postage was $4.90 i think...HTH this is my only experience with shipping and now5 days later all 19 babies i got are doing fine...

WOW!! what a good deal. everyone else who sells live fish likes to rip people off on the postage. i guess that is for quicker delivery though, but not all fish are as fragile as some people make them out to be.

 

[gale]

Yeah the $20-$30 shipping is what always puts me off from ordering fish online. It's different if you're ordering something that you know you'll have for a long time but with a live animal, who knows.

 

[newfishies]

yeah it did take a full 3 days - she sent them on monday and they arrived thursday, but everyone did fine... it was USPS priority mail. i think i would do it again, but if i were investing a lot of money in 1 or 2 fish, i moght think twice!!

 

[modernhamlet]

$20, $30, or even much more is actually fairly reasonable in the right circumstances if you do the maths. If you are fully stocking a decent sized tank, the shipping costs get distributed over many fish (it costs about the same to send 1 fish as 30 fish). Also, online fish sellers often carry a larger variety of far superior stock to what is available at your average LFS, at lower prices. Sure, if you need a couple of guppies, the LFS is obviously the best choice. But between the fish and shipping costs, I ended up paying about the same price to stock my 75g as I would have if I could have found the fish locally, which I couldn't.

Just wanted to explain the economics.

 

[pnyklr3]

I also looked into buying fish online. What has stopped me has been the "minimum $ amount" placed on the order as well as the shipping. When I was looking, though, I only wanted four fish.....and would have had to buy 8-12 to hit the min. order.

 

[k2snowboards88]

I read that companies that ship fish, add a chemical to the water that sedates them for the trip. I've seen it for sale online, but i have no idea what its called. It seems like they'd probably use too much oxygen during shipping if they weren't sedated.

 

[modernhamlet]

I believe it's called Bag Buddies, at least here in the US.

It's available at some LFS. If you ask, they should know what you mean.

Edit:
Found 'em: Bag Buddies

 

[suzie]

I once took 3 bristlenose catfish from Germany to Engalnd on the overnight ferry in a thermos flask for my sister!! Cool eh!

 

[guppymonkey]

If you are going to ship fish overnight do you need to pump the bag full of oxygen or can you just use a big bag? I know that some people use to oxygen tanks to fill the bags completely but is it an absolute necessity?