Can I travel from Florida with fish

[Mauricio]

Hello everyone! 
   So I live in Phoenix, Arizona and was granted an opportunity through work to travel to Florida this weekend. I’ve heard so often on the Co-op channel that Florida distributes quiet a bit of our fish and I am so excited to go. I had a couple question that I was hoping you could help with here.
First, can I take fish on a plane with me?  I will be flying through American Airlines round trip and no layovers which is about 4 hours or so. And if anyone has tips on how to achieve this, please fill me in! This will be my second plain ride ever and definitely the farthest from home I’ve ever been.

Secondly (and more exciting) please let me know where to visit. I will be in Clearwater Florida which is close to Tampa. I would like to see about taking around an Uber since I am younger than 25 and can’t rent a car to my knowledge.

I will be bringing a couple portable air pumps along to help with agitation of water during my stay in case. Also I will be searching the Forum for more info as well but I will appreciate all help I can get!

thank you so much. 🐠 

-Mauricio

[KBOzzie59]

On 12/1/2021 at 12:11 PM, Mauricio said:

can I take fish on a plane with me?

Yes 99.99% 

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/live-fish

 

[StevesFishTanks]

Fosters Exotic Pets Lot of monster fish and less common stuff, Fresh and Salt

Pets Unlimited nice flowerhorns and wet pets last time I checked the store. Lots of consignment and bigger size used tanks.

A Tropical Reef fresh and salt. typically has nice live plant variety and decent selection of small/medium fish. 

Fins and Skins fresh, salt, reptiles, and misc

Living Color specializes in african cichlids. limited hours.

Animal House fresh only sometimes has monster fish or exotics from customer rehomes, never know what you will find.

Sea Life fresh and salt, good live plant section

check the travel time to these shops. There are some others in tampa and across the bay but may be costly for an uber.

[Guppysnail]

I would call the airline directly as each airline may have different restrictions. 

[Mauricio]

This group of Nerms are the bomb!  I love this forum!   Thank you all so much!

 

so after I landed, I went and asked American Airlines, the rep said absolutely no fish are allowed. I almost want to call customer service and ask what I need.

[Struggle]

The airline’s shouldn’t  know you have them if you do your part and if they find out beg for forgiveness.

[Patrick_G]

@Mauricio, try Enterprise car rental. Not only are they one of the best but I believe they rent to folks 21 and older. Where you’re staying is nice but you’ll want a car to access Tampa/St Pete. 
 

[Brandon p]

I not think is a problem the ship them everyday in the mail shipment planes take on each flight.  
Living Artwork 

6513 14th St W UNIT 131, Bradenton, FL 34207

Have shopped from them on line but they recently open a store front. The prices are better and more choices in the store. I he e yet to go but friends have said it’s great. I have always been happy with any fish I have gotten from there. It depends on on how long you have It about 45 from down town clear water. I’m sure Tampa probably have good ones to but I don’t go up there that often. 

[Brandon p]

On 12/1/2021 at 7:39 PM, s1_ said:

Fosters Exotic Pets Lot of monster fish and less common stuff, Fresh and Salt

Pets Unlimited nice flowerhorns and wet pets last time I checked the store. Lots of consignment and bigger size used tanks.

A Tropical Reef fresh and salt. typically has nice live plant variety and decent selection of small/medium fish. 

Fins and Skins fresh, salt, reptiles, and misc

Living Color specializes in african cichlids. limited hours.

Animal House fresh only sometimes has monster fish or exotics from customer rehomes, never know what you will find.

Sea Life fresh and salt, good live plant section

check the travel time to these shops. There are some others in tampa and across the bay but may be costly for an uber.

I’m in and hour South so I’m going to copy this. That is not to far to drive for fish.

[Gator]

@Mauricio; When you get settled in and have rented a car, go SE of Tampa and you'll see a lot of fish farms that you can visit to check out their operations.

As for taking fish on an airplane, prior to 9/11, you could probably have gotten away with taking fish onboard in carry-on luggage, but the airplanes cabins are pressurized to 10,000 feet which may not be good for a fish's swim bladder. TSA isn't going to allow you to do it now, you can't even take a bottle of water or soda (Coke, Pepsi) on the plane with you. TSA will confiscate it, I guess so you'll have to buy their expensive water or soda onboard your flight. If you tried to get by TSA by packing them in your checked bags, the checked bags are X-rayed as they're traveling on conveyor belts, and the cargo hold is not pressurized or heated so at 30,000 feet, the temp outside of the airplane is something like -60 F. Your fish would be dead long before you reached Phoenix.

The major fish breeders have contracts with air-cargo companies so planes that are carrying live fish are probably pressurized a little differently and are heated though the fish are in bags enclosed in foam chests similar to ice chests.  

[Brandon p]

@Mauricio I would suggest shipping them home. The price won’t to be to bad. If you ship Ups, or fed -ex  they fly through the Tampa airport and could be on the a plane that night. As for USPS they go through a bunch of airports. I like shipping UPS unless it’s over night it’s Fed ex. When I ship I ll pretty much ship how the buyers want USPS 2 day priority flat rate. So far so good. I got my package from the coop in three days. You might find fish that is will be almost impossible to find and then if you do if you don’t know Quality. I have no problem getting fish shipped. If you go that way ask where you buy them from if they ship fish or have the supplies to do it.

[StevesFishTanks]

If you cant take them on the plane you may be able to ship them to yourself or have the store or farm ship them.

[Gator]

@Mauricio; I agree with @Brandon p, ship your fish home on Fed X, you may get home at about the same time as your fish arrive. That would be really cool.

[Brandon p]

On 12/4/2021 at 9:00 PM, Gator said:

@Mauricio; When you get settled in and have rented a car, go SE of Tampa and you'll see a lot of fish farms that you can visit to check out their operations.

As for taking fish on an airplane, prior to 9/11, you could probably have gotten away with taking fish onboard in carry-on luggage, but the airplanes cabins are pressurized to 10,000 feet which may not be good for a fish's swim bladder. TSA isn't going to allow you to do it now, you can't even take a bottle of water or soda (Coke, Pepsi) on the plane with you. TSA will confiscate it, I guess so you'll have to buy their expensive water or soda onboard your flight. If you tried to get by TSA by packing them in your checked bags, the checked bags are X-rayed as they're traveling on conveyor belts, and the cargo hold is not pressurized or heated so at 30,000 feet, the temp outside of the airplane is something like -60 F. Your fish would be dead long before you reached Phoenix.

The major fish breeders have contracts with air-cargo companies so planes that are carrying live fish are probably pressurized a little differently and are heated though the fish are in bags enclosed in foam chests similar to ice chests.  

The breed ship them in cargo they same way we do. Outside of the plane is cool but it’s still in the plane and pressurized. It is colder than in the cabin. In almost every medium sized passenger plane has a was for the cabin to the cargo area. Dogs fly cargo all the time.  TSA does say that you can carry fish on. But finding an airline that will will be hard. Also you better have the TSA rules and have called and check that TSA at that airport will let you bring them past. The problem is I haven’t found an airline that will allow live fish. It is 100% legal to fly with fish but almost or no airline company polices allow it

[Brandon p]

On 12/4/2021 at 9:00 PM, Gator said:

@Mauricio; When you get settled in and have rented a car, go SE of Tampa and you'll see a lot of fish farms that you can visit to check out their operations.

As for taking fish on an airplane, prior to 9/11, you could probably have gotten away with taking fish onboard in carry-on luggage, but the airplanes cabins are pressurized to 10,000 feet which may not be good for a fish's swim bladder. TSA isn't going to allow you to do it now, you can't even take a bottle of water or soda (Coke, Pepsi) on the plane with you. TSA will confiscate it, I guess so you'll have to buy their expensive water or soda onboard your flight. If you tried to get by TSA by packing them in your checked bags, the checked bags are X-rayed as they're traveling on conveyor belts, and the cargo hold is not pressurized or heated so at 30,000 feet, the temp outside of the airplane is something like -60 F. Your fish would be dead long before you reached Phoenix.

The major fish breeders have contracts with air-cargo companies so planes that are carrying live fish are probably pressurized a little differently and are heated though the fish are in bags enclosed in foam chests similar to ice chests.  

The breed ship them in cargo they same way we do. Outside of the plane is cool but it’s still in the plane and pressurized. It is colder than in the cabin. In almost every medium sized passenger plane has a was for the cabin to the cargo area. Dogs fly cargo all the time.  TSA does say that you can carry fish on. But finding an airline that will will be hard. Also you better have the TSA rules and have called and check that TSA at that airport will let you bring them past. The problem is I haven’t found an airline that will allow live fish. It is 100% legal to fly with fish but almost or no airline company polices allow it

On 12/4/2021 at 6:07 PM, Patrick_G said:

@Mauricio, try Enterprise car rental. Not only are they one of the best but I believe they rent to folks 21 and older. Where you’re staying is nice but you’ll want a car to access Tampa/St Pete. 
 

Enterprise does rent to anyone under 21. There maybe extra paper work out you need or extra fees. Just check it out

[Mauricio]

On 12/4/2021 at 9:00 PM, Gator said:

@Mauricio; When you get settled in and have rented a car, go SE of Tampa and you'll see a lot of fish farms that you can visit to check out their operations.

As for taking fish on an airplane, prior to 9/11, you could probably have gotten away with taking fish onboard in carry-on luggage, but the airplanes cabins are pressurized to 10,000 feet which may not be good for a fish's swim bladder. TSA isn't going to allow you to do it now, you can't even take a bottle of water or soda (Coke, Pepsi) on the plane with you. TSA will confiscate it, I guess so you'll have to buy their expensive water or soda onboard your flight. If you tried to get by TSA by packing them in your checked bags, the checked bags are X-rayed as they're traveling on conveyor belts, and the cargo hold is not pressurized or heated so at 30,000 feet, the temp outside of the airplane is something like -60 F. Your fish would be dead long before you reached Phoenix.

The major fish breeders have contracts with air-cargo companies so planes that are carrying live fish are probably pressurized a little differently and are heated though the fish are in bags enclosed in foam chests similar to ice chests.  

This is something I hadn’t thought about. I definitely want to be attentive to their health and you’ve got a point. Thank you

[Wingman12r]

@Irene Most recent upload she carries on a Betta.

[Irene]

On 12/6/2021 at 8:19 AM, Wingman12r said:

@Irene Most recent upload she carries on a Betta.

Yup, I didn't have any trouble bringing fish in my carry-on (I believe the TSA website says you can't put them in checked bags), and the airplane has a pressurized cabin that was comfortable for both of us. In the video, I said that the fish went through the x-ray machine, but now that I think about it, I think the TSA agent probably passed it around the x-ray machine but I didn't really see since I was trying to grab my shoes, backpack, etc. from the conveyor belt. I just had my betta in my backpack the whole time, but I believe Taylor from Simply Betta actually stuffed her fish inside her coat when she was on the flight. She's definitely a better betta mom than me!