Visiting Aquarium Co-op; Flying Home with Fish

[MickS77]

After years of following from over 2,000 miles away I finally stepped foot inside Aquarium Co-op. A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I visited Seattle so naturally we had to make the drive up to see the store. The store is smaller in person than it looks on online, its easy to understand the need for expanding. It was awesome to see Murphy in person, he is much bigger than I realized haha. My girlfriend loved watching and taking pictures of him, maybe a puffer in my future now? The store wasn't too busy on a Sunday morning so I was able to thoroughly browse all the tanks. 

 

 

I had prepared for this trip and I was sure to bring some breather bags in case I found what I was looking for.  Going through and reading all the labels on the tanks I didn't see what I was hoping to find. Although upon another pass through I saw what I came for. Unlabeled in a tank I spotted some Vienna Guppies. I asked an employee to confirm and he said yes, they were some stragglers, possible dropped fry, left from the last time Dean brought some to the store. I told him, I'll take all you can find! It ended up coming to 8 fish total, 3 males and 5 females. I couldn't be more thrilled to have fish from Dean. I did ask if they could bag them in the breather bags I brought but its against store policy, understandable. I did ask to have some extra water in the bag for when I separated them into the breather bags, which they didn't have a problem with.

We had a great time at the store and can't wait to return. It was nice to see the store in its original form before the expansions. I'm hoping to bring back some of Dean's Ricefish next time. 

 

 

Down to business now, the clock is ticking. My flight was scheduled in about 24 hours from buying the fish. Once we got back to the Airbnb I poured the fish and water into a large bowl to divide them up. I added some room temperature filtered water to the bowl with the fish, from a Brita pitcher. I used smaller bowls to hold the breather bags up while I used a measuring cup to equally distribute water between 4 bags. Once I had them about half full I used the measuring cup to scoop the fish into the bags. Two fish per bag. I got all the air out the bags, twisted them tight and tied them closed. I covered them with a towel and left them to sit. Next time I'd like to have a few chunks of Poly-filter to put in the bags to absorb any ammonia just to feel better.

 

 

Before the trip I did check the TSA website to confirm live fish are allowed. Once at SeaTac I handed the TSA agent the bag with the fish and requested to have them hand inspected and stated they were live aquarium fish. She handed the bag to another agent who carried them through the checkpoint while I was waiting to get through the x-ray machine. The agent handed them to me once I was cleared through. The only thing they actually inspected was the Xtreme Floating Pellets I also bought at the store. They were flagged as a "powder" that required inspection. An agent swabbed the outside of the jar with a test strip and they were good to go. 

 

 

I got lucky my flight back wasn't full so I was able to set the fish nicely on the seat next to me. I covered them with my coat to keep any warmth in. Its worth noting they weren't in my carry-on bag. I had my carry-on in the overhead bin, my personal item bag under the seat, and the bag with fish all separate. I never had anyone question it. No problems on the flight, it was United Airlines, about 5-1/2 hours.

Once I landed at Dulles (IAD) I hustled to my gate for my short flight to my hometown. It was much colder on the smaller regional jet, I put my coat on and put the fish inside to keep warm with my body heat. They were definitely chilly. 

 

 

When I landed at home outside temps were in the low teens Fahrenheit. I then rearranged my bags to put the fish in a real bag to protect from the cold. I got to my truck and let in warm up. Setting the fish on the passenger seat with the seat heater on. Its was only a 15 minute drive to my house. Once home around midnight, I got them in a tank in the warm fishroom. I didn't do any acclimating. One bag did get a little cloudy but the fish were fine.

Its been a few weeks now and they're all doing great. The males are showing that awesome color and pattern, the females already have nice round bellies. Shown in the picture amongst a cloud of baby brine shrimp. The next plan is to get them set up in a nice planted 30 gallon and get a colony going. 

[H.K.Luterman]

Super duper cool! I'm very jealous!

[Maggie]

Beautiful fish! I've heard that the final "yay or nay" policy on live fish rests with the TSA agent and the airline, even tho TSA's website says they're allowed. 

[Streetwise]

I’m tagging @Cory and @Zenzo on this great story!

[Alexa]

This post was shared on the channel’s community tab!! So cool, your preparation was so smart.

[Hobbit]

Congrats on getting your post shared @MickS77! And thanks for sharing your experience with us! I love picturing you with the fish under your coat, keeping them warm. Just like a good Dad Seahorse or Cichlid. 😊

[Minanora]

This thread made me so happy that I'm grinning ear to ear. You did such a great job preparing to bring them home. Congratulations on the great trip! I don't live nearly as far, but I'm so jealous! I look forward to seeing your colony grow! Such lovely fish!

[Torrey]

On 2/17/2022 at 8:30 AM, MickS77 said:

After years of following from over 2,000 miles away I finally stepped foot inside Aquarium Co-op. A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I visited Seattle so naturally we had to make the drive up to see the store. The store is smaller in person than it looks on online, its easy to understand the need for expanding. It was awesome to see Murphy in person, he is much bigger than I realized haha. My girlfriend loved watching and taking pictures of him, maybe a puffer in my future now? The store wasn't too busy on a Sunday morning so I was able to thoroughly browse all the tanks. 

 

 

I had prepared for this trip and I was sure to bring some breather bags in case I found what I was looking for.  Going through and reading all the labels on the tanks I didn't see what I was hoping to find. Although upon another pass through I saw what I came for. Unlabeled in a tank I spotted some Vienna Guppies. I asked an employee to confirm and he said yes, they were some stragglers, possible dropped fry, left from the last time Dean brought some to the store. I told him, I'll take all you can find! It ended up coming to 8 fish total, 3 males and 5 females. I couldn't be more thrilled to have fish from Dean. I did ask if they could bag them in the breather bags I brought but its against store policy, understandable. I did ask to have some extra water in the bag for when I separated them into the breather bags, which they didn't have a problem with.

We had a great time at the store and can't wait to return. It was nice to see the store in its original form before the expansions. I'm hoping to bring back some of Dean's Ricefish next time. 

 

 

Down to business now, the clock is ticking. My flight was scheduled in about 24 hours from buying the fish. Once we got back to the Airbnb I poured the fish and water into a large bowl to divide them up. I added some room temperature filtered water to the bowl with the fish, from a Brita pitcher. I used smaller bowls to hold the breather bags up while I used a measuring cup to equally distribute water between 4 bags. Once I had them about half full I used the measuring cup to scoop the fish into the bags. Two fish per bag. I got all the air out the bags, twisted them tight and tied them closed. I covered them with a towel and left them to sit. Next time I'd like to have a few chunks of Poly-filter to put in the bags to absorb any ammonia just to feel better.

 

 

Before the trip I did check the TSA website to confirm live fish are allowed. Once at SeaTac I handed the TSA agent the bag with the fish and requested to have them hand inspected and stated they were live aquarium fish. She handed the bag to another agent who carried them through the checkpoint while I was waiting to get through the x-ray machine. The agent handed them to me once I was cleared through. The only thing they actually inspected was the Xtreme Floating Pellets I also bought at the store. They were flagged as a "powder" that required inspection. An agent swabbed the outside of the jar with a test strip and they were good to go. 

 

 

I got lucky my flight back wasn't full so I was able to set the fish nicely on the seat next to me. I covered them with my coat to keep any warmth in. Its worth noting they weren't in my carry-on bag. I had my carry-on in the overhead bin, my personal item bag under the seat, and the bag with fish all separate. I never had anyone question it. No problems on the flight, it was United Airlines, about 5-1/2 hours.

Once I landed at Dulles (IAD) I hustled to my gate for my short flight to my hometown. It was much colder on the smaller regional jet, I put my coat on and put the fish inside to keep warm with my body heat. They were definitely chilly. 

 

 

When I landed at home outside temps were in the low teens Fahrenheit. I then rearranged my bags to put the fish in a real bag to protect from the cold. I got to my truck and let in warm up. Setting the fish on the passenger seat with the seat heater on. Its was only a 15 minute drive to my house. Once home around midnight, I got them in a tank in the warm fishroom. I didn't do any acclimating. One bag did get a little cloudy but the fish were fine.

Its been a few weeks now and they're all doing great. The males are showing that awesome color and pattern, the females already have nice round bellies. Shown in the picture amongst a cloud of baby brine shrimp. The next plan is to get them set up in a nice planted 30 gallon and get a colony going. 

I am ORD, and this was beautiful to read!!!!

[Jawjagrrl]

This experience would make me a lot more tempted to try this too since it would be a straight flight from ATL to Seattle. Our next tanks will have angels sure love some of Dean's! Not sure I'll ever get my spouse back to the northwet though 🙂

[PineSong]

What a great field trip!

So nice to have Co-op guppies, too. 

[KATE]

Amazing! Thanks for the share! 

[Griznatch]

 Very cool, thanks for sharing!

[DeanS]

Awesome way to document your journey and fish purchase. Great photos and writing. Thanks for sharing.

[MickS77]

First update; Vienna Guppies are still in the fishroom, I think I'll have time to set up their own 30 gallon tank soon. Nevertheless I spotted the first fry in the tank tonight, surely a few more I couldn't see. 

Bonus pic best I could do with a macro lens picture of male guppy

[Hobbit]

Guppies are sooo hard to photograph. They never stop moving!!

[TheSwissAquarist]

How are the guppies doing @MickS77?

[MickS77]

They're doing good, I've just started tinkering with them again recently. I've had them all in planted 29g, on autopilot for six months or so. They seem to be breeding male heavy so the numbers haven't quite boomed. Last weekend I started separating out some breeding groups to start other colonies. I added two groups to 20H's in the fishroom with plans to move one group into a 40B with some Calico Koi Platys. I'm moving extras males into my 90g with Rainbowfish to live out their days and look pretty with them.  Thanks for asking, I'm pretty bad at updating my threads.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 12/18/2022 at 4:23 PM, MickS77 said:

I'm pretty bad at updating my threads

You’re not the only one! I try to update my journal once a day, but life just gets in the way and I barely see my fish apart from feeding and turning the light on/off each day.

Anyway, the holidays are coming 😎!