Shipping Fish

[Rory Waliser]

Do people generally put any sort of supplement in the water with their fish when they mail them? Do i need a heat pack? How many fish per bag? (1 month old mollies) Would putting carbon in the bag with them be a good idea?

[StephenP2003]

3 hours ago, Rory Waliser said:

Do people generally put any sort of supplement in the water with their fish when they mail them? Do i need a heat pack? How many fish per bag? (1 month old mollies) Would putting carbon in the bag with them be a good idea?

A piece of poly-filter in each bag to absorb ammonia is all I put in the bag with the fish and water. I prepare a 5-gallon bucket of fresh water at the appropriate temperature with dechlorinator and use that water for all the shipments that day. I've been shipping fish for a few months and have had success shipping endlers, guppies, and platys, and bristlenose plecos, via UPS 2-day (Was using USPS but they got really really unreliable). I was having success even before I started using the poly-filter, though, so it's just added protection. 

72-hr heatpack when it's going anywhere with night-time temps below mid-60s since UPS doesn't store packages in climate-controlled buildings. A month ago that was everywhere in the U.S., and in the past couple weeks I find myself using heat packs about half the time.

How many fish per bag is still a big question for me, too. I've been using about 8 fl. ounces in a bag with about 6 to 8 endlers or small guppies. Plecos go one per bag.  Air is super important. About a 2:1 ratio of air to water has worked for me. Luckily UPS doesn't care as much about weight as it does dimensions for air shipments, so I've just been winging it with the water volume (going over) and making sure it all fits in a reasonably sized box. You want something insulating the inside of the box. I use 0.75" thick foam panels I get at Lowes to create a foam box within the box, and then wrap the fish bags in newsprint paper, and stuff the boxes with paper surrounding the fish bags on all sides. 

I open and let the heatpack breathe for 30 minutes to an hour before I pack the box to make sure it's going to get warm. I then put the heatpack in a brown lunchbag, tape it to the inside of the foam box lid (stripe side of heatpack facing out), and tape it all up.

Oh, and I fast the fish for 24-48 hours before I ship.

Edited April 7, 2021 by StephenP2003