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just wanted some pointers on shipping fish across the country (US country). the lfs gave me a couple styrofoam boxes and told me that my pleco (who is about 9 inches long) should get his own box, and my severums should also get their own box. i was wondering what any one can give me as far as advice goes for how to ship them, and also how much i can expect to pay, and what options i have for shipping. thanks

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

Best advice I can give on shipping fish is to use pure oxygen, not airpump air, fill the bag 1/4 to 1/3 with water, the rest with oxygen. Use overnight shipping, next day by 10am is what I use. If shipping in cold weather a heat pack is a good idea also, if using a heat pack place it in a seperate bag inside your shipping container so that it doesn't come in dirrect contact with your livestock bags. Double bag all fish in an inverted bag pattern, that is one bag upright, next bag upside down, double band each of the bags. This should eliminate any chances of leaking out your water and air. Place 1 fish per bag, and always use the next size larger bag than what you think your fish requires. Purge your fish for at least 24 hours before shipping an order to reduce the ammount of waste products during shipping, especially important in the case of your pleco. Some people will also add some ick treatment( malachite) as a safety precaution but its not neccessary. Also, when packaging your fish bags inside the shipping container do your best to ensure a snug fit, brace with foam, packing material, whatever to reduce the amount of tumbling that they will endure. If you do all this your fish should arrive happy and healthy.

Excellent advice, all that is what i'd recommend.

Also, i'd just like to add that i like to use Jungle "Bag Buddies" when shipping. It's a small blue tablet that contains a mild tranquilizer, adds a stress reducer, and some oxygen into the water for a calmer, more peaceful ride.

As for the plec and severum getting own bags, it's so they don't go ape and poke holes in their own bags, and the other bags around them. Plus when they go wild in the bag they don't scare the crap out of the other fish so they flip out. Domino effect i guess you could equate it too.

I second the inverted double bag, as this eliminates corners that your fish can get stuck in and either get crushed when the UPS guy makes a 90 degree left hander at 80 miles an hour, or get stuck in and poke holes.

Good luck

Oh, and the obvious, don't ship on thursday or friday. Shoot for mon/tues/wed.

the lfs i talked to gave me a big bag that fits inside the styrofoam box by itself to ship these fish in. they recommended double bagging to me already, but they said if i bring the fish in to them they would put them in the bag and get the box ready for me to take to wherever. which reminds me, where do i go to ship that? will the post office ship fish, or do i have to do ups/fedex?

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

I've used both, and both times the USPS has mangled the box. UPS got there in much better condition. Also, i forgot to mention earlier, whichever carrier you choose, call ahead and get the time that their outgoing parcels leave, so you can box the fish up closest to then, minimizing ship time.

I'd get a 40 hr heatpack, just on the offchance your box gets shipped to the wrong side of the country and you need time to locate and collect it. Heatpacks work on an oxygen reaction, so a great idea i heard from someone this weekend was to poke a hole in the box and affix the heatpack over the hole, so it always had enough O2 to operate

Also, wrapping each bag in newspaper or something to help keep eacch fish more isolated and calm seems to work well.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

When dealing with fish with spines who tend to thrash, triple-bagging, or using very very thick bags instead of the little ones from the LFS, would be totally worth it. It's truly heartbreaking to open the box, lift the lid on the styrofoam and pick up the bag to inspect your new aquisition, only to wind up with a driping mess and a fish that is near death because the bags sprung a leak. Few fish recover well from that when added to the stress of shipping.
Definitely ship overnight, which will probably cost about $30. If you plan to use the USPS, check the shipping schedule for express shipments, because even though it's usually overnight, if you're shipping across country, it could take up to 3 days. FedEx is much more expensive (maybe up to $45), but much, much more reliable than USPS. It doesn't sound like you're shipping particularly delicate fish, So two-day shipping may not be bad for them if you absolutely have to save a few bucks shipping.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Actually, why don't you ship in foodsafe 20L buckets?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

i think buckets might be considered "irregular" cause of the shape, so might be more expensive. besides, my dad isn't a very experienced fishkeeper (comparitively speaking) and it would be much easier for him to put a bag in his tank than to deal with getting the fish out of the bucket.

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman