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I would like to know how you go about shipping fish, because in the near future i am most likely going to be selling of giving away a few Neolamprologous Pulcher on aquabid, ebay, etc.because they breed like rabbits and I have a new batch of fry every 2 weeks. Or if someone on here wants them then I'll give them to you for free, other than that you pay shipping, But the main thing is, how do you ship fish and what supplies do you need.

-Vincent

You can go on Aqua bid and they have shipping supplies for sale. The hardest thing you going to need is compressed oxygen for the bags of fish. They sell an additive for the water as well. Cardboard boxes, Styrofoam boxes, Poly bags, Rubber bans for tying the bags, heat packs for cool weather areas, As a private person shipping live stock don't ship any accept next day.

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

wow that sounds complicated so it seems like a may not be shipping for a while

-Vincent

If bagged properly, for many fish, especially fry, you don't "need" compressed oxygen to ship them. Very few people on Aquabid use compressed oxygen to ship the fish. If packaged in a correct manor, most fish of smaller to average size will be fine for 24-48 hours. And some can last days and/or weeks without any problems.

And example, when I was collecting fish in Mexico, we bagged our fish in "Breathable Bags". Some were in these bags at least 4 days, while others were in them upwards of 10 days before we got them all back home. We lost less than 1% of all the fish we collected. And, the first 35 collected the first day (in the bags the longest) all lived!

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There is always a bigger fish...

Well what you could do to offload them, is try finding some local fish stores and see if they carry that fish. and if not, talk to them about you being a breeder for them

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

As monkeyboy stated, is a good idea. Most lfs will take fish in trade. The average going rate, is about 1/3 the asking price in the lfs. And they usually just give you credit. But hey, credit is great for getting new fish, and filters, lights, etc. In my area, we have over 35 lfs within a half hour drive. I only know of one of them that will not do this for their customers.

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There is always a bigger fish...

The LFS that carries them won't take them for store credit or anything. I would rather either get something for them or know they go to someone who can take care of it. Well maybe it isn't that complicated after all.

-Vincent

Forgot about the breathable bags.

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

I used to ship a lot of fish, got most of my supplies from Ken's Fish.

I originally double bagged but switched to breathable bags. Bags can be knotted but I also used rubberbands as well; you can buy a huge bag at Staple's, etc rather inexpensively.

Many people use Bag Buddies (water additive).

Depending upon where you live, time of year, and what shipping method you use it might be a good idea to invest in heat packs.

I only shipped USPS Priority Mail, just my preference. You can order free boxes, labels, etc from their website. I also purchase the postage, print shipping labels, and arrange package pickup online.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Whats a breatheable bag?

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Breathable Bags are specialy made bags for shipping and holding fish. When you put fish in them, you do not put any air at all in the bag when you tie it off. The bag is made of a special material that allows oxygen and CO2 to pass through it, and yet holds the water. They cost a bit more than standard bags, but depending on the need they are very much worth the extra cost.

For another example; I place 8 one to one and half inch Hap obliquedins fish in one of the medium size breathable bags for our auction several years ago. They were place in there at about 9pm the night before the auction. The guy that bought them posted on our web site that he had them in that bag until 10am 2 days later. And did not lose not one of them.

This is what they look like with a fish and water in them;


And without the water;


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There is always a bigger fish...

do you know a site where I could get about 25 of those instead of 50 or 100?

-Vincent

I see there are a couple of them listed on aquabid at a 25 amount. But for just a dollar or two more you can also get 50.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Everytime someone sends me fish in those breatheable bags they leak horrible. Sometimes the fish are only left with 1/10th the water they were originally sent in. Most of the time when I got fish they were sent in a usps box (can get some of those free off usps.com), with styrofoam lining(can get that at many office supply stores), in normal bags with normal air(often free or cheap from an lfs if you don't need very many), and then the gaps were filled in with balled up newspaper to keep everything in place and help insulate.

Breathables are a "mixed bag" for me if you will (loricariids seem to always poke some holes in them, adn given that most of my purchases are of that general line of fishes, well, you know)...small cichlid fry should not be much of a problem, though. As previously stated, since neolamp. pulchers are fairly common, you'll have a hard time convincing anyone to buy them, especially with those shipping fees, but in most LFS, tangs are not a particularly common sight, and I'm sure they'd be more than happy to get a sawrm from you.

I have 3 LFS in the area, the privatly owned one only takes for free. The other 2 are petsmart and petland and they have store policies against that.

-Vincent

The breather bags can be purchased in quantites of 25 here.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Hmmm... The Petland that used to be near me would give credit for fish in trade. Not sure about PetSmart. The private owner, well sorry about his luck, as most will take them. The thing is, the fish will usually be better quality. As they have been in local water conditions and will aclimate to their water as well as customers' water, much better. Also, with no shipping of the fish to come in, there is usually much less loss.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Petland here will only take large numbers of fry from breeders or trade in a hardy freshwater species for another one provided they have the fish your giving them already in stock. They will not trade me what they consider more sensitive species or saltwater fish and will not take just a couple adult fish for store credit or trade. Petco and Petsmart will not take fish at all. Although there is a way to get around that. I trade directly with some employees I know and they buy the fish I want using their employee discount, give me that fish, and take mine for themselves.