Adventures in Shipping
Live Tropical Fish
By Jim Cormier

Anyone who ships fish can tell you that no matter how many precautions you take or how well you prepare the fish anything can happen once you deliver them to the shipper. I have been receiving fish for eight years and during that time I have received fish in all sorts of ways with far more losses than is acceptable. When I started shipping fish four years ago I made it my goal to be the best at packing that I could be. I would never send fish in some of the ways that I have received them...it almost assured losses. I have seen many, many things go wrong or done wrong during shipping.

The first important area is the packing. I have received fish in just a cardboard box with just shredded paper or packing peanuts to protect them from the weather. I know good Styrofoam boxes can be hard to get or make but if you can’t get the right materials, don’t ship fish!! The heat will kill the fish in an unprotected box just as fast as the cold will. I have received fish unprotected in the summer and the fish were just as dead as cold fish. I have also received fish recently in the cold weather; the fish where packed in a cardboard box with packing peanuts and the heat pack was next to the cardboard and had the peanuts between it and the fish. Of course they arrived dead with no styrofoam helping the situation. The other part of packing is the bags. All fish should be double inverted bagged. This helps prevent leaks and inverting the second bag helps to eliminate corners that the fish will get caught in and die. When shipping large cichlids and some spiny catfish you might have to take other precautions: lining the fish bags with newspaper or using hard plastic containers [ed. note: outer bag...newspaper inside...inside bag...water in the inside bag and then the catfish]. We have experimented with plastic jars with mixed results. They seem to work very well with apistos but not as well with others.

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The second important area is how the fish are prepared. I have received fish that were dead but it appeared that everything was done correctly. The only thing I noticed when opening the bag was the smell of ammonia. To prevent this from happening there are a couple of things I do. First I stop feeding the fish 3 days before they are going to be shipped. This gives the fish time to excrete most of their waist before they are sealed in a bag. The second thing is how the water in the bag is prepared. I started out adding an anti-fungus medicine to the water and using oxygen, however then I discovered Bag Buddies. Now I add a ¼ tablet to a small bag (about 4 oz of water) and that is it. I don’t need a bottle of oxygen because the Bag Buddies adds it to the water, it locks up any ammonia that accumulates in the water and also has a mild tranquilizer in it. Also I use only about 1/3 water to 2/3 air in the bag. This becomes more important with the size of the fish. When you are shipping three inch fish or larger you might use closer to a ½ water to air and make sure the bag is big enough for the size of the fish. [ed. note: I agree totally with no oxygen and Bag Buddies]

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The third area of concern is the shipper and I’m not talking about which company or overnight vs. 2nd day. This is about what you have no control over: how the shipper treats the box. By following the procedure I outlined above, I have had fish survive shipping with delays as long as 8 days. When I have fish that I have shipped not make it alive it is generally due to poor handling by the shipper. There are two main problems hear. First is rough handling. This can cause the bags to rupture and I have also had the Styrofoam boxes broken. The second is they may leave the box exposed to extreme heat or cold over long periods of time. If a box that is left in a truck with temperatures over 120 degrees or as low as 20 degrees for 10 hours or more the fish doesn’t have much of a chance. I have not seen a heat/cold pack that is good enough to compensate for that. Most of the time, thank goodness, this is not a problem but two years ago I could not ship to Texas during the six warmer months and have anything live. I suspected it was due to the boxes being left in hot trucks for many hours.

Now to the actual shipping methods. There are three basic ways to ship.
1) Over Night
2) 2nd Day
3) Air Cargo

3) If you have several boxes going to the same person then this is a good way to ship. They charge a minimum of 100 pounds and depending on the airline will cost between $40 and $60. The only problem with this method is you have to be an 'approved shipper' with the airline to use them and that process can take a couple of months and several hundreds of dollars. There is one airline that I have tried several times to become an approved shipper with and have not been able to get their cooperation. Air cargo should be overnight or same day. You must have a major airport near you and you have to pick up the package at the airport cargo building.

1) & 3) There are 4 main shippers for the overnight and 2nd day. UPS, FedEx, Airborne and United States Postal Service. You can talk to different people and they will tell you that they have had problems with one and not with others and everyone seems to like a different company. I am no different. I have the ones I like and one I don’t like but I won’t bore you with those details. First UPS will not ship fish unless you have a pre-existing account with them, but other than that they work well. UPS is the most expensive usually. FedEx and Airborne are a little cheaper than UPS but you as the shipper should be careful because they all charge by weight and they have a minimum weight per the size of the box. If you have a standard size fish box 17x17x10, that weighs 8 or 10 pounds, you could be charged for 15 pounds. Most of the time I use a small box 14x9x10 that has a minimum weight less than what the box will weigh so it is not a problem with small boxes. Also, with Fed. Ex. you can ship ground for $7 or $8 within your state and have it guaranteed for overnight delivery….that is very nice! The post office is the cheapest but overnight is in reality 1 to 2 days and priority is 2 to 4 days. During the warmer months I will use the 2nd day FedEx shipping but in the cold months I use Express mail. I mark the boxes live fish and they take reasonably special care of the box and I have had good results even though it takes 2 days most of the time.

As with all aspects of this hobby there are many ways to do the same thing and shipping is no different. I have been shipping boxes of fish all over the country, including Hawaii and Alaska, with a 99% success rate and these were simply my experiences. It is what has been working for me but most certainly is not the only way to do it. So, take what you will from this even if it is only one little bit of info that may help you in the future with your shipping of live tropical fish.