Ok enough is enough!!! Last Sunday I had the pleasure of meeting Stuart (I_ Need _Zebras) and his family. I went to pick up some zebs and can tell everyone on this forum that I have never meet a nicer person as Stuart, his fish are very, very well looked after, and I can tell you that no expense is spared when it come to looking after his fish. He even offered me some money back , so making money from zebs is not his drive in breeding zebs!!!!
Fish die when getting transported, that’s a fact, if you have wild fish in your tanks many more did not survive from that batch!!! We all know that!!!!
Using Royal Mail to Kill, sorry Ship fish.
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clothahump
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- Location: Dorset UK.
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clothahump
- Newbie
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 11:52 pm
- Location: Dorset UK.
- Contact:
Here is a quick run down of how we do it.
We pack Discus in triple bags of 50% water, 40% pure Oxygen, bags should not be blown up like a balloon but left slightly squishy, this allows for expansion, these are then inverted into another bag thus squaring the corners and avoiding trapping of the fish.
If single bag is being shipped this is placed in polystyrene box surrounded by bags filled to about 75% with warm water to centralise bag and stop it from moving around, this is topped off with layers of newspaper so when lid is placed on it is a snug fit, this is taped and then inserted into cardboard outer.
In cold weather one or two heat packs are used, one top, one bottom.
As long as the fish are packed in this way they will last up to 48 hours, we have proof of this when a box of Discus bound for the Scottish Islands was delayed by 24 hours and all fish survived.
The only thing to be careful of is when unpacking them, let the light in to the container slowly,the fish are disorientated, they do not even know which way is up.
Lift lid gently and lift paper to allow in a crack of light, leave alone for 10 minutes and then raise all paper off the top slowly, remove bag of fish and acclimatise in your tank.
We pack Discus in triple bags of 50% water, 40% pure Oxygen, bags should not be blown up like a balloon but left slightly squishy, this allows for expansion, these are then inverted into another bag thus squaring the corners and avoiding trapping of the fish.
If single bag is being shipped this is placed in polystyrene box surrounded by bags filled to about 75% with warm water to centralise bag and stop it from moving around, this is topped off with layers of newspaper so when lid is placed on it is a snug fit, this is taped and then inserted into cardboard outer.
In cold weather one or two heat packs are used, one top, one bottom.
As long as the fish are packed in this way they will last up to 48 hours, we have proof of this when a box of Discus bound for the Scottish Islands was delayed by 24 hours and all fish survived.
The only thing to be careful of is when unpacking them, let the light in to the container slowly,the fish are disorientated, they do not even know which way is up.
Lift lid gently and lift paper to allow in a crack of light, leave alone for 10 minutes and then raise all paper off the top slowly, remove bag of fish and acclimatise in your tank.
Different methods work in different situations. My method of shipping had bristlenose plecos arrive just fine to TTA in February a few years ago after unexpectedly spending 3 days in transit. It's a method I will no longer use because the idea of the fish dying in a bag somewhere was very traumatic for me personally, but the fish themselves were happy and unharmed.
All of which just goes to show that each person has an opinion and as long as the situation has been resolved to the satisfaction of both the buyer and the seller, it should be treated as a learning experience. Everyone can stop beating this dead horse now please
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Barbie
All of which just goes to show that each person has an opinion and as long as the situation has been resolved to the satisfaction of both the buyer and the seller, it should be treated as a learning experience. Everyone can stop beating this dead horse now please
.Barbie
[url=http://www.plecos.com][img]http://plecos.com/plecosbanner.gif[/img][/url]
I've done some minor research and you can read up on these Kordon Breathable Fish Bags here...
http://www.novalek.com/kordon/articles/ ... _bags.html
http://www.novalek.com/kordon/breathing_bags/index.htm
and an independent review on the bags can be found here... http://web.archive.org/web/200104201642 ... efault.asp
Kordon breather bags are designed for NO AIR to be in the bag, full of water. this has several advantages outside of the just the ability to allow valuable oxygen into and bad co2 out the main one being the minimization of the "sloshing" in the bag and chance of a fish getting left high and DRY in a crease somewhere if the box gets turned over.
http://www.novalek.com/kordon/articles/ ... _bags.html
http://www.novalek.com/kordon/breathing_bags/index.htm
and an independent review on the bags can be found here... http://web.archive.org/web/200104201642 ... efault.asp
Kordon breather bags are designed for NO AIR to be in the bag, full of water. this has several advantages outside of the just the ability to allow valuable oxygen into and bad co2 out the main one being the minimization of the "sloshing" in the bag and chance of a fish getting left high and DRY in a crease somewhere if the box gets turned over.
Hi
I use the breath bags on an almost daily basis to ship CRS they are great for them but I would not recommend using them for plecos they are just to thin and spiney hard fins could easily pop the bag they are thinner than a used balloon although the concept is great I wish they made them a lot thicker.
The best bags I have found for shipping plecos are JBL pro fish bags they are purpose made with a curved seam at the bottom with no corners at all and very thick, you can't beat them although they are a lot more costly than a standard fish bag but worth every penny when it comes to sending / transporting plecos.
I use the breath bags on an almost daily basis to ship CRS they are great for them but I would not recommend using them for plecos they are just to thin and spiney hard fins could easily pop the bag they are thinner than a used balloon although the concept is great I wish they made them a lot thicker.
The best bags I have found for shipping plecos are JBL pro fish bags they are purpose made with a curved seam at the bottom with no corners at all and very thick, you can't beat them although they are a lot more costly than a standard fish bag but worth every penny when it comes to sending / transporting plecos.
L number plecos and pleco products worldwide delivery www.rareaquatics.co.uk
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NetsuaiAngel
- Obsessed!!
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- Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2005 7:04 am
- Location: Las Vegas, NV - USA
The shipper made their amends and their are multiple methods for shipping and packing.
I vote that that those who would like to volunteer to write an article and include any photos of their shipping methods to be merged into one whole article for the site. If you'd like, I'll compile it to be unbiased and fair for the contributing authors.
-Angela
I vote that that those who would like to volunteer to write an article and include any photos of their shipping methods to be merged into one whole article for the site. If you'd like, I'll compile it to be unbiased and fair for the contributing authors.
-Angela
We will have to disagree with this one. We have used oxygen tablets for over 10 years to ship fish and we never run into problems which were specific to the tablets. Admittedly, some fish don't take well to travelling and will pass away. But look at what happens when fish are imported (which inflates fish prices). A great number of the stock arrives dead, or extremely poorly.clothahump wrote: Nobody in their right mind would use Oxygen tabs to ship livestock, you should only use pure Oxygen, thats what all the exporters use.
This as it may be, we are recently using Kordon bags for shipping fish with absolutely amazing results. Check them out here: http://www.novalek.com/kordon/articles/ ... _bags.html
The bags are indeed breathable so there is no need for adding oxygen at all. On one occasion, due to an unavoidable delay, the fish (3 young crenichiclas Xingu) had to stay in the bags for 29 hours. When we unpacked them they were happily swimming in there.
One of the things that impressed us was that the fish don't lose colour during shipment, they behave normally as if they were in their tank.
We have, naturally, also used them for shipping zebras - sometimes quite young ones too - and they all arrived absolutely fine.
The bags come in two sizes only - so be careful with really spiny fish as they may pierce them when you place them in. Once they settle, they are ok.
Finally on the issue of APC and Royal Mail. We wouldn't use Royal mail for fish as there are no guarrantees with it. We have received lots of fish via APC - some of which arrived perfectly ok while others didn't. In PFK there was an entry by Matt Clarke about 2 of his fish arriving dead, having being shipped by Trimar Aquaria, who use APC. Trimar have a massive experience in fish shipping and they do use pure oxygen. Still, the fish died.
In our opinion the best thing is to hand the fish over in person. That is the only way one can guarrantee the fish will not suffer unecessarily. Shipping is a massive risk. We can take steps to minimize it but we can't eradicate it entirely.
Caesars and Polleni
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Andrew C
- Obsessed!!
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- Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 8:52 pm
- Location: Bridge Of Weir, Scotland, UK.
JoJo's Zebs wrote:Hi
The best bags I have found for shipping plecos are JBL pro fish bags they are purpose made with a curved seam at the bottom with no corners at all and very thick, you can't beat them although they are a lot more costly than a standard fish bag but worth every penny when it comes to sending / transporting plecos.
Where do you get the Pro Fish Bags from, being looking around for them but can't find them ?
