shipping marine fish and invertebrates

[ritchie1]

Hi,

I'll be moving to a place that's about one hour plane trip. I have 3 tangs, 3 clowfishes, 3 bubble tips, and various soft corals that I want to bring along with me. The total trip will probably last about five hours including waiting time. Does anybody know how to properly pack these fishes and invertebrates? Is it better to put them all together in a big plastic bag or separate plastic bag for each of them? Can I just use an airpump to fill part of the plastic bags with air? Are the invertebrates better off by just wrapping them with wet newspaper?

Thanks for any help.

Ritchie Romualdez
Manila, Philippines

 

[Anonymous]

Do you have a fish store somewhere near you?

Because you can take the fish to them and have them pack them up with Oxygen.

But the trip is only 5 hours. I would get some styrofoam coolers to put the fish and corals in. Pack each fish in a separate bag, and yes, you can use an air pump to put air in. Or you can just blow the bags up yourself. Also put the coral's in separate bags with water.

Live rock can be shipped in wet newspaper, but you better have a place to cycle it when you get there as there will be some die off...

Hope that helps

 

[FragMaster]

DO NOT PUT THEM IN THE SAME BAG.


Bag them seperately. Use Kordon breather bags (double bagged)
For you fish and coral. The reason being is in the name.
They expell co2 and allow O2 penetration. Push as much air out of the bag as you can before you seal it if you use breather bags.

If you do not use breather bags keep this in mind:
The higher the altitude you achieve the more pressure will be put on the out side of the bags leaving little room for gaseous expansion. CO2 and other Gas realeased from the water when the fish breath fills the bags air space expanding the bag over time. Cargo bays used on passenger airlines are not pressurized.

You want to use 2-3 mill bags and double bag them. Use slightly over sized bags so you will be able to leave enough air in the bag for them but yet leave enough slack for pressure raised during flight and gaeous expansion.

For coral use the same method.

Pack them in an insulated the box with an insulated lid. If you can tape the lose tied off part of bags up right to the side of the container (and place some packing peanuts in between each bag but not tighly packed)
This will help reduce "sloshing".

Depending on where you are flying to and from you may need to use a heat pack as well. It can get prety cold in the cargo bay at high altitude.
If I were you I would ask the ariline ahead of time about bay temps.

 

[ritchie1]

There are no breather bags available here so I'll just pack them in ordinary plastic bags. Since the flight is rather early, it's also difficult to get the oxygen.

I think the aircraft has a separate cargo compartment for livestock that is kept at reasonable temperatures...

After reading Delbeek and Sprung's "The reef aquarium" and the posts here, this is what I came up with:

Ship bubble tip anemones(E. quadricolor) in as large bag as possible with 1/3 water and 2/3 air.

Corallimorphs(A. fenestrafer,Ricordea, Discosoma) - Just enough water to cover the polyps, rest of plastic filled with air. Sensitive to heat so ice in the box may be needed.

Sacrophyton, alcyonium(leather coral)- “dry” shipping technique :?:

Capnella- sealed plastic bags with enough water to cover specimen and filled with air :?:

Pachyseris stony coral (elephant skin)- dry shipping technique :?:

Fishes- one plastic bag each with 1/3 water and 2/3 air.

Remove mucus from corals before shipping.

Anybody have experience shipping leather corals, Capnella, or Pachyseris?

 

[Anonymous]

There are no breather bags available here so I'll just pack them in ordinary plastic bags. Since the flight is rather early, it's also difficult to get the oxygen.

I think the aircraft has a separate cargo compartment for livestock that is kept at reasonable temperatures...

After reading Delbeek and Sprung's "The reef aquarium" and the posts here, this is what I came up with:

Ship bubble tip anemones(E. quadricolor) in as large bag as possible with 1/3 water and 2/3 air.

Corallimorphs(A. fenestrafer,Ricordea, Discosoma) - Just enough water to cover the polyps, rest of plastic filled with air. Sensitive to heat so ice in the box may be needed.

Sacrophyton, alcyonium(leather coral)- “dry” shipping technique :?:

Capnella- sealed plastic bags with enough water to cover specimen and filled with air :?:

Pachyseris stony coral (elephant skin)- dry shipping technique :?:

Fishes- one plastic bag each with 1/3 water and 2/3 air.

Remove mucus from corals before shipping.

Anybody have experience shipping leather corals, Capnella, or Pachyseris?

I wouldn't dry ship anything.

Other than that...good luck. Should be fine. people ship corals and fish all the time with no problem fexex overnight...you are flying with them and it should only take 6 hours door to door, so you should be ok.

 

[ritchie1]

Thanks again for the posts.

I'll post again after the trip on mid-june regarding the survival of the corals and fishes.

 

[ritchie1]

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to pack them all as planned, but the fishes and bubble tips had separate bags each. The rest were just wrapped in wet newspaper and were all placed in one big styrofoam box. All the alcyonium and one bubble tip died along with the with one tang whose plastic bag burst. All the rest survived the trip. Total duration of trip: about 8 hours.

 

[trido]

Sorry to hear about your losses.

 

[WRASSER]

Yes, sorry to hear about your lost. Maybe next time try to fedx them before you leave.