How Are Live Fish Shipped?

Aquaculturists often have the challenge of transporting their livestock from one location to another. But that is not to say that they have been handicapped by this challenge because they have developed systems of doing so successfully.

Those who have large shipments of the same species of fish use hauling trucks and tanks for short distances. But when they have large shipments that need to be transported across borders, they use air freight. Similarly, for long distance shipments that are not large, shipping inboxes is the best available option that they have.

The above does not only apply to fish for food but also to ornamental ones. Many ornamental fish traders use air freight to transport their ware in boxes. With the kind of air transport system that we have these days, one can move these aquaculture products live from one place to the other safely (with minimal DOA cases).

In this article, we would focus mainly on how to transport ornamental fish. We know that you may not be interested in the process but just want to get your pet without stress. If so, you can get more information here: (Buy tropical fish online – Splashy Fish Store) and a few other sources.

Transporting Ornamental Fish

Maybe you deal in the trade of this kind of pet and you want to expand beyond your locality there are important information that you must have. These include the following:

• How to get the proper supplies.
• How to prepare the consignment for movement.
• How to arrange them correctly in their box.
• Knowing the best and fastest mode of shipment and arrangement for pick up.

Following the process strictly would ensure that a high percentage of your product would arrive hale and hearty.

How To Get The Proper Supplies

The following are the steps to take in gathering the right supplies for your endeavour:

1. Ensure that you get the right types of boxes and bags. There are products that are designed specifically for transporting fish.
2. Choose the right design and size (thickness). The shipping vessel should consist of an exterior box made of strong cardboard with an inner one made of Styrofoam. The Styrofoam box must fit perfectly inside the outer box. This container must have bottoms that would stay flat when filled and should be around 4 mils thick or even more.
3. It is recommended that you put each fish in an individual bag especially if you are a beginner. So ensure that the bag is at least 3 times bigger than the average length of the breed that you are transporting.
4. After that get a box that would contain the number of bags that you want to transport.
5. Do not make the mistake of putting more than one fish in a bag; the safest way of ensuring that your consignment arrives alive and healthy is by using one bag per animal.
6. It is best that you buy your supplies from specialty stores whether online or in brick and mortar stores.

Preparation For The Journey

The next stage in this venture is to prepare the fish for the journey and the following is the process of preparation:-

1. When you are planning to ship live fish ensure that you move the ones that are being shipped to a separate tank and set the water to the ideal temperature for them.
2. Keep them in isolation for a day or two. Make sure that they are not fed for those 2 days so that they wouldn’t have so much waste to dispose of during the trip. Also check to be sure that they are in perfect health at this time.
3. Ensure that the water is clean and rich in oxygen and condition it correctly according to the requirement of the breed. You can use an aerator and filter to do this.
4. During the 1-2 days of isolation, you have to gradually turn down the temperature of the water to the lower limit of the breed. Keep reducing the heater of the tank every couple of hours while checking the progress with the thermometer of the tank. The reason for this step is to slow the metabolism of the fish. This would ensure that they take in less oxygen and give out less waste and carbon dioxide.

Bagging

After you have prepared them for the journey, the next thing to do is to bag them properly. So the following are the steps for this stage:-

1. Fill the bag halfway with the water from the fish tank and then put the fish. Ensure that the bag you get would enable you to fill it halfway with water so that would cover the animal and give it room to move around.
2. Inflate the bag with a can of condensed oxygen after you add the water and its inhabitant. Do not inflate the bag by blowing into it like a balloon. This would only add carbon dioxide to the water and that’s harmful to the fish. The pure oxygen that the can of oxygen adds to the water is what would sustain the animal through the journey.
3. Ensure that you tie the bags securely with strong twine or rubber band if you will. If the bag is of premium quality, one might be enough but for double assurance, it is best to at least double the bag.

Boxing

It is said that pictures speak louder than a thousand words so we felt that a video demonstration of this step might be more helpful. So check out this video for a step by step demonstration of this stage.

Conclusion

Getting aquaculture products to arrive at their destination healthy and alive is a great challenge for both the buyer and seller (but mostly the seller). Maybe this has been a deterrent to you selling your wares outside your locality; this shouldn’t be so.

We believe that this article would go a long way to help you do it right and make a profit while at it. You can also explore more resources on the internet. If you were just curious to know how live fish is shipped, we believe you have your answer!