Shipping 101
  A beginners guide to sending fish to new homes in far away
                          places !
                         Robert Rice
                    2213 Prytania Circle
                      Navarre Fl 32566
                              
                              
Ok, OK you have done it .You have just collected the hidden,secret  spot of 
your favorite fish  and shockingly have  too many  excellent  fish. Maybe you 
have done even  better  and your  favorite fish has spawned and you have fry 
coming  out your  ears. Great , at first you panic then you  dig  out  a 
NANFA  trading  post and decide I want to send  my  fish  to Miss.  Jones in 
Portland Oregon ! Sounds good so far.  Miss. Jones  being a trusting sort 
sends you a box full of aquatic plants  that you have wanted for years. You 
are in heaven  ! Suddenly you realize you have a problem you owe Miss.  Jones 
some  fish but do not have the foggiest idea how to get them to her ! Relax 
your friendly host (me) will walk you through the whole thing.
You need to ship fish ? Well first off you need to get a box and  some bags. 
Here is the place where a friendly pet store owner  can  make your life 
easier. Let's say  you  ask  your local pet store owner Hans "Sir, do you 
have any extra boxes or  bags  I  need to ship some fish". Hans looks at  you 
 in disgust  and says " Why do you need to ship fish, you  don't buy  fish  
here so where did they come from? You are  a  bad person get out of my 
store." So you slink away vowing  never to return. On your way home you get a 
brainstorm and stop at the local Piggly Wiggly grocery store and purchase a 
box  of Glad  freezer bags for $1.29. Not the ziplock kind  but  the cheap  
old  reguar freezer bags.You also notice CHEAP  styro coolers for $1.99 and 
snag one of those too. On your way out you  talk  them into giving  you a 
cardboard box  that  once held Pampers diapers. OK , fine you are in 
siness.
Or what if instead old Hans had said "Boxes ? You want Boxes ?  Yeah  I got a 
pile of them in the back help yourself  and buy  something will ya? " So you 
purchase some bags from him at  a  nickel a piece and vow to buy all your 
hardware  from your  new  buddy Hans. Who by the way loves to collect,  and 
tries to talk you into taking him with him next time you  go (that is a 
different story though !).
So, either way you are heading home with the right stuff  in your  car  and a 
grinding fear in your heart about  shipping those  fish. You wonder how can 
fish survive in this  little box for the long trip to Oregon. A tear wells up 
in your eye when you think "I could be sending my babies to there DOOM ,whoa 
is me." Relax fish are not people and they can tolerate a box very easily and 
with little stress.
You have picked your fish out and are ready to start packing .  First  rule 
of packing is less water equals more  fish  ! that  means put the absolute 
minimum amount of water in each bag.  Fish do not breath water they breath 
air. If your  bag is  full of water and not air you will have a very heavy 
box of  stinky  water arriving in Oregon and a very angry  Miss. Jones  
opening them. So put about an inch of water  in  each bag sometimes more , 
sometimes less depending on the size of the fish. I like to put just enough 
to fully cover each fish and  never  any more. Then I blow the bags up to  a  
squishy soft consistency. If you are lucky and have bottled O2 or  a tire  
pump  use  that instead of blowing  em  up  with  your mouth.  When you 
exhale it adds a bit of CO2 to the air  mix wich is not good. If not your air 
is better than no air. Now be carefull, if you blow your plastic bags up too 
much , the pressure change while on an airplane can burst the bags open .  
Rule number two is, more bags equals more fish. What this means is it is far 
better to have 15 small bags with 1  fish in  them than two large bags with 8 
fish in them. If a  fish dies  you  will limit the damage to his buddies if 
they  are not in the bag with him !
So  now  you have packed up these fish just so and have  all these  cute 
little bags on the floor what now? Simple, place them  in  the  Styrofoam box 
and put a bit of  newspaper  in there  to cover any gaps and tape the box 
closed.  I  use  2 inch  wide packing tape as it adds support to the box.  
Then place the whole thing inside a suitably sized cardboard  box with a bit 
of newspaper to cover the gaps label it and write live fish on the sides of 
this box. Tape it shut and you are ready  to  go  to  the post office. Maybe 
Hans  gave  you  a cardboard and styro all in one if so skip a step and head 
to the post office!
The  post office you say ! Why not UPS, Fed Ex or one of the other carriers? 
Because they often do not allow the shipping of  live animals and they are 
always more expensive. So  you lug  your  large ugly box up there, all 
labeled up  and  the postal  clerk says " I am sorry but we can't ship LIVE  
fish ."  You however have read this article and are prepared  and reply   "  
Ma'am in the domestic mail manual section 124.632 it states you can ship non 
venomous cold blooded animals via the post office." "Oh "she says, looks it 
up and says "Never mind  !" and your fish are on their way. Wait you say,  
what if  I  was shipping to another country, say London  England,is that 
legal? You would recite the same sentence except add ".....the international 
mail manual states in section  139.1 that  the  shipment  of non........" You 
 get  the  picture. Anyway  she  says  "oh"  and ask  "how  would  you  like  
it shipped?" The correct answer is priority mail. Most packages are there in 
2 days and it is so cheap you can't beat it. So you cough up about 10-12 
dollars and head home and wait. The best  thing is next time you ship fish, 
the postal employees will  all know you are the fish person and will be  glad 
 to help.  See those postal service coffee breaks are  good  for something
Two  days  later you get a call from Miss. Jones  in  Oregon thanking  you  
for your cool fish and all is well.  You  are happy, your fish are happy and 
Miss. Jones is happy. Life is good.  You think you might want to trade again 
and  dig  out your NANFA trading post again. Yes life is good!
I have used the same setup to send fish all around the world with  waits  as  
long  as 14 days with  a  higher  that  80% survival rate. So do not be 
afraid to ship fish , be  afraid of  taxes  ,  death , environmental apathy 
but not  shipping fish. Until next time good luck and good fishing.
--- Maximus/2 3.01
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