I see this question asked every once in a while so I thought I’d give you guys a little info…

Freighting fish can be a little daunting to the inexperienced but if done carefully is really very simple smile.gif While I could waffle on, I wont and I’ll just keep it simple and to point form.

The first thing I do is prepare the fish for travel. I do a regular water change 1 week before the shipment and then another 2 days before being sent. This ensures the water is clean and the fish are happy and healthy.

Fast your fish for 3 days prior to sending. This purges their system and ensures that waste during travel is kept to a minimum. The risk of ammonia is high when shipping and the fish will not suffer for the fast.

Bagging multiple fish in a bag is to be avoided. Shipping fry together is the exception but anything juvie size or larger should always be bagged in a singular manner ie one fish per bag

All fish should be DOUBLE bagged with EACH bag being tied off with two bands on each bag. This is in case of the inner bag breaking. Please re-read this part if you are good at skimming as it is an important part.

When bagging the fish, fill only to the point where the fish is comfortably covered. Do not overfill the bag. Make sure the bag size is appropriately large. As tempting as it may feel, too much water will kill the fish. It only needs enough to stay wet and the oxygen in the bag is the important part as it airates the water.You can have all the water in the world but if it is low in oxygen the fish will die.. The process of shipping fish can take up to 12 hours from bagging to the person receiving the fish and getting it home, so please make sure you use OXYGEN and not just tie off the bag. There is also a benifit to not shipping large quantities of water and that is you keep the weight down which in turn makes for a cheaper shipment. There are some members of this board that may offer you assistence with an oxygen bottle if asked ‘Nicely’

Snails, plant matter, substrate etc should not be included in the bag. In fact W.A is the only state with quarantine (for fish coming into the State) and anything found wiith plants or snails will be confiscated immediately and taken for insineration. So any Eastern Staters contemplating a fish shipment West should take note. Its not such a big deal for other states but is still not a good habit to get in.

Put three drops of Prime in each bag before tieing off.

If you have large or spiney fish put newspaper in between the first and second bags. This will help as a barrier between bags. While not easy, it helps.

Any unused box space I fill with empty bags filled with oxygen to prevent the bags of fish rollling around, They should be firmly packed in.

Fish must be shipped with the required styrofoam boxes. I ask my friendly Local fish shop for one and most times they can help out. If not ask another. The bottom of the box should have a lining of newpaper in case of spillage. Personally I dont do this as in case of breakage I have a slim chance of the fish surviving if water is sloshing around but sometimes AAE have opened the box and asked for it as a requirement. It has only happened once though.

Print out your contact details as well as the recievers on a seperate piece of paper and stick on the box in case the shipment gets lost. Its always nice to know that both people are contactable in case the box turns up in the wrong state. ie Label the sender details as well as reciever details

Speaking of such, make sure your box is at the airport at least 1.5 Hrs BEFORE the flight is due to take off. This give the attendants plenty of time to pack it on the RIGHT flight.

I think thats about it … good luck if you are going to give this a try and if you have any further questions please post on the forum

Chuck :slow

If anyone wants to check flight schedules, here is the link for Qantas and also for Virgin.