Shipping Tropical Fish

With a little care and attention, you can get the best out of your Uniheat shipping warmers and ensure your livestock arrives in fighting fit condition through overnight delivery. As the winter months are upon us, the following shipping method may be used as a guideline. Modify the method to your requirements but always pre test before shipping your livestock.

Before Uniheat, many shippers used small sausage shaped bags filled with boiling water which were used within the shipping cartons. These subjected the contents to a rapid dangerous increase in temperature before a swift cool down. This method was outside the tolerance of many corals such as delicate SPS, some marine fish, and the more delicate tropical fish.

There are too many variables to predefine a set packing method, not limited to but including, shipping box construction and heat conservation properties, livestock temperature requirements, shipping duration, ambient outside box temperatures, water volume within the shipping carton etc.

Pictured is the Uniheat 30 hour shipping warmer. We are going to use these packs in conjunction with a 20 hour + shipping warmer pack because our estimated shipping time from collection to delivery is twenty six hours. The 20+ hour pack will provide a temperature boost to combat the cold weather and the thirty hours sustain heat to the delivery time.

Before beginning to pack the tropical fish, the first job is to carefully remove them from their packaging, shake and gently knead the contents for around thirty seconds. The shipping warmers take around four hours to reach optimum working temperature.

Next we take a SINGLE sheet of newspaper and lay it on the packing table. The heat pack is then laid in one corner of the sheet. Note the red indicator stripe. Make a mental note of it's changing position as you wrap the heat pack. Uniheat shipping warmers perform at their best when wrapped in a single sheet of newspaper.

Due to the harshness of the Uk winter environment, the shipping carton has been lined with newspaper to provide extra thermal properties. This also aids uniform heat dispersion throughout the shipping carton from the heat pack source. In extreme conditions, newspaper can also be added between the polystyrene outer and cardboard inner.

The newspaper balls are the added to the shipping carton to avoid localised heating against the fish bag base, and aid a uniform dispersion of heat throughout the carton.

Other loose fill material such as polystyrene chips can be utilised if cost is no object!

Never ever place any shipping warmer or heat pack directly next to a fish bag or animal.

If the heat packs are placed directly in contact with the fish bags, the fish will be subjected to extremes in temperature that some will not tolerate. The aim is to provide a comfortable environment, free of major temperature variations to ensure the livestock arrives in perfect condition and do not succumb to white spot etc after arrival, in the customers' tanks!

Ok, it's fish bagging time! Scrimping on fish bags for shipping is seldom cost effective. The ones pictured are made by King British and have a rounded bottom to avoid losses in transit due to squashed fish in corners! Fine for small fish without spines, even the humble corydoras or loach can easily puncture a bag of this kind!

Always at least double bag, a single leaking bag may cause the loss of the whole shipment as soggy heat packs don't work! If you cannot source rounded bottom bags, run a length of packing tape across the bottom of each bag to tape up the corners.

Any customer is going to be impressed by your attention to detail and the care you have taken with their purchase. For total piece of mind, you may wish to invest in a bag sealing machine made by Sealy, again available quite cheaply on ebay, and flat roll tubing polythene available from Viking Direct to make your own bags. The corners can even be "chamfered" to avoid losses in corners.

For shipping fish with "spines" such as Discus fish, or corals on rock, that may easily puncture bags, 500 gauge roll is a must, triple bagged!!!

Never attempt to ship fish without oxygen! The oxygen level in our air will be depleted quickly in transit resulting in losses and also possible internal organ damage to the fish that survive the journey. Most good retailers, shippers and wholesalers will have an oxygen bottle for bagging fish, rentable quite cheaply from BOC here in the UK.

Warning! Breathable bags in an enclosed environment may compete for oxygen within the enclosure needed for the proper function of the heat packs.

Do not feed any livestock for at least 24 hours prior to shipping. If you do, they will produce ammonia in the bags that may kill them. It goes without saying that the shipping water must have no Ammonia, Nitrite and acceptable levels of Nitrate for the particular species. Because pure oxygen has hopefully been added to the bags, the ph of the water within will steadily naturally rise. Toxins such as Ammonia are far more lethal at a higher pH.

In heavily laden bags, fish waste can be removed as it is produced using a small pouch of an all round mechanical media such as Pura Complete. All that is required is a small amount tied in a portion of the media bag which is provided. This is practiced by many exporters world wide to ship multiple fish per bag and save on air freight.

The fish have now been added to the shipping carton. Note the box is full! This has a two fold effect, for one you have a decent order, and two the water volume within the shipping carton is at it's maximum. Shipping a single bag is more problematic than a full box. The greater the body of water within the shipping carton, the slower it will react to outside ambient temperature. If shipping small orders, always use your full weight restraint and place specimens in bigger bags!

A final layer of newspaper over the top of the fish bags to aid uniform heat desperation, and the 20+ hour higher temperature pack taped securely to the underside of the lid.

The shipping carton now has the lid in place and this is taped with packing tape. Unseating of the lid in transit would result in rapid heat loss.

Note the shipping carton clearly displays the contents and a this way up! All that remains now is to await courier collection of the consignment for next day delivery before 12. Always mark the manifest, livestock.

Security is a negligible fee, and always worth paying for. There is no insurance claim for livestock lost or damaged in transit.

Tropical fish Shipping Do's and Don't's

Do use extra heat packs and or insulation in adverse temperatures.

Don't try and ship livestock when the temperature slips below zero unless you are extremely experienced or have proven advanced packaging techniques.

Do pack your livestock as late as possible.

Don't leave packed livestock in cold conditions or on cold concrete floors before it is dispatched.

Do make sure your collection driver knows what he his carrying.

Don't ship livestock in thin gauge bags that can easily puncture.

Do advise your customer that their livestock is in transit so someone is available to take delivery.

Don't blast oxygen from a bottle into a heat pack, you may laugh but this has been done. Yes it may speed up the chemical reaction and produce heat a little quicker at best, however the pack will then burn out far before it's intended life span resulting in chilled livestock, and may even possibly explode in the process.

Do make sure the shipping water is of the base correct temperature for the species and free from Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate.

Don't ship fish wich have fed in the last twenty four hours to avoid losses.

Do ship fish with oxygen filled bags and if possible a chemical media.

• Is there a recommended amount of shipping warmers i should use?

• No there are too many variables when sending livestock you must perform a trial before shipping.

• I have opened the warmer and it doesn't feel warm.

• The warmer can take up to 4 hours to reach its full temperature which is very close to normal body heat. For this reason it will not feel particularly warm to the touch.

• I left a warmer on the side overnight.

• They are designed to be used in a confined space and if left in the open will struggle to reach the correct temperature. The purpose of the warmers is to provide a steady heat, comfortable for the livestock. A conventional body warmer will reach dangerous temperatures before a rapid cool down.

• Can I use the packs for shipping reptiles?

• They are designed for all type of livestock including reptiles.It is important that the livestock has room to move away from the warmer as overheating can occur with fatal results.

• How warm will the shipping container get?

• Again, there are too many variables but in a previous test, 2 x 30 hour warmers, maintained an average temperature of 32 deg C in a sealed box 16" x 18" x 12" for in excess of 24 hours. There after slowly reducing for the next 15+ hours to 24 deg C The ambient external temperature during this test was around 7deg C.