How long can fish endure transit in the box?

mnl119 · Jan 27, 2023

So I placed an order from ReefBeuties for 7 saltwater fish (various angels both mini and larger, some tangs, Huma Hum). I received word from UPS that the package is delayed because it got in too late. They were shipped out 5pm PST Thursday and supposed to arrive at my house Friday morning.

They are now saying Saturday morning for delivery. Total time in the bags will be about 36 hours. My question is what's the longest they can endure in the bags for shipping?

Sad part is the boxes are sitting at the Airport about 45 miles away. I've tried to get a hold of any human at UPS to see if I can just drive down and get them without success.

mtraylor · Jan 27, 2023

Hard to say. Depends on how well they are packed. Big fish in small bag is worse scenario. Small fish in big bag is better.

Hope this works out for you. It's the worse situation to have to deal with. I wish that live animals had priority

mnl119 · Jan 27, 2023

mtraylor said:
Hard to say. Depends on how well they are packed. Big fish in small bag is worse scenario. Small fish in big bag is better.

Hope this works out for you. It's the worse situation to have to deal with. I wish that live animals had priority

Thanks for the good thoughts. I did go small-sized on this order... looking to grow them out in a FOWLR setup. Largest fish is a medium majestic, listed as 3.5-4.5 inches.

chipmunkofdoom2 · Jan 27, 2023

They can make it, but you're going to need to be ready.

A bit of background on shipping fish. In the bags, the fish will excrete ammonia. At the same time they're using oxygen and excreting CO2. This excess CO2 lowers the pH in the bag, which is good. At lower pH, ammonia exists in a less harmful form, ammonium.

As soon as you cut the bags though, pH begins to rise. Since these fish have been in the bags an extra day, there's a lot of ammonium built up, more than usual. As soon as you open the bags, the water will start turning toxic very quickly.

So your goal needs to be to get the fish out of the shipping water as soon as humanly possible.

If the fish are going into QT, measure the salinity in one of the bags (make as small a hole as possible to get a sample). Then, dilute your QT tank until it matches the water in the bags. Then, simply dump the fish in QT without acclimating them in any way.

If you can't adjust salinity (the fish are going into a tank with other fish) or you're concerned you won't be able to match salinity fast enough, I would just cut the bags and immediately put them wherever they're going. There's a risk of osmotic shock with this approach, but I personally believe the ammonia is much more worrisome.

mnl119 · Jan 27, 2023

chipmunkofdoom2 said:
They can make it, but you're going to need to be ready.

A bit of background on shipping fish. In the bags, the fish will excrete ammonia. At the same time they're using oxygen and excreting CO2. This excess CO2 lowers the pH in the bag, which is good. At lower pH, ammonia exists in a less harmful form, ammonium.

As soon as you cut the bags though, pH begins to rise. Since these fish have been in the bags an extra day, there's a lot of ammonium built up, more than usual. As soon as you open the bags, the water will start turning toxic very quickly.

So your goal needs to be to get the fish out of the shipping water as soon as humanly possible.

If the fish are going into QT, measure the salinity in one of the bags (make as small a hole as possible to get a sample). Then, dilute your QT tank until it matches the water in the bags. Then, simply dump the fish in QT without acclimating them in any way.

If you can't adjust salinity (the fish are going into a tank with other fish) or you're concerned you won't be able to match salinity fast enough, I would just cut the bags and immediately put them wherever they're going. There's a risk of osmotic shock with this approach, but I personally believe the ammonia is much more worrisome.

I hear you. My plan is to hit them with some Prime and adjust more rapidly than I would normally, but still have an adjustment period. Salinity in the tank where they are going is 1.021... ReefBeuties advertises they are at 1.018-1.019 in the bag. Temperature matching will be the biggest threat as they may be sitting on some dock somewhere. Thankfully it's 60 degrees today.

mnl119 · Jan 29, 2023

mnl119 said:
So I placed an order from ReefBeuties for 7 saltwater fish (various angels both mini and larger, some tangs, Huma Hum). I received word from UPS that the package is delayed because it got in too late. They were shipped out 5pm PST Thursday and supposed to arrive at my house Friday morning.

They are now saying Saturday morning for delivery. Total time in the bags will be about 36 hours. My question is what's the longest they can endure in the bags for shipping?

Sad part is the boxes are sitting at the Airport about 45 miles away. I've tried to get a hold of any human at UPS to see if I can just drive down and get them without success.

Well, I can report that they all made it after 40 hours in the box. The water temperature dropped to about 65F which probably helped slow their metabolisms. Most were unstressed with a medium sized Navarchus Angel seeming to be the most stressed.