Tips on carrying the fish on flight

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Ruturaj

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2011
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Seattle, WA
I am moving from Raleigh NC to Seattle WA in March or April. I am planning to take my flowerhorn who is 5 inches now but would be approx. around 6 inches then with me on the flight (I don't want to ship him overnight). I am planning to get few bags from LFS to pack him and then put it in a thermal bag with some heat packs. The flight would be 6 hour flight and I will need around 3 extra hours from getting him out of old tank to getting him in new tank. The another tank would be already set there, cycled.

Should I also add some prime or stressguard to water when packing?
Any other tips?
 
Might want to call the airline first and make sure that what you are planning is allowed. I have seen a few stories where people have showed up with a simple betta in a cup and the Betta wasn't allowed on the plane.

I would look into seeing if a local fish store at your old house can ship it for you to a LFS near your new home.
 
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Might want to call the airline first and make sure that what you are planning is allowed. I have seen a few stories where people have showed up with a simple betta in a cup and the Betta wasn't allowed on the plane.

I would look into seeing if a local fish store at your old house can ship it for you to a LFS near your new home.

Was it TSA or the airline?

I will check with local store over the weekend, pretty sure they don't ship though.
 
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If you can you are looking at probably six hours of the fish being in the bag. So you will need to use pure oxygen, to make sure he has enough for the time it will take.

Try to keep the bag on its side so you have a greater air/water contact area.

Will also want to starve the fish for a couple days prior to decrease the amount of pollution he puts in the water during the trip.
 
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If you can you are looking at probably six hours of the fish being in the bag. So you will need to use pure oxygen, to make sure he has enough for the time it will take.

Try to keep the bag on its side so you have a greater air/water contact area.

Will also want to starve the fish for a couple days prior to decrease the amount of pollution he puts in the water during the trip.

Thanks for the tip. I am leaning toward shipping him. I can get oxygen canister at walmart.

You can't carry more than 3 ounces of liquid on board, you will have to check the fish in like luggage.

As per TSA, they are not allowed in checked baggage

I read at many places that liquid limit doesn't apply to water with live fish in it. TSA twitter account says so

 
I would call the airline and check their policy. Even pointing out that TSA tweet stating thier policy.
 
Spend the extra $63?, and book it a ticket air cargo. Heck, if its a direct flight, you may be on the same plane
 
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