Fish Shipping Question

[dogofwar]

The OP attributed the death of his fish to it being shipped in dechlorinated tap water (instead of tank water).

Shipping in dechloronated tap is pretty standard practice.

I'd look elsewhere for the cause of death.

Matt

This thread is starting to veer off of the topic of the OP's situation.I hope he posts more information before it gets closed.

 

[joe00]

Thanks for all of the comments. The fish was shipped with a heat pack in the box but not with oxygen or any other measures in the bag/water. Temperature was not an issue. The water was about 75 degrees when it arrived. Shipper said he had fasted the fish for at least 4 days prior to shipping but there was waste in the shipping water. Total transit time was about 26 hours-never thought that would be an issue with a fish capable of gulping air like this Polypterus. Normally I'm not a big fan of shipping big fish but figured a big durable Poly could be lost for a couple of days and still be perfectly alive and healthy.

ph in your aquarium is normally different/lower than tap water as dissolved organics/waste are acidic and lower the ph of the water over time-even a short time-at least that's what I have observed with all of my tanks over the years.

Personally, it would never cross my mind to ship a fish in fresh tap water instead of the water it has been living in. Just wanted to hear other members opinions and look forward to more.

 

[dogofwar]

Corals are different than freshwater fish, of course.

The water that your fish was living in has dissolved waste in it. Tap water does not.

Matt

Yea, it's going nowhere now.

My tap PH is not the same as the PH of my tank. Your tank buffers through various processes and the PH changes based on a lot of things going on in the tank. I'm out of this discussion now. I don't understand why anyone would take water straight from the tap when you have the water in front of you that the fish was presumably thriving in. I have literally shipped HUNDREDS of corals, and dozens of fish dating back to 1995. ALWAYS used the tank water, and have had very few casualties. I have said my peace, and I think it irresponsible to ship using water from the tap. Again, taking the fish from it environment and into a plastic bag is stressful enough, why would you risk shocking them with different water parameters? You will never perfectly match your tap to your tank. There are just too many factors here. Adding any more is just plan bad.

 

[krichardson]

The OP attributed the death of his fish to it being shipped in dechlorinated tap water

Actually he didn't.He merely stated what he knew about the way that the fish was packed based on what he was told by the shipper.....

 

[dogofwar]

This is what he said:

After talking with the shipper I found out that he had shipped the fish in fresh tap water with water conditioner instead of water from the established tank. I've never heard of anyone ever doing this before.

Maybe the shipper forgot to dechlor the water...

Reality is that lots of people, including me, bag / ship in dechlorinated tap.

Matt

Actually he didn't.He merely stated what he knew about the way that the fish was packed based on what he was told by the shipper.....

 

[Zfishies]

Well, different strokes I guess.
I also do water changes, daily actually, but I don't put my fish in 100% new tap water. I'm sorry, but this is wrong. If the water was not aged then this is an issue. There are no two ways about it. Aged water brought up to temp and PH matched is one thing. 100% tap water, no matter the conditioner, is just wrong. It surprises me that anyone would advocate this.

No issues with 100% wc. You should have enough BB in your tank to support such big wc's.

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[krichardson]

This is what he said:

After talking with the shipper I found out that he had shipped the fish in fresh tap water with water conditioner instead of water from the established tank. I've never heard of anyone ever doing this before.

Maybe the shipper forgot to dechlor the water...

Reality is that lots of people, including me, bag / ship in dechlorinated tap.

Matt

I know exactly what he said,we both read it.H e did not say that the water was the cause of death,or I must be missing something.I realize many people use tap water for shipping and Im neither for nor against it.I agree that it has zero dissolved fish waste as opposed to tank water,that is it's advantage over tank water.


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[BOTR]

No issues with 100% wc. You should have enough BB in your tank to support such big wc's.

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Yes, with aged water and water up to temp prior to the WC. I have done this with Discus for years. However I do not walk to my sink with a bag, add tap water and conditioner, and dump in fish. Then expect them to live in that bag for 24 hours. But now Im a liar, since I said I was done with this thread.

 

[dogofwar]

What would aging the tap water do (other than dechlorinate it)?

I typically fill a 5g bucket of water with tap (and ChloramX dechlor) the night before I bag/ship. Temp is the same as my fishroom in the morning. I bag from the bucket...

Matt

Yes, with aged water and water up to temp prior to the WC. I have done this with Discus for years. However I do not walk to my sink with a bag, add tap water and conditioner, and dump in fish. Then expect them to live in that bag for 24 hours. But now Im a liar, since I said I was done with this thread.

 

[BOTR]

Ok, so here's my story. I want to say upfront, that if I am wrong, that's fine, and I will have learned something today. Maybe it is the accepted way to ship fish, but I never would have even considered it. We should try to get WES in here and see what he does, I respect him, and he is more than capable of shipping fish, and in volume. It may be that the tap water thing is common for companies shipping large volumes of fish as it would not be feasible to use system water.

So in 1995 I basically had a coral propagation farm in my basement. I had just over 3000g of frag tanks dedicated to Softies, and SPS coral. When I began shipping I had a fear of losing these corals. I wanted to ensure that I did everything in my power to make sure that they survived the journey. That basically meant having good water, stable temps, and in some cases a source of dissolved O2. Some corals are exceptionally hardy, and can almost be shipped dry, others need to basically be in the same stable environment that they were living in. This method carried over when I started dealing with Freshwater. My exp. with corals may have clouded my idea of what an acceptable shipping method would be.

That being said...... I would still personally be more comfortable shipping my fish in system water. Right or wrong, Im ok with that. Honestly. It never occurred to me to use the faucet when packing up my fish. I will PM Wes and see if he can weigh in for us.

Chris