How long are "take-home-bags" good for?

[Maaso]

You know, the clear plastic bags they put the fish in.

I was out of town and found myself with some time to kill before, and found myself parked outside of an exotic reptile store. To my amazement they had Dragon Gobies in stock. I've been trying to find one locally since mine committed suicide by jumping ship.

He was in the little bag for a good four hours or so before I got home and into my make-shift quarantine tank. I'm curious if that long trip in the little bag was bad for him? With no aeration or fresh oxygen. I ask because during the last ~30 minutes or so of the trip he started to "gasp" like he was out of breath. He has been in his quarantine tank now for about an hour now and is still gasping.

He seems to be doing fine, he is pretty active and very explorative. I just figured he would have caught his breath by now....

 

[darkness975]

Could have been the stress of prolonged time in the bag, especially if the bag was not sheltered ( I always cover the bags with something dark) and he was spooked by all the motion/vibration/etc. As far as I know they can survive in those bags for quite some time, like when people order fish online they are shipped overnight and are in the bags for a good 20 hours or more. No one stops mid flight to change the bags/air.
Depending on how cold it got in the car I would chalk the gasping up to shock from either the movement/vibration or perhaps temperature changes from warm to cool when you shut off the car to go into a store.

 

[Maaso]

That is what I was thinking....

I covered the bag with my jacket; created a nice, cave-like environment for him the entire trip. It didn't get too cold in the truck, my AC sucks.

Anywho, it's been four hours or so now an he has calmed down and appears to be breathing normally. He has retreated to the rear of the tank to keep an eye on things. He is back to typical DG behaviour.....big relief on my part since I put him through the stress of that long drive.

He got to jam to Coal Chamber the entire time though, so it couldn't have been all that bad for him.

 

[jschall]

The fish bags that are shipped are filled with pure oxygen.
The fish bags from pet stores are filled with regular old air.
It won't last quite as long.
Few hours shouldn't matter, though, espcially if the bag is bigger than necessary.

 

[Maaso]

The kid at the pet store filled it with pure oxygen....at least I think he did. It was a large unmarked cylinder, but the gauges on it were showing in the ~2000psi range. I don't know of any other gases filled to those pressures other than argon or accetelyne.