How long can fish live in bags?

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WOLF2013

WOLF2013

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I am moving from MA to West Palm Beach Florida. My family and I are doing a drive down which will take over 20 hours, will probably end up being 2 days or so.
I have some fish that I am bringing with me. I originally was going to have them shipped by a lfs that ships across the country but they informed me that it would cost around or over $300 to ship all the fish I am keeping which are about 16. They told me they wouldn't make much money. So they gave me 2 options. Option 1 I can rehome all fish and start over in Florida. option 2 I can have them bag the fish with oxygen and bring the fish with me. Here is the thing though, I'm leaving way early morning on August 1st so I would have to have the fish bagged on the 31st at around or before 7 pm since that's when the store closes. Then they would have to last that first night in the bag. Then the whole day and night of August 1st. I am thinking about bringing a container, fresh water and a battery operated air pump in case anything goes south.
How long can they last in bags? Any advice?
 
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WOLF2013 said:
I am moving from MA to West Palm Beach Florida. My family and I are doing a drive down which will take over 20 hours, will probably end up being 2 days or so.
I have some fish that I am bringing with me. I originally was going to have them shipped by a lfs that ships across the country but they informed me that it would cost around or over $300 to ship all the fish I am keeping which are about 16. They told me they wouldn't make much money. So they gave me 2 options. Option 1 I can rehome all fish and start over in Florida. option 2 I can have them bag the fish with oxygen and bring the fish with me. Here is the thing though, I'm leaving way early morning on August 1st so I would have to have the fish bagged on the 31st at around or before 7 pm since that's when the store closes. Then they would have to last that first night in the bag. Then the whole day and night of August 1st. I am thinking about bringing a container, fresh water and a battery operated air pump in case anything goes south.
How long can they last in bags? Any advice?
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When you stop you could just open the bags and close sealing them back with air.
 
tlindsey said:
When you stop you could just open the bags and close sealing them back with air.
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Also suggest not to feed the fish on moving day if you didn't know this already. I also wouldn't put too much water in the bags and use large bags to hold more air.
 
This last batch of fish I ordered took about that long to show up. Sent out Monday morning arrived Wednesday @9:30AM.
Use pure O2 in the bags, minimal water, don't feed for a couple days before hand to purge the waste from thier system.
They were 6/7in Amphilophus Sagittae
20190703_102527.jpg
You can see each fish got a 12inx8inx8in bag. Also apparantly methalyn blue allows a higher oxygen content in the water.
 
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With pure o2 I’d say you have a solid 24-36hrs and following the other advice about stopping feeding before hand.
Get your self a styrofoam cooler along with some disposable heat packs to keep from gettin to cold. If you go over the 36hrs then map out another LFS to re bag with o2
PetSmart also has o2 and is usually easily found not sure bout your state tho,
Or a plan b could be to open the bags and run a batteries powered pump
In either buckets or some storage tubs from wal mart , target etc
 
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When im picking fish up from far away i put them in styroboxes with batterypowered airpumps. Bring fresh water in jugs or totes and does partial wc halfway through the trip. I change about 70-80% depending on the fish.
 
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This may help
burntrubber said:
I wouldn't want to risk that. Fish Pee & poop creates ammonia. Co2 build up in the bag keeps the PH low which keeps the ammonia at a safe level.

Re aeration will cause the PH to swing up and kick start the ammonia.
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That is true. Would it help if the fish didn't eat for a couple of days prior?
 
tlindsey said:
This may help



That is true. Would it help if the fish didn't eat for a couple of days prior?
Click to expand...

Yes it sure does. At least with large rays as they has the tendencies to poop during transport. :ROFL::ROFL:
 
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