Red Festae Ready to Sell...Questions

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V

vass69

Candiru
MFK Member
Aug 17, 2009
325
0
46
Buffalo, NY
I have a batch of Red Festae fry (around 75+) that are around 1-2+ inches long that I am ready to begin selling. One of my local fish stores offered me $5/each for about 2 dozen.

Now I have never shipped fish, but with such a demand for this breed of fish I think it would beneficial if I "shopped around" a little bit.

How difficult is it to ship fish?
What would be some steps involved in doing so?
What would be fair pricing?...5 for $40, 10 for $80

Any other comments that you think would help me along the way....

(PS, i am saving around a dozen fish to eventually pair up)

Excuse the dirty glass...

Female (F0)
20100707201903.jpg


Male (F1)
20100707204946.jpg


Pre-Fry
redfestaespawn3.jpg


Fry
fryk.jpg
 
not sure on price, but i'd definitely buy...find out how much shipping would be to 43004...
 
At $5 a pop, you should get a lot of pms and sales. Shipping isn't hard. You just have to consider the weather, time of transport, and the size of the fish. In cold weather you may have to buy heat pads to keep the fish at a proper temp. Get bag buddies to place in the bag with the fish. I use styrofoam boxes with shredded paper or air bags to keep the bag of fish from moving or being crushed. I would discourage USPS. They lose packages. They lost mine for two days! UPS has always worked great for me. I'm sure other people will tell you different ways of shipping. This way has worked well for me. I learned a lot from my very first shipment. Right, Vaipulu?
 
@gruff, Thanks man, I'm just worried because I am going to be unable to guarantee live arrival. What are bag buddies?
 
Bag Buddies add oxygen to the water, removes chloramine, and reduces stress on the fish. My first time shipping, I wasn't able to get Bad Buddies. The fish still arrived perfectly ok but i was stressed everyday wondering if it would make it alright. It's just an added precaution. The first fish I ever recived through shipping had Bag Buddies in the water. They arrived perfectly fine, even after being lost for two extra days by the USPS. Albertjr hooked up that order. A very good job too.
 
Call Jehmco they have the bags, bag buddies, heat packs and more:) fry are the easiest to ship. Pending on bag size will determine how many you put in there.say your bag is 10"×24", I would put about a dozen in there. One bag will fit perfectly in one of those flat rate boxes from usps. Then use insulation, or styrofoam to line box with. Fill bag about 1/3water add bag buddy then fish. Now you can either trap as much oxygen in bag as you seal or add oxygen to maximize void in bag. .ensure your heater is working before sealing box. You'll only need one heater per box unless Your using a larger box to send multiple bags. Once u place bag I'm box put heater in with at least some newspaper or something as a barrier from bag and heater Then fill extra space with newspaper or insulation. Seal up the box and properly label live, keep warm, fragile etc. I use ups and guarantee live arrival overnight. If you use overnight then You shouldn't Have any issues;:) good luck and you have very nice festae BTW
 
Hum, I never knew those bag buddies existed. I'm going to check out that site Jehmco.com.

Another question. In the past, how have you secured payment? Paypal?
 
I wouldn't rule out any one shipper. I have shipped over 150 times and the only late package was one the post office subbed to Fed Ex. From what I understand the PO doesn't sub to other carriers any longer. UPS is great if your customers want to pay 3x the price as USPS. That extra shipping cost might be the peace of mind your customer wants. I advise leaving the shipping method up to the customer if you have all options available to you.

I would also see how they ship. If you put 5 in a bag, how many will be alive upon arrival. I ship Tetracanthus juveniles and I have found that after about .75", larger individuals wipe out smaller ones in transit and I have to bag them individually over that size. If they do ship well together try to keep similar sized individuals together and keep the numbers larger than 3. Spreading the aggression out over a larger groups keeps any one individual from being picked on during transit.

As far as shipping methods, a simple way that has worked for me is to perform a 50% WC the morning of shipping and ship with a lower dose of 1 drop per gallon of Methylene Blue in a bag of 50/50 water to air. Ship in a styro box or styro lined home made box with 1" thick, or thicker, styrafoam sheets found at local big box home improvement stores. Use appropriate heat pack or multiples depending on box size and shippping times. Good luck and beautiful fish!
 
I know in the past when I have ordered fish from the West Coast they would add the Methylene Blue in the bags as well. Is that a specialty item or can that be found at any local fish store?
 
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