rumblesushi said:
Do you think I should bag him up at home, then a few hours later before I send him, open the bag up for a few seconds to let in some fresh air/oxygen, then triple bag him and send him?
Hmmm.. Ok now that I think about it, with your limited options, you could try a little different method. This is what I ship larger cichlids with, and I've had 100% success but I emphazise not to tip the box. I don't know if that will be a problem with the courier your going to use.
You have a styro box right? Is there any possible way that you can find a rubbermade type container with a snap-on lid? If you can find a tall one, it works better.. You can use a small amount of liquid, but they aren't air tight so they allow good air exchange.
When I ship large cichlids, I use the rubbermades, then put them inside an XL Fish Bag.. but in your case, you could probably triple bag it with some thick trash bags. Make sure the styro lid fits on fairly tight when you tape down the package. Incase of it tipping, the tight packaging on top of the lid will hopefully hold in most of the water.
So, in your scenario you could help the length of the actual bag time by not sealing the package before your drive. Leave him in the rubbermaid, bag open, prepared to be packaged. Bring your tape and tight-fitting lid and seal it up once you get to the depot, this way you can have good O2 exchange during the drive, and even have a heated vehicle before the cold trip.
Hope that gives you a few other ideas.. If they aren't very thick bags I would ship any type of fish that has a nasty tooth structure like a snakehead.. I lost a nice Salvini because of this, because I thought triple bagging with thinner bags would work, but no. Same deal with P's.. Lost alot of red-neck severums from this, too.. If they get the slightest tear, even though it is triple bagged, the water will leak out and the fish will stress out when the water level gets below their gills and they start to dry up.
Good Luck bro! Hope my post isnt too late!@
