Relocating Fish

[onebadpuffer]

I moved 4 puffers from Texas to North Carolina on a 2 day drive with no problems whatsoever with the following method. I took my puff to my LFS and they sold me a Styrofoam container and double-bagged all 4 fish in separate bags for me. They put pure oxygen in the bags to give them enough air for the trip. They then wrapped each bag individually in newspaper to keep it dark and to help insulate. This way they couldn't see each other or get stressed out as easy. They then placed them in the bottom of the Styrofoam container and put the lid on it. All this cost me $12.00. The only problem I had was when my Fugu decided he wanted to bite his way out of the bag on the way. I had to stop and get him re-bagged at a LFS and got them all re-upped with pure oxygen shortly into the trip. I did this at a local Petco on the side of the highway for free-of-charge. I stopped 2 more times along the way at Petsmart and had them add fresh oxygen, once again, free of charge. They found the story to be interesting and were glad to help out, and of course fawned over my beautiful puffs I kept the container in the front with me and checked in on them every once in a while to make sure none of the bags were leaking and to see that they were okay, etc. Each time I got the oxygen re-upped, I added a squirt of Prime to each bag to help reduce stress and to detoxify the water. I hope this info helps you and your puffers out.

[ChesapeakeSwellfish]

I always double bag just in case bags leak, or in the case of puffers, they bite holes. Double bagging is routine at the hatchery as well. When you got re-bagged, I assume you got more pure oxygen and not just air - which is only 20% oxygen.

[onebadpuffer]

Yeah, re-upped them with pure oxygen, and they were all double bagged. Sorry, the memory doesn't work as well as it used to. Will fix it with the edit button, hehe, thanks for the heads up.

[momenmahe]

............................. I actually have some data somewhere that I never got around to publishing on differential survival of larval fish transported in white styrofoam vs black lined foam fish transport boxes - for larval fish, the differences were highly significant. While I haven't tested juvenile or adult fish, my preference is for dark transport containers.

Thanks for your post. I am wonder about transportation of boxes! Moving Boxes is an significant factor when we need to deliver our boxes, packing, blanket, from a substantial distance to a new location. It is necessary to hire a shipping service to bring our boxes. Because, it is impractical for someone to move these to 3,000 miles.