Re: NANFA-- Collecting vacation

Sajjad Lateef (sajjadlateef_at_yahoo.com)
Mon, 14 Jul 2003 06:25:27 -0700 (PDT)

--- BR0630_at_aol.com wrote:

> Anyhow, after a couple of days of exploring and collecting, I had
> enough fish
> to ship to some fellow Nanfans and a couple of boxes to myself. I
> bagged the
> fish, careful to fill the bags approximately 1/4 - 1/3 with water &
> then fill
> the rest of the way with pure oxygen from a tank I brought with me.
> I boxed
> them in styrofoam boxes, took to the post office in Doddridge and
> mailed.
> Some of the boxes arrived at their destination with 100% mortality or
> nearly so,
> whereas the most successful shipments arrived with nearly 50%
> mortality.
> Nearly the same goes for the crayfish I shipped to myself, with about
> 30%
> mortality. With the exception of one or two boxes in the kinda
> distant past, I
> haven't had that kind of problem in the past. So what did I do
> wrong?

Bruce,

Given that you shipped fishes at the height of the summer, I
would expect that you would have some losses due to the
extreme heat encountered during the shipping process. Those
USPS truck containers can get very hot on the inside (think
a very large oven!).

I believe that in spite of the care to provide fresh
water and pure oxygen, you would have had losses. It's a
shame, but, until refridgerated shipping is affordable,
that's the way it is.

Other, random, thoughts below:

I have heard opinions that AmQuel is not needed, but, I have
usually add a drop into the bags before shipping.

Some people prefer to take the fish that they need and a few
extra to compensate for any loss. I prefer to take fewer fish,
thus, be able to better take care of them.

Wild fish may have parasites and that's very hard for a
amateur hobbyist (like me) to handle when they get back home.
Salt baths, quarantine tanks, medication have been used
by the serious folks. I have had losses that I can only
attribute to internal parasites. There is little that I do
about that.

Sajjad

=====

-- 
Sajjad Lateef
sajjad_at_acm.org
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