How do YOU ship fish?

Pogthefish said:

What postal service do you use?
Do you require overnight, or let customer decide?
Do you use pure okygen to ship fish, or regular air?

How much does overnight shipping cost for your postal service?
Do you know what service is cheapest?

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1. USPS. ie, The post office.
2. Depends on the fish, but with hardy shrimp, livebearers, and snails, priority is usually fine.
3. Overnight is usually a minimum of $45, and sometimes as much as $70-$80. Priority, you can use the 'prepaid' boxes that use a flat rate- Most packages will be $11, and only the very largest shipments will me &$14.50. Snails and some plants can easily fit in the $5.50 box

I don't use oxygen, but I do use 'Kordon Breather Bags', which allow O2 exchange through the plastic. I also use 'Bag Buddies'- A small tablet that you add to the water. It adds Oxygen and a fish tranquilizer to keep the fish calm.

Which service is the cheapest? USPS Priority is by far the cheapest, but as far as overnight services go, I don't know.

Oh really? where do you get these breather bags and bag buddies? and how much do they cost? If you want the bag humid but barely any actual water, do they let humidity out?
are flat rate boxes flat rate no matter where (in the us) you ship?

Flat rate priority boxes are great for shipping, because you can quote the shipping price without knowing the destination. It might be a little less to use regular priority (instead of prepaid), but it's good to have a maximum price.

I get the bags and tablets from Aquabid- I'd gladly trade you some of my supplies for some mystery snails or whatever you have on hand.

For shipping snails, I think a regular bag would be fine. The breather bags won't release humidity- they only exchange O2 and CO2. I think I might post in the TFK classifieds my supplies for trade....

Ooh I can def. trade you! please email me The snails wont be ready for a few weeks though, but still, email me

I ship via Express and Priority via USPS. Express I charge $35 and Priority $15 for up to four fish. I do make a tad bit extra charging this much but with insulation, bags, heat packs etc its not much.

Breather bags bad for bettas and will kill them and other air breathers but they are the best choice for any other type of fish.

I pack my fish and other critters in the BOX04 aka 7x7x6 box with 1 inch of styro foam, a bag filled with shredded paper, heat pack on top, plenty of padding. Snails and cultures go into a box lined with multiple bags and newspaper.

It is true, you have to keep the species in mind. Tall poly bags are better for Bettas and other air-breathers.

like mystery snails? darn lol

MrV, I'm confused, I can only find small, medium and large shipping boxes at USPS. Are you getting your boxes someplace else? I have the medium ones which are a little larger than 7X7X6.

Theyre from USPS but you have to look.

BOX04 under Priority mail in the shopping section.

snails do fine in cheap zip-lock bags

There are two ways to ship Priority mail-
There's Prepaid, where you get the free box and ship for a flat rate, and there's normal priority- you buy a box (or use any old box), and pay shipping by weight.

and ok, lol

What I do with the 7x7x6 is use PayPal to pay the shipping and use "Small flat rate box". Ends up at $5.15 usually.

I also arrange pick ups so I just stick the box outside early in the AM and USPS picks them up that morning.

Thanks for the info... I just ordered some (now that I know where to look).

there's one place near me out of like 20 that carries almost all the boxes available, but it's just easier to order them.

I also use the 0-box 4. it's pretty much the perfect box for 2 fish and a heat pad. and all the insulation.

I know when the mail comes by here so i normally personally hand my packages off when they come by.

The flat rate medium box is what I use...It fits 4 fish nicely and allows enough room to have plenty of water/air for the fish...

Martinismommy said:

The flat rate medium box is what I use...It fits 4 fish nicely and allows enough room to have plenty of water/air for the fish...

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Martinismommy: I also like the fact that you wrote "fragile, breakable glass" on the outside of the box...a great idea!

Or just wrote live fish..? lol

Some post offices have a hard time accepting live fish...don't know why, but sometimes you have to write something else.

So they might turn it down because it has live fish?