Ship Fish?

Question
hello Jennifer i wrote to you around a month ago about moving my fish tank. ive
moved my tank from NY to CA and left the fish back in NY. my tank is now
ready and stabilized, im going to try to get my fish shipped to me. How would
you recommend going about this and what would i need to do this. Thanks as
always

Answer
Hey congrats on a successful move! I am sure there are many ways to go about this. When we have gotten fish shipped to us from a distributor they always pack everything in individual bags. You may need to get a hold of some large fish bags to house the fish in until they arrive at your house. Each fish and whatever other creature you are having shipped should be packed in their own bag. Fill the bags with freshly made up saltwater ensuring that the pH, temperature and salinity are the same as what they are used to in the tank they are in now. The temperature will go down during shipping but you don't want to take the fish out of the tank and put them in a lower temperature quickly. They will acclimate to it slowly as it drops. Double bag every bag just in case of a leak. Catch and place each fish and creature into its own bag( some smaller hermit crabs, shrimps and snails can be bagged up together) trying to catch some air in the bag for oxygen. This may take a little practice. You may want to purchase some tablets called Bag Buddies. These help with putting oxygen in the water and also contain a fish calmer to keep the fish from stressing out during shipping. These can be found at just about any local fish supply store. Close the bags up tightly by twisting the tops, folding them over and using a rubber band wrapped tightly around the loop. Pack the fish in boxes lined with styrofoam or those styrofoam coolers you can buy just about any where and pack those in boxes. Make sure they are tightly packed so there is very little shifting and moving around in the boxes. Spaces can be filled with crumpled up news paper. Do this all the morning you are going to ship them of course. You will have to have them shipped next day which will probably be very costly but the only way to go. You don't want them in transit any longer then they have to be. Make sure you have them delivered on a day that you will be there when they come so you can immediately unpack them and start acclimating them to your new tank.