[pkut]

I received a fish shipment in which the shipper packaged the fish in plastic bags that appeared to have Duct Tape adhered to both the outside and inside surfaces of the bags. Has anyone ever seen these bags. Does anyone know where you can buy them? They look like great bags for transporting fish. Thanks for any input.

 

[kingdave]

are the bags insulated? I've never seen such a bag as you've described... do you have a photo?

 

[Toby_H]

I wouldn't put duct tape on the inside of a bag as the glue may be harmful to fish... although you said it looks like duct tape, not it is duct tape, so this could be a special product made for fish use...

I've never heard of or seen anything like what you described though...

 

[pkut]

Here are some pictures of the bags.

 

[Awugod]

Looks like duct tape to me.

 

[pkut]

Has anybody else ever seen anything like this?

 

[Toby_H]

I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this before…

I assume chemicals are not good for fish until I learn otherwise… therefore I would assume that duct tape glue is toxic… until I learn otherwise…

If your fish made it safely, then no harm done. But I wouldn’t repeat the method without learning more detail. I’d be very interested to hear the shippers response to questioning on this. It’s always nice to learn something new.

Although since Duct Tape is such a common material, and fish shipping has been going on for quite some time, it’s hard for me to imagine that this would be a new breakthrough idea.

… but don’t let us cloud the topic with our speculation… ask the shipper and see what they have to say…

 

[clgkag]

Was the duct tape just on the shipping bag with the fish in normal clear bags? Sounds like a good way to strengthen the shipping bag.

 

[pkut]

The fish were triple bagged in plastic bags. The duct tape was on the inside and outside of the most inner plastic bag that actually housed the water with the fish in it! The two outer plastic bags were just the standard type that are normally used in shipping fish. I have never seen live fish packaged like this for shipment.

 

[pkut]

I contacted the person who shipped me fish in these bags. He wrote back and told me that he ships a lot of large, spiny fish and that before using the duct tape on the plastic bags, he used to put newspaper between the bags but had a much higher percentage of DOA fish shipments due to fish spines puncturing the bags. Using this duct tape method, he now has almost no DOA shipments. It sounds like a good idea to me!