[LexBubble]

I Have two female jacobfriebergi that just spit out their fry and one that's holding. On top of that I plan on selling most of them. I have a few questions about this whole thing:

1) What materials do I need to ship fish?

2) How much would I spend on these materials per shipment?

3) Where can I get the materials I need?

4) They are two days old. How long should I wait before I start putting them up for sale.

5) I know I can sell them on Aquabids and Ebay and there is the trading post here but any other sites you can recommend?

6) When should the males start showing their colors?

7) Is there any preferred shipping agency someone can recommend?

Hope someone can help this first time breeder. Thanks ahead of time for any feed back

 

[Jonesboy75]

1) Boxes, shipping bags, rubber bands, styrofoam sheets, and packing material such as styrofoam peanuts or newspaper. At certain times of the year you may need an ice pack or heat pack as well.

2) Everything is pretty inexpensive for the most part. Boxes can be expensive if you have to buy them. I get mine for free at usps.com or use sturdy boxes I have around the house. If you need to use an ice or heat pack, they usually run about $2-$3 apiece.

3) Again, I get free boxes at the post office or use boxes I already have. Rubber bands can obviously be purchased anywhere. Styrofoam sheets can be bought at Lowe's/Home Depot-type places. Shipping bags can be bought many places online. Some better fish stores may have them as well. If you decide to use styrofoam peanuts for packing material, they can usually be purchased at most of the big box stores. Most of the time I use newspaper which is much cheaper and stabilizes the shipping bags better IME.

4) Couldn't tell you as I ship older fish. Some people ship fry but many wait until they're 1/2" or so. Others could help you more with this question than I can.

5) There are probably other sites but the ones you mentioned are the ones I use.

6) Never kept jacobfriebergis so I can't help with this one.

7) I like using USPS Priority Mail. The boxes are free and the post office doesn't ask too many questions. The reason I say this is the big three (USPS, FedEx, UPS) require that fish be shipped next-day. That would be fine if their rates for next-day shipping weren't absolutely outrageous. For example, I checked UPS's next-day rates for a recent customer. The box weighed about 7 lbs. and was 12"x12"x12". For this small, relatively lightweight box, shipping to a state that borders the one I live in was going to cost about $100. I convinced the customer to go with ground shipping which took 2 days to get to him but only cost about $13. It would've been even cheaper shipping through the post office. While I understand the carriers requiring fish to be shipped next-day in order to cut down on mortalities, the fact is, with today's technology, this requirement is no longer necessary. With the advent of breather bags, heat and cold packs, bag buddies, etc., fish can be kept alive and healthy during shipment for several days. I've even heard of fish being lost in shipment and arriving 2 or 3 weeks late with no ill effects.

Good luck! :thumb:

 

[LexBubble]

Thanks a lot. I appreciate the in depth answers. Cleared up a lot of confusion. If anyone else can shed some light on the other questions or just provide any other ideas that may be different I would really appreciate that.