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About Shipping Water

By Stan & Debbie Hauter, About.com Guides

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About Shipping Water

When saltwater fish or other marine livestock are confined to an area of water for even short periods of time without biological filtration, ammonia build up will most likely occur. This often causes side effects in fish such as burnt gills and fins, which usually becomes noticeable several days after receiving them.

The feeding of fish should be ceased a couple of days prior to shipping, as this will prevent them from fouling the bag water, which in turn may cause bacterial infections to appear some time after receiving them.

For these two reasons, the health and safety of livestock is increased during transit by treating the shipping or packing water with an ammonia buffer as well as an antibacterial agent. We always added our secret sauce solution of AmQuel by Kordon and Nitrofurazone when preparing our water, with the exception of adding the Nitrofurazone when shipping invertebrates.

For the best shipping results, in our opinion the packing water level should cover a fish's dorsal fin by about a 1/4 inch.

Before & After A Shipment Arrives

Prior to buying and receiving a shipment, you should already have an acclimation procedure of choice picked out.

No matter what procedure you use, it is especially important to ventilate the shipping bag(s) as soon as possible, because even though a shipper may use an ammonia buffer to reduce or eliminate ammonia build up, CO2 (carbon dioxide) accumulates as well.

Once the shipment arrives, promptly acclimate the livestock into their new home, preferably by way of a QT (Quarantine Tank) for a few weeks of observation first, then acclimate for introduction into the main aquarium.

The only exception for bypassing proper acclimation procedures is during a critical situation when a fish has poked a hole in a bag and almost all the water is gone or their is none, but the fish is still alive. The only thing you can do to remedy this situation is to immediately hang the bag in the tank, pour in tank water, insert an airstone to provide oxygen relief, and pray the fish doesn't go into shock. We have revived many a near death fish using this method, even a very delicate juvenile Regal Angelfish once.

NEVER just dump a stressed fish in this type of situation into a tank where other established fish are present unless it can be separated, because harassment is sure to occur and this lessens it changes for survivability.

About Shipping Water

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