The dispatch of aquarium animals

How do you ship shrimps, snails, crabs, crayfish and fish correctly? Here we give you a brief overview of different methods of safely sending aquarium animals from A to B, how to prepare the animals for transport, and the gentlest possible packaging and shipping methods.

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Shipping aquarium animals

Whether you want to ship fish or invertebrates (shrimps, crabs, snails, etc.), a few things apply to all.

Prepare aquarium animals correctly for shipping

Especially if you want to ship in water, you should not feed the fish or invertebrates you want to ship for a day or two. This way, they go on their journey with empty intestines and do not pollute the transport water with their faeces. This keeps the water load in the transport bags low.

To defecate, it is best to put the shipment candidates into a smaller aquarium with aquarium water from the tank they came from. This way you can feed your remaining fish and shrimps, snails, crayfish or crabs as usual, especially if you are not giving away the entire aquarium stock.

What else do I need to know about shipping aquarium animals?

Basically, aquarium animals are shipped in the water they are used to. Of course, please do not use the water from the small tank you put the animals in to defecate! Clean aquarium water, on the other hand, is fine for shipping.

Younger fish or shrimps, aquarium snails, crabs and shrimps usually tolerate shipping much better than adult or even old ornamental fish and aquarium invertebrates. However, it goes without saying that you should not send very small fish larvae or baby shrimps, young crayfish or miniature crabs! The best way to deal with the stress of catching, packing and shipping is to send subadult aquarium animals, i.e. fish or invertebrates that are close to adulthood.

Can all aquarium animals be shipped in water, and what do I need to consider?

A stupid question, you say? After all, they are aquatic animals!

The fact is, however, that some experts advise not to ship aquarium snails in water, for example, but only in damp cotton towels. We have had mixed experiences with this - unfortunately, a lot of things can go wrong when transporting snails in damp Zewa. Therefore, we prefer to ship aquatic animals in water.

However, there are a few special points to be aware of when shipping in water!

If you want to ship in water, there should be very little water and a lot of air in the transport container (usually a fish bag). Oxygen can dissolve in the water from the air supply. The larger the water surface in relation to the amount of water in the transport bag, the more oxygen will diffuse into the water. Therefore, only fill the transport bag up to halfway with water.

If you pack the bags to be shipped lying down, the water surface is much larger, so that the gas exchange works even better. However, the water sloshes a little more when the bags are transported lying down.

Breathing bags are a major exception to this rule.

Which transport containers are suitable for shipping ornamental fish, shrimps, crabs, shrimps or snails?

The classic shipping container in pet shops is still the good old fish transport bag made of fairly thick, tear-resistant plastic film. Take a closer look at a fish bag: Its bottom corners are welded rounded. Animals can get trapped in normally pointed corners and even suffocate there in the worst case, so this shape is very important.

Unlike sturdy, robust fish bags, Breathing Bags are made of a particularly thin membrane that does not allow water to pass through, but oxygen does. They are ideal for shipping fish, but take some getting used to due to their flabbiness. Breathing bags have to be completely filled with water so that the membrane can work properly - nothing sloshes here. These special transport bags are the choice for very sensitive fish or invertebrates that cannot cope with sloshing water in the fish bag.

Please note that the thin membrane of the Breathing Bags is delicate and you should not ship fish with spines such as some catfish or perch or crustaceans with strong claws such as crabs and shrimps in them!

Under no circumstances should a Breathing Bag be placed in another bag to secure it, because then no more oxygen will get through the membrane and the animals will suffocate very quickly in the water!

How do I pack my aquarium animals correctly for shipping?

In pet shops, the animals are packed with added oxygen, but private owners usually don't have any oxygen equipment around, so this option is not available. Some shippers simply blow the transport bags open with their mouths before sealing them - there is less oxygen in the exhaled air than in the room air, but it is still sufficient for transporting aquarium animals for not too long. If you want to be absolutely sure that the animals will not run out of air on the way, simply use a bicycle pump to inflate the shipping bag until it is bulging.

Once the fish bag is inflated, carefully twist the top end several times until it forms a firm "sausage" about 10 cm long. Fold it down once and wrap it tightly with one or more strong rubber bands.

For even more stability and security, slide the tightly closed fish bag into another fish bag with the closure first, which you then also close tightly.

The second step with the bag in the bag is incredibly important! Leaking water leads to soggy packages, and soggy packages first go to the transport service providers like DHL and Co. for repacking. This can extremely delay the shipment and greatly increases the risk of a dead arrival. Therefore, please always pack your aquarium animals with the utmost care!

In the shipping box, cushion the transport bags with crumpled newspaper, corn chips, bubble wrap, shredded paper or excelsior to absorb shocks and blows from all sides. The bags must not move around in the box.

Shipping fish correctly

Pack fish in fish bags as described above. Especially for fish with strong fin rays, such as catfish or some cichlids, a robust transport bag is particularly important, and it is also more than advisable to pack the sealed fish bag in a second, equally robust bag. Better safe than sorry!

Large ornamental fish and fish with spines are best packed individually. Small fish such as guppies and similarly sized aquarium fish can be shipped in groups: 10 specimens can be shipped well in half a litre to a litre of water. Please pack only one species in a bag at a time.

To reduce stress during fish transport, add a water conditioner such as JBL Acclimol or a water conditioner with vitamin B2 to the transport bag according to the dosage instructions.

Please note that according to animal protection laws, fish as vertebrates may not be shipped with DHL or UPS (not even as an express parcel!), but only with a special animal transport service such as GO!

Shipping shrimp correctly

Shrimps are also well protected in fish bags. Please be sure to give the animals something to hold onto in the bag - filter fibres, filter mat cut into small pieces, strips of tulle, etc. No plants, moss or leaves, not even sea almond leaves!

Plants and mosses consume oxygen in the dark - an absolutely unnecessary risk in the small space in the bag. Leaves and other organic material are decomposed by bacteria, which also consume a lot of oxygen. Again - something like this is definitely not sensible and can lead to suffocating shrimp.

For every half litre of water, put 10 to a maximum of 15 shrimp in the transport bag. Larger groups should be divided into several bags.

Again and again we hear that it is advisable to ship in bottles. Glass bottles are not suitable for shrimp transport because of the risk of breakage. Narrow-necked plastic bottles stress the animals unnecessarily when they are filled and especially when they are poured out. Wide-necked bottles usually contain juice. Juice residues can fuel bacterial activity in the water and then lead to oxygen depletion again. Bottle lids can pop off during shipping and the water can leak out - with all the unpleasant consequences for the shrimp.

So the experiences with shipping in bottles are quite mixed - there are just so many things that can go wrong. We have had the best experiences with shipping shrimp in fish bags as described above.

Shipping snails correctly

On the internet you read again and again that it is better to ship snails in damp to wet Zewa and in a firm outer packaging and not in water. We have had mixed experiences with this. Shipping snails in water is usually not a problem for short runs, whereas shipping them in Zewa always results in failures, especially at more extreme temperatures. The volume of water buffers these temperatures a little better.

When shipping in water, a few pieces of filter mat, a good handful of wood wool or some strips of tulle can provide some impact protection for the shells. In general, however, aquarium snails do not need any restraining materials because - unlike crabs, shrimps or prawns - they can also hold on to the wall of the bag with their foot.

Shipping crabs and shrimps correctly

Crayfish and water-living crabs (especially those with large claws) should be shipped in a small amount of water (so that the animal is just covered with water) either in a particularly robust fish bag, which should be packed in a second bag for safety - and always individually, i.e. only one crab or shrimp per bag, so that the animals do not start to take each other apart on the way.

Land crabs such as Geosesarma should not be packed in water, but with plenty of well-moistened holding material.

Non-aggressive small crabs such as Geosesarma or Limnopilos can also be packed in a small group, also with plenty of holding material.

Important: As with shrimp, crayfish and crabs always need something to hold on to in their bag - strips of filter sponge, wood wool, tulle, plastic filter fibres, etc. Please do not use live plants or leaves!

Instead of the bag, you can also use a plastic bowl with a lid of suitable size, which you pad with thin strips of filter mat so that the crab or shrimp cannot bump into the wall. Please always secure the lid especially well with crosswise adhesive tape, which is best wrapped all around! To be on the safe side, you can wrap the bowl in a plastic bag to prevent water from leaking out.

Can I ship aquarium animals at extreme temperatures?

The optimum shipping temperature for well-packed aquarium animals that are not overly temperature-sensitive is between 10 and 25 °C (50 and 77 °F).

In hot summers or cold winters it is particularly useful (but not only then!) to protect the transport box accordingly against higher or lower temperatures. Many people then only ship in a Styrofoam box - the Styrofoam box insulates and buffers extreme temperatures.

Please note that DHL, for example, no longer allows the use of styrofoam boxes without cardboard outer packaging, so always place the styrofoam box in a suitably sized protective cardboard box for shipping.

In the case of extreme temperatures, we always recommend express shipping, even for invertebrates. The shorter the animals are en route, the lower the shipping risk!

Shipping in warm weather - summer shipping

At temperatures between 25°C and 30°C, pack one or more plastic bottles with water and a few ice cubes in the Styrobox. The cold source must not be in direct contact with the transport bags. It is best to wrap them in several layers of newspaper. At temperatures above 30 °C, shipping usually goes wrong - less oxygen dissolves in warm water, and if the transport vehicle is parked in the sun, the temperatures inside often rise to 50 to 60 °C, which is absolutely deadly for aquarium animals! Even the most careful packaging will not help - please refrain from shipping in hot weather.

Shipping in cold weather - winter shipping

At cool temperatures between -5 and +10 °C it is best to ship with a heat source. At even lower temperatures, you should refrain from shipping for the well-being of your animals!

Professionals like to ship with heat packs as a heat source. A chemical reaction takes place in the heatpack that consumes oxygen. The heatpack cannot work in its plastic packaging, so please always unpack it. Before use, knead the Heatpack thoroughly - really give it your all! This is the only way to activate it, otherwise the reaction will not start. If the Heatpack does not warm up properly after kneading, please do not use it, otherwise it will go out again and your animals may freeze to death.

A Heatpack will only keep the temperature for about 48 hours, but the package (especially if it is protected from cooling by packing material and a styro box) will then keep the temperature for a while. It is quite normal that the heat pack is cold when the animals arrive at the recipient!

Please also note that a heatpack can reach up to 50 °C at the peak of the reaction. It must therefore never come into direct contact with the fish bags, otherwise you will end up with fish soup and cooked prawns!

The heatpack is therefore stuck into the lid of the Styrobox with a (!) strip of parcel tape, if it is not self-adhesive anyway. Attention, there must still be enough air to reach the heatpack, so please never cover it completely! Make two or three holes in the lid at the intended place beforehand, so that the Heatpack really does get enough oxygen.

As an alternative to the Heatpack, you can use warm water in plastic bottles. These must also not have direct contact with the fish bags containing the animals.

The correct way to handle animals in cryogenic conditions

If aquarium animals lie lifeless in the bag after being shipped in cold temperatures, they are often not dead at all, but in cryogenic suspension. So please do not write them off yet!

In torpor or hibernation, warm-blooded animals such as fish, shrimps, crayfish, snails or crabs reduce their metabolism to the absolute minimum and lie in a death-like torpor. This always happens when the temperature drops below their species-specific minimum.

If you find such "frozen" shrimps, snails or crabs in your package, let them slowly come to room temperature - please do not put them on the heater! Usually, the animals will then wake up without any problems and continue to live their lives normally.

The best days to ship

As a general rule, do not ship when it is foreseeable that there will be a strike, during busy periods such as just before Christmas and Easter, or when there is a strong flu epidemic. Weeks with public holidays are also not ideal for shipping - please note that there can be different public holidays in different federal states!

Ideally, you should ship on Mondays or Tuesdays. This increases the chances that your animals won't be stuck in a warehouse over a weekend due to transport delays. Check with the drop-off point beforehand to see what time they will pick up the parcels so they can be on their way the same day.

Which transport company is suitable for shipping fish or invertebrates?

From time to time, the general terms and conditions of the transport companies change, so in case of doubt, you should check the respective website to see if what is written here is still valid!Status: February 2023.

According to the Animal Welfare Act, the only option for shipping vertebrates - e.g. aquarium fish - is a special animal transport service such as GO! It is also expressly forbidden according to the shipping conditions of the common shipping companies such as DHL, UPS etc. to send fish and other vertebrates by normal parcel service.

Less strict regulations apply to invertebrates, but not every shipping company allows their transport. TNT, Hermes and DPD explicitly prohibit the shipment of all animals, including invertebrates, in their general terms and conditions.

DHL, on the other hand, explicitly allows the shipment of live invertebrates as parcels or as express parcels, provided the animals are packed properly and leak-proof.

Parcels with live animals are not handled separately during transport, so problems can occur: The consignment may disappear, the package may fall down or be thrown and thus be broken.

As an absolute minimum for animal transport of invertebrates, you should therefore always choose insured shipping with tracking. Unfortunately, this does not guarantee that the package will be intact.

Express parcels are usually handled a little more gently and arrive faster, but even here things can go wrong.

At UPS, invertebrates are not mentioned at all in the terms and conditions; here we have a grey area. Whether you want to risk shipping invertebrates with this transport service is therefore a matter of consideration; however, we believe that there may be perfectly legal, better alternatives.

Fish, shrimps, snails, crabs or shrimps can also be transported from A to B with the carpooling service or the animal carpooling service; with a bit of luck, you can organise a quick and gentle transport with the carpooling services, which is even comparatively cheap.