I really haven't had any problems with BB's bursting but I often do not send fish in them because to do so I would more times than not add more water than I would to a similiar bag and thus ship a heavier box. I agree with Julie that a styro should be fine for shipping BB's. It is important that the breather bags not touch each other as they need to breath. Also the old trick of adding an empty plastic bag, inside a box to hold things in place is not something you want to do when shipping BB's. If indeed a styro is airtight (I don't think so either) there should be plenty of air inside the styro unless you have it filled completely with bags. I use newspapers to fill the airgaps and help keep things from rolling around during shipping. Air can get around that and can exchange with the bags.
BB's bursting. Let me offer a possible explanation. Air can expand a lot more than water when going to altitude in a plane. Try to REALLY leave as little air in the bag as possible. IF you can read the writing on these stupid bags :-) it says that somewhere. Also tie them a bit loosely instead tight like a sausage. That will give the air a place to expand to as it's almost impossible to exclude all of it. I really use breather bags when going from one city to another via jets. I pack all of my fish and bring them in the carryon. At the RSG convention in SF I carried on 110 rainbowfish and lost 2. Used 4 x 8 bags for most of it. (they're actually smaller than that but that's the size they quote). Just recently I brought back some 80 fish from the NEC convention and didn't lose any of them. Again you do have to wrap each one with newspaper/ papertowels/clothing so that they don't touch and you can allow bags to "breath".
You do need to do a good job of putting the rubberbands on as you don't want them to leak. If you get the newspaper/clothes wet and the outside of the bag wet then they stop breathing and you fish be dead shortly!
Now will everyone take the time to go to the Novelek/Kordon site and ask them to start making the 6 x 12 inch bags again. The best size of all, they stop making! And also ask them to stop putting 3 pages of stupid writing on the bags. Kind of hard to use for auctions when people can't see the fish for all of the writing!
cheers,
gary lange
Julie Zeppieri <bowluvr at hotmail.com> wrote:
Hmmm...
I guess that's all well and fine for native US fish, but why would anyone
*not* use a styro-lined box for rainbowfish????? They are much more
sensitive to ship than our tough-as-nails native fishes. Even natives
deserve better treatment than this -- to be mailed in just a bag in a
cardboard liner. Wow. :-( I always use a styro-lined box. Always.
Besides, I am not sure why breather bags and styro-lined boxes would be
incompatible. As long as I can get a hold of breather bags that have decent
seams (yunno, ones that actually *hold up* during the shipping process
without blowing seams and thus killing the fish) then I have never had any
problems whatsoever with styro boxes and breather bags. That just seems
silly. Almost NO styro-lined boxes out there are completely airtight, so
they should get some air exchange throughout their time in the box. This guy
is wrong. They work fine in these boxes in my experience. It's getting
decent breather bags that has been the hardest part for me.
Maybe UPS is cheaper, and I have no doubt that the fish arrive on time, but
the idea that one must go there solely due to a need for a styro-lined
shipping container... well I just don't get why one would not use one to
begin with. At least with Express Mail I get my shipping money back when
they are late. Since I pack fish to last at **least** 60-hrs then I really
don't mind them arriving a bit late. ;-) Just more money back into our
pockets. Getting a refund today for that matter. One day late, and all fish
were in excellent shape. :-) Almost 25 bucks back to us and the shipping
ends up free.
Now Priority Mail... well that's another story all together. If it was at
all easy for me to use UPS and I could ship fish almost as cheap as Priority
then I would switch. Sadly it is not. The trick then is to use breather bags
and pack so that there is no clue the box contains water. Again, use the
darn styro liner (sheesh). Use a heat pack if the weather is cool/colder
(not dead of winter tho -- I don't use Priority then at all). Nestle the
bags into styro packing peanuts to insure they have some air circulation.
Lable simply as "Perishable - please keep from extreme heat or cold." Gets
there on time. If you call it "Live Tropical Fish" it will take a week or
more. IMO, breather bags (IF you can find ones that hold up) are a must for
Priority shipping... at least they are out of my city. For Express, I don't
bother using them. No need and the bags are too spendy. ;-)
Julie <><
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Hmmm...
I guess that's all well and fine for native US fish, but why would anyone
*not* use a styro-lined box for rainbowfish????? They are much more
sensitive to ship than our tough-as-nails native fishes. Even natives
deserve better treatment than this -- to be mailed in just a bag in a
cardboard liner. Wow. :-( I always use a styro-lined box. Always.
Besides, I am not sure why breather bags and styro-lined boxes would be
incompatible. As long as I can get a hold of breather bags that have decent
seams (yunno, ones that actually *hold up* during the shipping process
without blowing seams and thus killing the fish) then I have never had any
problems whatsoever with styro boxes and breather bags. That just seems
silly. Almost NO styro-lined boxes out there are completely airtight, so
they should get some air exchange throughout their time in the box. This guy
is wrong. They work fine in these boxes in my experience. It's getting
decent breather bags that has been the hardest part for me.
Maybe UPS is cheaper, and I have no doubt that the fish arrive on time, but
the idea that one must go there solely due to a need for a styro-lined
shipping container... well I just don't get why one would not use one to
begin with. At least with Express Mail I get my shipping money back when
they are late. Since I pack fish to last at **least** 60-hrs then I really
don't mind them arriving a bit late. ;-) Just more money back into our
pockets. Getting a refund today for that matter. One day late, and all fish
were in excellent shape. :-) Almost 25 bucks back to us and the shipping
ends up free.
Now Priority Mail... well that's another story all together. If it was at
all easy for me to use UPS and I could ship fish almost as cheap as Priority
then I would switch. Sadly it is not. The trick then is to use breather bags
and pack so that there is no clue the box contains water. Again, use the
darn styro liner (sheesh). Use a heat pack if the weather is cool/colder
(not dead of winter tho -- I don't use Priority then at all). Nestle the
bags into styro packing peanuts to insure they have some air circulation.
Lable simply as "Perishable - please keep from extreme heat or cold." Gets
there on time. If you call it "Live Tropical Fish" it will take a week or
more. IMO, breather bags (IF you can find ones that hold up) are a must for
Priority shipping... at least they are out of my city. For Express, I don't
bother using them. No need and the bags are too spendy. ;-)
Julie <><