Buying fish long distance and driving home.

[Newreefer94]

So I will be going to the cities here soon and I live about 2 1/2 hours away. We don’t have fish shops out here and I am planning on buying fish.

What do I need to do to keep the fish alive while I’m visiting family?

 

[Jvesche20]

Are you planning on driving straight home? If it’s a 2 1/2 hour drive then just ask the fish store to put oxygen in the bags and make sure the car isn’t set to 60° when driving home. That isn’t a super long drive. I have a few friends who drive 2+ hrs to go to frag swaps and just put the live stock in a cooler and drive home and acclimate the fish or coral right away.

 

[Hillbillyreefer]

My nearest store is about 4 hrs away. I have a couple of the styrofoam coolers inside cardboard boxes that the wholesalers use to ship to the stores. I put a couple heat packs wrapped in newspaper in the coolers put the fish and corals in and head for home, usually the temperature is checked once or twice with an infrared heat gun.

I’ve never lost an animal in transport doing it that way.

 

[Kmadden]

You should be fine as long as you use a styrofoam container and ask for extra water in the bags.

My LFS is an hour away and last time I got fish I stopped at a restaurant then to get groceries. Everything ended up fine and acclimated well.

You have to think most of the fish at your LFS were probably shipped there from a lot farther away and they made it with the right packaging.