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Hi all. Regarding Paro breeders who ship fish within the UK to each other, we have a courier system in Place by an Irish courier company. I was only made aware of it yesterday by a fish-keeping friend (I think he joined the Paro Project yesterday). It is called Parcel Motel. It means people can now ship packages to each other for the cost of your normal UK postage. Basically, I give you my name, my ID and the Parcel Motel address in Antrim N.I. and you send the package to me at that address via Royal Mail or whoever. When it arrives at the Parcel Motel Depot in Antrim, they take it straight to my local Parcel Motel Locker in the Republic of Ireland, then they send me a text to tell me it’s there and give me a PIN number. I can then go to the local locker, enter my PIN and the door pops open to allow me to take the package. So for the same price as your local postage I can get a package from the UK and I pay an extra €4.95 for the service. Of course I will also pay your postage charges 🙂
It works the other way as well, but I’m not sure if it’s the locker system in the UK or if the extra door-to-door service has to be chosen.
I hope some UK breeders will consider it (it’s not any different to sending mail to friends in the UK) and help us get these wonderful fish into the Emerald Isle 🙂
Bill
PS. The friend that told me about this had fish arrive in perfect health this morning from the UK.
PPS. I’m not sure yet if there is a similar service between Ireland and the rest of Europe.
Bill, that’s very interesting indeed and you should have a try. But it sounds time-consuming. Have you an idea how many days such a shipment would take? If the fish are healthy, properly packed and the air temperatures around 18
7 to 22 degrees Celsius, it could work well for 3 or 4 days certainly.If friends in other Eurpean countries are reading this: Reply to the question of Bill`s, please. Is there a similar system in your country, what are the costs and what is to be done if one wants to use it?
Hi Peter, It’s not too bad for time. First class post to Antrim for 4 Betta cost £8.55. they were posted in Scotland lunch time on Monday, they arrived in Antrim hub that evening then into his Parcel Motel Locker at 5.30am this morning. So, less than 48hrs really. Normal post in Ireland takes two days :dry:
I’ve heard he has wild Trichopodus trichopterus for sale at £3.50 each so I’m going to grab some before they are gone. He has been questioned about getting Paros but he says he’s not keen to do that because the fish are usually wrongly named, although he some P. sumatranus in stock.
So I’m off to get my order in.
BillI should also add that you don’t have to stay in waiting for delivery as you have 3 days to pick up your package before it is taken back to the hub for return. So you can pick it up any time, any day, 24/7/365 Although with fish, particularly during cold weather, you won’t want to leave them in a locker too long :unsure:
Bill
Correction to original post: the fee I’m charged for the service is €3.95 not €4.95
Hi all
As Bill has mentioned in a different thread, I am trying to get some of my fish over to him.
However, Parcel motel do not handle live animals. I can send them via royal mail, but they have to be labelled as live fish. So, if I package and label them correctly, parcel motel will not handle them.I am in contact with other fish sellers to find out how they do it.
Please bear with me Bill, I will get some fish over to you somehow. ☺
Russ
Thanks, Russ, I have every faith in you 😆
As a matter of interest, how much would Royal Mail charge to send them straight over here? I may have to check An Post (our national carrier) to see if they exclude live animals. That may cause a Problem when handing over to An Post.
Bill
An update to this thread.
I’m now the proud owner of a pair of Parosphromenus nagyi and a pair of P. phoenicurus. They arrived this afternoon via a similar method to the one mentioned above. This particular company charges €0.10 less per delivery and also delivers direct to the door, no need to drive for 20 minutes to a locker. They were posted in England on Tuesday and they arrived at 2.40 this afternoon (Thursday)and all were safe, well and hardly stressed. A very successful shipment.
BillSorry for my late post on this topic.
I managed to send a total of 26 Parosphromenus over to Bill in Ireland. These were from 5 different species, and included pairs and some juveniles.
Because of the restrictions in the size of packaging, we decided to use the breathable bags. These have been discussed before in another thread, and were greeted with mixed feelings. John Walsh and I used them when we brought our fish back from the Hamburg meeting without any problems. But they were only in them for around 15 hours.
I bagged the fish up by 10am on the Tuesday morning, and posted them around 11. They arrived in Belfast within the specified 24 hours. But were then held by the couriers for another 24 hours before being delivered. By the time Bill had received them, they had been bagged for over 50 hours.
As Bill has stated, they all arrived in good health. As you may imagine, we were both very pleased with this.
So, in our experience the breathable bags work, and I would probably use them again in the same situation.
Some of the fish were young from the fish I obtained in Hamburg. As Dorothee says, it’s good to see the ethos of the project is working, and may it continue to do so. As the sad news about P. Deissneri shows, we need to do all we can to help these little gems.
That’s fine a transaction, good to know it’s functioning.
But you cannot conclude from the fact that the fish arrived living that the “breathable bags” were necessary. They maybe of great use for oxygen consuming Rasboras and even other labyrinths that really need atmospheric air. But our Paros normally do not make use of their labyrinth. We sent them very often safely in normal fish bags. They don’t swim around in their bags, simply lie down below a leaf and wait. Of course you can use that special bags, but this is not necessary.
I don’t think everything is going well with the traditional transport of our fish. I think its a question of oxygen in the water and not in the air (which the fish labyrinth could use).
In my opinion some of the fish transported over sea in too small container died because their water got loss of oxygen.
And – how should the fish use their labyrinth in breathing bags? As far as I know they are to be filled completely with water?
In my opinion, the “traditional” small containers are just for use when in plane. If the fish have longer journeys overland, they should be transported other ways. And the normal fish bags (perhaps if not labeled by fish industries as mine I used for Hamburg and which where terrible) seem not very reliable for longer times.
I think we should have a look at the breathing bags.I and other Paro-breeders have used both types of bagy without any difference – for Paros. With other fish there might be advantages of the breating bags. And breathing atmospheric air by labyrinths is of course made safer with breathing bags. But it’s not necessary for Paros.
Best however are small plastic containers – e.g. small drinking water bottles or special containers with big round cap – for one or at most two Paros each.
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