[Bill Little]

I live in what we call the Tampa Bay area of Florida. It is the City of Tampa and the surrounding area and is home to the largest collection of fish farms in the USA. If you are watching the planes being loaded at our large local airport you will see huge numbers of boxes being loaded on the aircraft all marked “Contains Live Tropical Fish”. I have visited a number of the farms and watched the packing and shipping preparation procedures. It is a very interesting operation but is far from the type of operation we are discussing in shipping Licorice Gouramis.
However, I have a friend that maintains a small hatchery that breeds several varieties of Discus and Rams. He ships them all over the country and in some cases around the world very successfully. He utilizes what is called “Breathing Bags” which I will describe in more detail below. The bag material comes in a roll and he makes bags that are 10 x 15 cm. He places a single Discus in the bag with a small amount of water and a couple of drops of a liquid tranquilizer or sedative to calm the fish. He then seals the one remaining open side of the bag. The bag in then placed vertically in a small Styrofoam container. These containers are used to ship medicines for the most part. He can place as many as ten bags in this small container. Each bag is wrapped in paper and a cardboard spacer is placed between each bag. If the container is going to an area where it may be chilly, a heat pack in place in the top of the container separated from the bags of fish with another piece of cardboard. Paper is then stuffed in the top of the container to limit the amount of movement while in transit. The final step is to place the small styro container in a cardboard box which is manufacturered specifically to hold this container. The only thing remaining is to address the box and take it to the post office. He attempts to ship all fish either next day or two day, but some fish have taken as long as 7 days with the fish arriving is good condition. This post has become longer than anticipated so I will describe the “Breathing Bags” in an additional post.