It is my bad too... however, because these people were whom they were, I thought they knew were doing and I was being an overprotective of the fish... Nothing will bring them back now, but hopefully other fish avoid suffocating in pails.
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Originally Posted by christyf5
I dunno, I'd be a bit taken aback if people showed up at my house ill prepared for the trip. Granted, sloshing water does a lot to aerate itself during transport but if you have an airtight lid well then you're pretty much creating a closed system, IMO.
I don't really think a long article needs to be made up. I've always thought transporting fish was fairly straightforward but then thats just me. I'm a biologist and I tend to think about these things. If I'm buying a fish that is expensive (and someones pet) then I'm damned sure I'm going to make sure I protect my investment and take good care of that animal best I can. I usually buy my fish from stores though and take oxygen if its available even for shorter trips. I try to maintain temperature by keeping it close to me (I even take them upstairs on the ferry to sit in my lap). I think of it like this: think of the things you offer your tank, warmth, water movement and space. Can't you do this while transporting a fish too?
For larger fish, you need more of all of the above (well except the warmth part). You need more water and more air which means something larger than a "big bag" (the weight of the water becomes problematic) and something that aerates the water. Larger fish use more oxygen when stressed so you'd need to provide external oxygen by way of an airstone. For the most part a heater would likely be unneccessary for a shorter trip of less than a few hours as fish can deal with the drop in temperature (to a point of course).
The idea of an inverter as tim the toolman suggested above is also a smart idea. I bought one a couple years ago on sale at crappy tire for like $10 and it will power a small heater and air pump no problem.
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