TRANSPORTATION OF LIVE FISHES 



367 



LARGEMOUTH BASS (1,500 FISH PER POUND), BLUEGILLS (2,100 PER POUND), AND 

 PURE OXYGEN. SHIPPING TIME SHOULD NOT EXCEED 21 HOURS. (SOURCE: ALAN B. 



Warmwater Fish Cultural Development Center, San Marcos, Texas, may 

 also be of interest to fish culturists faced with determining a suitable proto- 

 col for container shipment of fish. All comments relate to containers with 

 one atmosphere of pure oxygen: 



. . . Good survival was achieved shipping 100 bluegill sunfish (l,200 fish 



per pound) in ^ gallon of water. If shipment is 30 hours or less, we believe 



it safe to ship 200 fish in -; gallon of water in a one-gallon cubitainer. 



. . . We had excellent survival on mail distribution. We used ^ gallon 



water per one-gallon cubitainer, an oxygen overlay, and largemouth bass 



going 900 per pound. Duration of shipment was 24 hours. 



. . . Amyl alcohol slightly increased survival time for all species tested 



when used at rates of 2.0-3.0 ml per gallon of water. This chemical appears 



to tranquilize the fish, thereby reducing metabolism. 



. . . When shipping in plastic bags we seldom use ice with largemouth bass, 



and never with northern pike and walleye. 



. . . We load each bag or box with 50,000 northern pike fry, 70,000 walleye 



fry, or up to 600 small largemouth bass fingerlings. We have experienced 



mortalities in shipments when using V-bottom plastic bags. All species will 



hold for 24 hours but we prefer to get the fish out of the bag in 4-10 



hours. 



. . . Catfish sac fry were shipped by air from Dallas to Honolulu, Hawaii, 



for several years with good success. We used 1 -cubic-foot plastic cubi- 



tainers with 12 pounds of water to 6 ounces of fry. Shipments arriving 



within 24 hours usually had losses of 5"m or less. 



