Shipping Fish?

[Logan487]

Hey All,

Recently I've decided to go a different direction and will be selling my two large catfish followed by the indoor pond setup. Given what they are though I doubt I will have much luck locally. Is there anything special when shipping a fish around 18"?

I'd prefer to sell locally, and worst case will just hold onto them (We're also moving cross country soon and while they are legal where we are moving I'd like to avoid stressing them out via move and the risk of losing them when the setup gets redone/recycles post move), but figured I would ask incase I get contacted by someone asking to ship them.

 

[danotaylor]

Whilst the principle of shipping small & big fish is the same, if you’ve never shipped live fish before starting with large cats is prob not a good idea.
I certainly wouldn’t buy from you knowing that unless you were going to guarantee live arrival. Then for the expense of all the shipping gear for 1 sale you might as well just find somebody locally and give them a good home for free. Just my 2c worth

 

[duanes]

While the principle of shipping a large fish is similar to small fish, the the cost isn't.
The cost of shipping a couple 1" fish in a 1lb styro averages about $50,
the cost of shipping and 18" catfish, and the weight of water and size of containerl, may be well over $200 alone.
You may want to weigh the water filled styro, and check price to whatever city you are going to ship to, to see if its worth it, for you, and prospective buyer

If you have an airline hub near you, and to whom you are going to ship to, it may be possible to ship airport to airport, and reduce cost and risk of spending extra hours in transit, and ending up with a dead cat fish.