Shipping Macrobrachium

[Veneer]

How exactly would one go about packaging Macrobrachium large enough to puncture 3-millimeter-thick Kordon Breather Bags?

Would similar precautions have to be taken for large Atya spp.?

[Mustafa]

How exactly would one go about packaging Macrobrachium large enough to puncture 3-millimeter-thick Kordon Breather Bags?

I would not ship large macros in breathing bags. Use traditional fish bags and double bag.

Would similar precautions have to be taken for large Atya spp.?

Same as above.

[badflash]

Bags of any type won't work with M. Rosenbergii. They puncture them all. I've learned the hard way. I use rectangular Glad food containers. You can get packages of 5 for just a couple of bucks. I fill 1/3 water 2/3 air, then put that inside a gallon freezer baggie as the outside bag. This goes into an insulated box with a heat pack depending on the season. They don't do well below 70 degrees.

With a big enough container, you can send a full grown shrimp. 6" is the biggest I've sent this way, all shipped express. 100% live arrival since I stopped using bags. With even 4 mil bags double bagged I was losing 50% due to punctures. Very sad.

Anything spikey can be done this way. I don't think Atya are spikely though.

[Veneer]

How about this idea: placing the Macrobrachium in capped lengths of PVC pipe drilled with holes (large enough to permit water flow yet too small to admit sharp appendages) in turn set within a plastic fish bag? My only concern is that the PVC pipe could rupture the bag while jostled about in transit.

[pturley]

edit.

[badflash]

PVC pipe might work, but it would be lots of work to make something like that for a 5" shrimp. I'm going to try those quart glad containers with the screw-on tops.

Deli cups are what I've received small crays in, but these huge monsters are a real challenge to ship.

[Veneer]

I think I've hit upon a fairly successful method: placing the Macros in large deli cups -- as used for soup by some Chinese carry-out restaurants -- having holes drilled in their sides and set within regular fish bags (standard 1:3 ratio of water and air). Using exterior Kordon breather bags might prove even more successful.

In a USPS Express shipment of 14 M. carcinus, M. crenulatum, and M. faustinum (all 7+ cm) thus packed, I experienced 4 casualties. I am convinced that this was due to a leaking bag's inactivation of both heatpacks within one of the two packages during unexpected freezing weather; the contents of the other box remained dry and not a single shrimp died.

On another note, the stress of shipping is markedly harder on large, adult Macros than on juveniles.

[Mustafa]

I've seen people ship large crayfish similarly. I'll have to deal with this problem soon as I have to ship my monster M. carcinus to San Diego in a few months. I hope he'll make it as he has become very tame and is basically the family pet. I caught him myself in a cave when he was a baby of about half an inch. Wouldn't want him to die due to imperfect shipping methods.

[Neonshrimp]

I caught him myself in a cave when he was a baby of about half an inch. Wouldn't want him to die due to imperfect shipping methods.

How big is he now? Will you be able to carry him along with you as carry on or will security have a fit ?

[ToddnBecka]

I recently read something about a person trying to take shrimp home on a commercial airline. They ended up giving them to someone else at the airport, because the new security regulations required the water to be replaced (apparently by the security people, with fresh tap water) before the shrimp would be allowed to pass. It seems a bit much to me, since shrimp (or any other aquatic critters) wouldn't survive long in any kind of potentially dangerous chemical solution.
A huge crayfish would be a bigger risk, IMO. You may be packing plastic explosives concealed inside the shell...

[Mustafa]

How big is he now? Will you be able to carry him along with you as carry on or will security have a fit ?

He's about 5-6 inches (very massive looking..loke crayfish) not counting claws and still growing. Carry-on is not a good idea. I'll figure something out.