Hello there! My name is Martin and I am a beginner shrimp breeder, and owner of Introvertebrates! I plan to specialize in selling freshwater shrimp and plants that grow from home. Currently I have 3 tanks of neocaridina shrimp, including Cherry shrimp, Blue Dreams, and a recently started tank of Green Jades I hope to offer for sale from in coming months!
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Nice to meet you! I saw some of the Blue Dreams, I have a nano cube that I’m looking to stock with some shrimp 
Any chance you might offer shipping in the future? If you haven’t shipped before and were interested there are some experts on here that could probably give some pointers on packaging etc.
Welcome to the forum!
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Welcome the forum and LightFish!
I’ve been breeding and selling Crystal Red Shrimp for sometime now and just started developing out a line of Orange Rili shrimp. The original shrimp didn’t breed very true so I’m trying to stabilize that and increase their color opacity before selling. I love shrimp and one day want to get into breeding more of them.
I ship fish every week, so, as Miles recommended, if you plan on shipping your shrimp, feel free to reach out to me here if you need any pointers. Over the years, I’ve experimented with all kinds of packing materials, box sizes, heat and cold packs, insulating materials, etc. so I have quite a bit to share.
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I do plan on shipping in the future! However at the moment Im waiting on boxes arrive and still doing my research into the best method to shipping my shrimp safely.
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That’d be very helpful! Currently I have a bunch of 7x7x6 usps boxes coming in, which was the box I received in my first shipment of shrimp to start my colonies along with some 0.5in styrofoam. As for the other packing materials I’d love to get some pointers on what you would recommend!
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Offhand, I’d say I prefer to use breather bags for shipping shrimp. I wrap each bag in a soft, paper-towel like cushioning material I get from Uline. (Regular paper towels work as well). This serves as a breathable barrier that keeps two touching bags from preventing each bag from 'functioning properly. It adds soft cushioning to the box and will also help wick up any leaks, should they occur.
If you plan on cutting stryofoam to line your boxes, try to settle on box sizes that allow you to maximize your styrofoam and reduce the amount of waste you create. The wrong-sized boxes can result in a lot of wasted money in leftover stryofoam you just wind up throwing away because the pieces are too small to use. So, when you settle on some foam, look at the different box sizes that suit your needs, then spend some time laying them out on the foam to see which boxes create the least amount of leftover, unusable waste. I ship a decent amount and buy 24"x48" stryo sheets in bulk and have found that the wrong box size can really drive up your foam costs.
If you plan on using heatpacks, the minimum size box you should be looking at is something like a 12x9x9.
Hope this helps a little.
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This is great information, I had a very basic blog post written up about this, which I plan on re-visiting and adding more detail. I’ll try to incorporate these suggestions.
Thanks for all the info guys! Looks like I got tons of material to work with!
Hello @introvertebrates3620! Welcome to the community. I have just recently started selling/shipping shrimp/snails and a few things that I use are breather bags, reflectix insulation rolls to line the box, and polyfill from a craft store to cushion and fill the box. Polyfill can also be used in an aquarium filter as an additional medium for water polishing and most brands of reflectix are recyclable, take up less space, and are less messy than styrofoam. I usually set a layer of paper towels at the bottom to catch drips. Hope this helps and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!
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Hi! I decided to go with your suggested method and collected all the necessary things i needed from your description. So far I have:
- Breather bags
- Reflectix insultation rolls,
- Polyfill
- Live-animals stickers
- 72+ Hour UniHeat heat packs
- 7x7x6 sized USPS boxes
Am I missing anything? Also do you have any examples or tips on how you put a box together to maximize your materials, or any tips in general on how to successfully ship animals safely? This is my first time attempting shipping live animals and plants so I can use all the help I can get! Looking forward to starting shipping soon!
Hello! That looks great! I usually measure out the size of the box with the insulation and tape the edges with duck tape or something equivalent and then add a layer of paper towels at the bottom of the box to catch drips. Then I add in a layer of polyfill that the breather bags will sit in to make sure they are not resting on the bottom of the box. Then I cover the breather bags and add some instructions on acclimation and the packing slip. Finally you can add the heat pack to the top of the box. I haven’t shipped with a heat pack yet, but I have read that it is smart to activate/heat the pack and leave it out for about an hour before you pack it with your livestock. Some of the main tips would be making sure there is no air in the breather bag, that the breather bag is not wrapped or touching solid materials as much as possible, and keeping heat packs above the fish bags to prevent overheating. I would love to hear how it goes and let me know if any other questions arise!
Hi. Actually two questions! Ive never handled breather bags before so im interested in how exactly to keep air out of the bag. The other question would be how do I make the shipping labels? Is it provided on purchase here on site to print out or do I need to buy shipping labels myself?
Great questions! If you are using rubber bands to seal the bags, you can just tie them off just below the water level in the bag to squeeze all the air out. I usually just tie the bags off and squeeze all the air out. The bags allow gas exchange through the plastic so there is no need to leave any air in the bag. As for shipping labels, those are usually done at the post office. The USPS website allows you to print them at home if you would like. Light Fish will generate the packing slip for you to print as well as the address to ship to. Hope this helps!
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