Topic 11

Marketing of
Aquaculture Product
Part
II

Harvesting

Processing

Packaging

Live Fish

Supplies Needed
Boxes for shipping. A styrofoam box nested inside a cardboard
box.
Plastic bags for shipping adult fish. These should hold
approximately 3 liters of liquid.
250ml tissue culture flasks for shipping babies.
Methylene blue.
Clear packing tape and rubber bands.
Labels: live fish stickers (at the end of this document) and
Federal Express (or other courier) address labels.
Styrofoam packing peanuts. Avoid using dissolvable peanuts.
(These dissolve in contact with water. Do not use.)

Shipping Fish in General

Prepare the fish.Place the fish in a separate tank with the proper
temperature and very clean water. It's best you not feed the fish for
about two days. Check for any signs of disease, since you don't want to
sell your customer diseased fish.
Get ready to pay for overnight/express shipping.When shipping
fish, it is best to do it via overnight shipping. This usually more
expensive, but the fish has best chances of arriving alive with this
method.
Bag the fish, and fill the bag half full of water.Fill the rest of the
bag up with fresh air, or oxygen.
Triple, or quadruple bag the fish (put the bags inside each other).
Tightly rubber band the bags closed. Attach a clip just in case also.
Box the fish.
Place the bagged fish in the styrofoam box. This will help insulate
the water inside, and keep it a the right temperature. Line the inside
of the styrofoam box with newspaper, so the bag doesn't shake too
much.
Use heat/cold packs wrapped in newspaper depending on the
climate and type of fish. For example, if they're tropical fish add
heat packs to the box.
Tightly seal the styrofoam box shut, and place into a cardboard box.
Tightly seal the cardboard box too.
Ship.Contact the buyer and make sure that they will be ready to receive
the fish when it gets there. Once again, only use Express Mail. Add labels
to the outside of the box, like "fragile", or "live fish", or "this side up".

Transporting Additives

3 groups

1. Sedative waters
2. Water quality stabilizers
3. antibiotics

Common sedatives
1. Quinaldine / quinaldine sulfate 25 ppm
2. Tricane methane sulfonate (MS-222) 60-70 ppm
(depend on species)
.

Function:

Calming
Reduce metabolic rate
Prevent injury from

jumping or swimming into the side of the box / tank.

Fighting habits

Water Quality Stabilizer

pH buffer
Zeolite at 20g/liter (remove ammonia)
Activate carbon at 20g/liter
Ice or heat pacts (to maintain temperature)
Sodium chloride (NaCl) at 9 ppt
Reduce the mineral difference between the water and fish
blood which lessens the effects caused by this osmotic
imbalance

Anti-foaming agent

Antibiotics
Caution !!!!!
These compounds are subject to
regulatory controls, which should be
considered carefully before any
application

Common antibiotic
Tetracycline at 5-20 ppm
Widely used for shipping and treatment
Some bacterial have developed an immunity to tetracycline
due to its wide use
Not recommended

Furanace at 0.05 0.2 ppm

Neutral acriflavine at 3-10 ppm

Note
Other antibiotic: kanamycin and phenicol (used as onfarm treatment but much less frequently used for
shipping)
Different sulfa base drugs (synthetic antimicrobial
agents that contain thesulfonamidegroup) are
currently being used due to bacterial resistance to
other form of antibiotics historically used in the
industry

Transportatio
n

Shipping Fish
Shipments should be timed to arrive as
quickly as possible, avoiding weekend and
holiday delays. International shipments
should be sent out on Monday or Friday.
This allows time for the fish to wait in
Customs.
Get permit or disease clearance from
authority

Protocol for
Shipping

1. Write information about the fish on the plastic bag (genotype, how many of each
sex, how old, etc).
2. Fill bag 1/3 full with fish water. Add fish.
3. To include as much air as possible, arrange the water filled bag to be fully open.
Grasp the top of the bag, closing it off and twisting. Twist well, keeping the
pressure in the bag so that it looks like a cushion. Check the bag at this point to
see that it is 2/3 air, 1/3 water. Do not blow into the bag to add more air open the
bag and try to capture more. Alternatively fill the bag with oxygen (if available).
4. Seal the bag by either knotting it or twisting the neck so that the twist doubles
over. Secure Rubber bands tightly around the knot. Push the closure down to
maintain the pressure in the bag. You want the bag to remain tight.
5. Take the bottom points of the bag and tape them up along the sides of the bag,
creating a square bottom. This prevents fish from getting caught and injured in
the corners. Tip the bag over to make sure it doesn't leak at the closure.
6. Place the bag into another plastic bag, double bagging it. Line the bags up with
each other (by their seams) so that they are in the same orientation. Suck the air
out of the second bag, so that if the inner bag leaks, there will be no place for the
water to go. Close the outer bag by knotting and/or sealing with a rubber band.
7. Place the bagged fish in the styrofoam box inside the cardboard box, and fill up
any extra space with styrofoam packing peanuts.
8. Fill in Custom papers

Thanks !!!!!!