Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Dang Janet, gotta post fast to keep up with you....we're neck and neck;)

Yeah its a race to see who gets divorced first huh?

I got a call from Miami Aquaculture today to confirm the shipping address. They will call back with a tracking number for me, and hoped to have the fishies to me Tuesday or Wednesday. I haven't quite figured out how they could have the fish to me Tuesday. They called after 3PM Monday (today), and I always thought 'overnight' was actually more like 'shipped by 10AM, delivered by 10AM next day'. Maybe there's something faster. The excitement is building!!!

Oh, 'Fedex Same Day'. So it could be Tuesday. The camera is ready, don't worry, MF.

good luck Janet.

HS, HS, HS! Have fun with them Janet!

!!!

Well, it's been official 'Tilapia HSM' here this morning.

The fish arrived in very rapid fashion, shipped overnight from Florida. That part was very impressive. The part that was not impressive was that most of their water did not arrive with them. This breaks one of the basic prinicipals of fish-keeping, namely 'Keep your fish wet and your floors dry.' The Fedex guy handed me a sopping wet, very light-weight box, remarked, 'Be careful, the bottom's a little wet.' and ran back to his truck before it truely registered in my brain what was going on.

Dripping all the way, I took the box back to the sunroom, opened it, and found 155 fish double-bagged in about 3 cups of water. The box as-shipped weighed 25 pounds (11KG), and that should have been about 3 gallons (11 liters) of water. Both bags had split along the seam in the bottom. Although the stryofoam box was intact and should have held the water, it's obvious that the box did not remain 'this end up'. I also have a new theory that the chemical heat-packs may only work when dry. The fish in their generous 3 cups of water were rather chilled.

At this point, I was getting frantic. I tore open the bags to assess the damage. (No need to worry about spilling water on the floor.) There were some very noteably dead fish, but also some signs of life. I scooped some water out of my tank into a plastic (food grade) bin I had readied. I rested the remains of the bags and fish in the bin to start to warm them up while I called the vendor for help. He advised that I should try to revive all of them, even the ones that looked dead. Yes, even the stiff ones.

An hour and a half later, I was able to net the live ones out of the bin and into the tank. ATM, there are 132 alive and 33 dead. Temperature was under 60F/15C, and ammonia over 3. I still may lose a few more that are resting on the bottom. I have a call in to the vendor with the current death toll and an inquiry about what he'd like to do with the situation.

I'm actually amazed that so many made it through alive. I fed them a small amount of flake food, and the ones that showed interest tore in to it like little pirahnas. Most of them were still busy exploring the tank. The goldfish are wondering what the heck is going on.

I'll put up pictures in a little while.

The pics...

More pics.

More pics.

Give them hell, JP!!!

BTW, is my half the live ones or the dead ones?

Your half are in the bowl, DD.

I suggest we let the situation stablize before you take your half. I want to be sure of full appropriate recompensation from Fedex/Miami Aquaculture, and am currently retaining all packaging and other evidence. I'm not inclined to have them try to re-ship unless we lose the majority of them.

They're very attractive, nice looking fish. btw, I weighed the bowl-full and averaged them out. They run about 2 grams a piece.

And we're down to 131. They show up quite well lying sideways on the bottom of a black tank. Good color choice, if I do say so myself.

I think they look beautiful...

Wow... what an ordeal. The UPS guy must have been thinking "these people will ship anything".... Dave gets half of the dead ones doesn't he? hehe