Shipping Information
Updated February 21, 2010
To answer your first question: I do ship anywhere in the country. I get more questions on this than I do for what fish that I have for sale. I will try and answer your questions here and give you sites that you can look up the information yourself.
How I pack: first off, I do not feed my (your) fish for a couple of days to purge them out. I add about ½ water from the tank and the other ½ fresh clean water. I do pack the fish in Oxygen (except plecos), and add a Bag Buddy to keep the ammonia down. All fish are double bagged and placed into Styrofoam fish boxes. I add a heat pack if needed at no extra charge.
First some assumptions: In all cases you are charged by weight, but sometimes the size of the box can change the charged weight (referred to as the Dimensional Weight). A standard small fish box is 14"x10"x10". This box can hold up to three 8x15 bags. If the maximum number of bags is used, the weight is about 8 pounds. In this example, the Dimensional Weight of this box is 7.3 pounds, so if the weight is less than 7.3 pounds, you will be charged at the 7.3 pound rate.
All shipping will be done on an express basis, meaning that it will be there that day or the next day.
Here are the different methods of shipping:
My favorite way of shipping, as long as you don't mind going to the airport to pick up the shipment, and that Southwest flies into the airport. Prices start at about $57 for up to 100 pounds, and that is anywhere Southwest flies. A recent order of four boxes and 76 pounds was only $63. They are adding more airports and road feeder service to other airports that they do not fly into, like Chicago O'Hare.
Delta is a bit more expensive but they go to many more airports in the East and South. They start at about $80, and you still will have to go to the airport to pick up the shipment. Sometimes you can not get the shipment until the second day.
If it can't go airfreight, then I like FedEx the best. This is more expensive and is based on weight and distance. And, they go everywhere! The standard package could be about $47 to within 200 miles of Santa Clara, California (where I'm located) to $140 for a Saturday delivery in New York. There are several different extra charges that can be added or saved. If you can have it delivered to your place of business, that can save you a few dollars. Having the package delivered at the 3:00 pm time can save as much as $20. Saturday deliveries are an additional $20, but if you go to the FedEx office, they waive that charge. If you live within about 700 miles, you can use the Home delivery and instead of $60 for overnight, the cost is about $10 and it gets there in two days. I recently shipped a 15" Dovii to Tennessee, it went Priority Overnight (by 10:30AM), weighed 30 pounds, and cost $156, and yes, it made it just fine!
A very low priced alternative if the fish are not going too far and you have larger fish or multiple boxes. You will need to go to the bus depot to pick up the boxes. I can use Greyhound and have the boxes there within a few hours (less than 300 miles) or overnight (about 700 miles). This means I can ship to the entire West Coast and as far east as Colorado and you will receive the fish the next day. The only drawback is that they don't go everywhere and if you can use them, you will have to go to the bus station to pick them up.
Guess what, I have found a local Post Office that will accept my packages!!! It is the same price to ship a 5 pound package across town or across the county.
© Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact: Mainly Cichlids
