Fish on a plane?

I am finally moving to Gold Coast on Wednesday 5th September and my girlfriend and I are so excited! I am planning on bringing my clown pair on the plane and am looking for a bit of advice. The airline said as it is fine as long as they are in a sealed container so I found a small 10L esky that should work. I didnt take into account my other carry on bag that will have my computer and some hard drives in it so I might be over the weight limit for carry on. I am just traveling from Sydney and the fish would probably be bagged up for no more than 5 hours with travel time. A couple questions:

-Would both of them be ok for oxygen in 1 large ziplock sized bag if I aggressively aerated the water for several hours before sealing them up?

-As far as heat, would they really need an esky for insulation? What it I wrapped them in a small blanket, possibly with a camping heat pack/hand warmer next to or near them and put this in my bag?

-They are fairly small and the largest one is only maybe large enough to start maturing into a female but would I need to treat the water with some sort of ammonia neutralizer for such a short trip?

Thanks for any info guys. My girlfriend and I both really love our two fish which is why I'm going through all the trouble to try and bring them with me instead of just replacing them.

I am also looking to buy or borrow a small/medium tank (in Gold Coast) to house these guys while we look for a place to live.

https://southeastqueenslandm.aforumfree.com/t1467-wtb-or-borrow-small-medium-tank-for-my-clowns-gold-coast-area#5862

Its not so much the oxygen, it’s the waste and substances in your trips waters and what it does on the trip to the oxygen and the fishes gill plates.

When we used to export we would always use and on collecting trips , a cheap version of an ammonia detoxifier!

We use ammo lock these days, this keeps the toxifying affects upon available oxygen at bay for at least 14 hours.

See if you can get access to pure oxygen,the aquarium shops have it, use made up salt water or water you believe is free of any substances,allow two thirds of space for air-oxygen and one third of space for water or even less water.

The water during your trip will absorb the oxygen to 5mill into the water naturally any way if no blocking substances are in the water and the water never gets above 25c to 27c,your fish will move the water around.

Do not feed your fish for at least two days before transporting to shit them out,we use to call it,that’s important!

Use two plastic bags, and have paper or something between the two to keep their bag dark to reduce stress.


Remember ,detox ammonia, use a small amount of water and large amount of air-oxygen and they will last for a very long time in transit.

Good luck with it all.

That is great advice, thank you so much!

I don't have access to pure oxygen but I can hopefully get the ammo lock. Do you think Prime would do the same thing if I added it before bagging them?

I will definitely use fresh made water, put about 2/3 air to 1/3 water, double bag and darken the bags and shit them out before bagging them.

I was looking into this a while ago since i was planning on doing some collecting up near cairns and bringing some life forms home. Probably not necessary but there are bags specifically for this purpose that supposedly transfer oxygen through themselves. Cant remember what they are called tho. Liquid g Would there be any issues with them being in the luggage compartment ie. related to temperature?

It should be okay with air con temps in planes.

Just ask the ones you would be flying with about that and if you are worried get the coolite box types we use to send fish around Auz and the world,fruit shops have them that they will give you,aquarium shops give them away sometimes as well,they get all their fish in them.

I don't know about the bags that excrete oxygen,sorry.

My time being part of doing this was quite a while ago!

mikezea6 wrote:I was looking into this a while ago since i was planning on doing some collecting up near cairns and bringing some life forms home. Probably not necessary but there are bags specifically for this purpose that supposedly transfer oxygen through themselves. Cant remember what they are called tho. Liquid g Would there be any issues with them being in the luggage compartment ie. related to temperature?

Those bags are call Kordon Breather Bag you can read about them here: http://www.novalek.com/kordon/breathing_bags/index.htm.

I used to travel with fishes/shrimps in plastic bags packed securely inside a small styrofoam box and placed in the middle of the checked-in luggage bag. I've had flight time of 13 hours plus 2 hours before check-in and another 1.5 hour for travelling to and from airport, all up almost 17 hours, and no losses.

kindcorals wrote:That is great advice, thank you so much!

I don't have access to pure oxygen...

you can always bring the fishes down to the LFS before the flight and have them double bag the fishes(it is a requirement to double bag fishes for flights, check you the airline you're flying for more details) with oxygen.

Just an update, I flew with Virgin and they told me twice that it was fine to bring "pet" fish as a carry on but after calling again the day before my flight a senior customer service agent said I was given incorrect information and that no live fish are allowed. They said I either need to ship them or check them in with freight. It was very disappointing considering this senior agent found the recording of Virgin telling me it was ok to bring them. I ended up giving them to a friend and a very good home.