To be serious; you people that collect fish abroad and travel home with them, could you tell me how you do?
Do you use additives in the water? Oxygen? How do you "pack" them? How many in one bag? Changes in cabin pressure? Temperature? Survival? Crustaceans? Procedures to get them transported? Permits? Do you have to be a scientist? etc etc..
I have always wanted to know! Stories welcome!
Bjorn H S
"Oh, uh, this..the moon is in the wrong position!"
Ozzy Osbourne
ive worked in a koi freshwater fish hatchery. we did all kinds of species. last year was quite a lot of KOI tho. ofcourse we got a lot of handlers who wanted lots of fish for different stores. So we packed them all in rather large plastic bags. we did 1/3 water and 2/3 pure oxygen. The water was the same temperature as the water the fish lived in but it was clean. As the fish needed to be in the bags for more than 1 hour we put them in boxes. Numbers varied by the size of the fish (ofcourse). when we had koi larger than 30 cm, we only did 1 in a bag. fish up to 15 cm, like 15-20 a bag. we never had any deaths during transport.
When i left that company, they gave me a very beautiful mirror carp. It was around 40 cm and i put it in a bag with just a little water to cover its gills when the sack was lying on the floor. the rest was all oxygen. i took it on a trip in our car and after that i had to put it in an indoor pond. too bad we ran out of time and the shop ( where it was gonna live) was closed. so i put the whole bag (still closed) in a large tub with cold water in it. i made the whole thing dark and left the fish there all night. next morning, we drove to the store and delivered the fish. it was in good health and wasnt bothered by his long stay at all!
conclusion:
if done right, fish can last quite long in a bag. mine was in for almost 24 hours
dont feed them the day u wanna transport them.
Whether you have to get a licence or not depends very much on the country you are travelling to. For some endanger species, you do have to acquire a licence to even keep them. Safest way to check with Custom and Excise. I work in China, which is famous for its gold fish, and in the wholesale market, they pack them in bags with oxygen for shipment. Nevertheless, if you buy them retail, the best thing is not to put them into you tank immediately upon arrival, put them in a quarantine tank for one or two days before letting them join the others is the best policy.
article, which I found at http://www.michaelmoore.com :
poor or lucky fishy?! 
