Heat packs

[Marksfish]

Hi everyone

I am looking for a source of heat packs for use in the transportation of
live tropical fish. They must be available to the UK. If anyone has any
ideas could you let me know please?

--
Regards

Mark
www.marksdiscus.me.uk

[[email protected]]

On Wed, 7 Apr 2004 18:51:59 +0100, "Marksfish"
> wrote:

>Hi everyone
>
>I am looking for a source of heat packs for use in the transportation of
>live tropical fish. They must be available to the UK. If anyone has any
>ideas could you let me know please?

The polystyrene boxes that are used ship fish have excellent heat
retaining properties. Most aquarists shops will have some.


Steve
--
EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.
Build networks from numeric, text and image files.
http://www.easynn.com

[SpiceySpice]

here is a site that sell some

http://www.easyexotics.co.uk/store/customer/home.php?cat=276


"Marksfish" > wrote in message
...
> Hi everyone
>
> I am looking for a source of heat packs for use in the transportation of
> live tropical fish. They must be available to the UK. If anyone has any
> ideas could you let me know please?
>
> --
> Regards
>
> Mark
> www.marksdiscus.me.uk
>
>

[Marksfish]

> The polystyrene boxes that are used ship fish have excellent heat
> retaining properties. Most aquarists shops will have some.
>
>
I am currently using the boxes with a bag packed inside with hot water. The
water still becomes a bit too cold for discus though which is why I want the
heat packs.

Cheers

Mark

[Marksfish]

> here is a site that sell some
>
> http://www.easyexotics.co.uk/store/customer/home.php?cat=276
>
>
Thanks for that, i'll give them a go unless someone else can point me to a
cheaper supply :-)

Cheers

Mark

[Dave Gunter]

Marksfish wrote:

>>here is a site that sell some
>>
>>http://www.easyexotics.co.uk/store/customer/home.php?cat=276
>>
>>
>
> Thanks for that, i'll give them a go unless someone else can point me to a
> cheaper supply :-)
>
> Cheers
>
> Mark
>
>
Wherabouts are you, I work in a fish shop and we're falling over the
things, I could even post you one, be cheaper probably than buying one.

--
Dave
www.baarks.co.uk

[Charles Spitzer]

"Marksfish" > wrote in message
...
> > here is a site that sell some
> >
> > http://www.easyexotics.co.uk/store/customer/home.php?cat=276
> >
> >
> Thanks for that, i'll give them a go unless someone else can point me to a
> cheaper supply :-)
>
> Cheers
>
> Mark
>
skiers/outdoors people use them too. since it's the end of the season, you
might check to see if anyone is unloading them so that they don't have to
stock them until next year.

[Graham Broadbridge]

"Marksfish" > wrote in message
...
> Hi everyone
>
> I am looking for a source of heat packs for use in the transportation of
> live tropical fish. They must be available to the UK. If anyone has any
> ideas could you let me know please?

Ask your Local Fish shop. They're normally throwing them away.


Graham.

[Marksfish]

> Wherabouts are you, I work in a fish shop and we're falling over the
> things, I could even post you one, be cheaper probably than buying one.
>
> --
Hi Dave. Sod's law isn't it. My fish supplier is in Sandy, yet i'm in Leeds!
Problem is it wouldn't be just one. I want to try about 10 to start with to
see how they go, then maybe a box at a time.

Regards

Mark

[Marksfish]

> Ask your Local Fish shop. They're normally throwing them away.
>
>
Problem with that is that many are warmed by a chemical reaction which lasts
for 24 hours. They normally cannot be reheated. We have tried it with the
packs which arrive with the fish from Thailand.

Regards

Mark

[Dave Painter]

Marksfish > wrote in message
...
> Hi everyone
>
> I am looking for a source of heat packs for use in the transportation of
> live tropical fish. They must be available to the UK. If anyone has any
> ideas could you let me know please?
>

If transporting them yourself, buy yourself a 'cigarette lighter' kettle.
Plug in, boil some water, fill a hot water bottle.
Drive for an hour. (or so)
Stop. repeat
This would enable you to keep a poystyrene 'cool box' quite warm.

Buy a portable camping 'fridge' runs off a 12V DC supply and keeps things
'warm'

Camping and outdoors centres stock heat pads for walkers and skiers, in my
experience
these generate an awful lot of heat over a short space of time.

HTH

Dave

[SpiceySpice]

why dont you email monty at tri-mar and ask who they use, cos their fish del
was excellent. Had a heat pack and couriered over night, brill service.
or they might sell you some.
"Marksfish" > wrote in message
...
> Hi Dave
>
> Thanks for the suggestions but these are for fish that are being couriered
> overnight for next day delivery. Unfortunately, however much you label the
> box to be kept in a warm environment with live fish in, they are
inevitably
> just left in the warehouse with everything else. Haven't really had any
> major problems but I want to stop them arriving so cold.
>
> Regards
>
> Mark
>
>

[NetMax]

"Marksfish" > wrote in message
...
> Hi Dave
>
> Thanks for the suggestions but these are for fish that are being
couriered
> overnight for next day delivery. Unfortunately, however much you label
the
> box to be kept in a warm environment with live fish in, they are
inevitably
> just left in the warehouse with everything else. Haven't really had any
> major problems but I want to stop them arriving so cold.
>
> Regards
>
> Mark

Styrofoam boxes and heat packs are the way to go, but those heat packs
are tricky. They can get too hot, and if they contact a small volume of
water, you will have a problem. Are the Discus in large bags or
individual? Discus imo, travel best in small individual bags (about 2"
wider than the fish), with relatively little water (about 2/3 to 3/4
air). The tube bags are good for this (5" wide and 14" high). Arrange
your shipment so the box is tightly filled with bags. Fish on the inside
and empty bags around the outside. If weight is not a problem, fill the
outside bags with slightly warmer water. If weight is a problem (air
freight), then buy enough fish to fill the box (seriously).

Throw an extra thin sheet of styrofoam on the bottom of the box. Before
packing the box, put a thick plastic liner in. After all the fish-bags
are in, fold the liner over and seal it. Heat packs are often taped to
the underside of the box lid (outside of the box liner). The heat pack
is allowed to contact a fish bag only when it is under a single bag, or
it is wedged between 2 half-box bags, which will not be your application.

Double bag everything. Besides protecting from perforations, it reduces
the rate of thermal transfer (slowing the cooling, and reduces the
possibility of the heat pack from heating the water too fast.

I hope something there is of use to you. I get Discus from all over the
world. Many suppliers slip newspaper in between the 1st and 2nd fish
bag. This achieves 4 things that I can think of. It calms them down
(darker and less distractions), it shields them from sudden bright light
(when the box is opened at destination or customs inspections), it
provides additional insulating properties, and it gives me something to
read ;~).

Last bit of advice (once I start rambling, it's quite an effort to stop
sometimes ;~), a few squirts of Ammo-lock into each bag as soon as they
are opened works very well. Although they should not have been fed for a
day before packing, their waste will still accumulate in the bag, along
with their CO2, so the water's pH will have dropped a bit. They don't
mind low pH in transit (and it keeps their waste non-toxic), but when you
open the bag and float it, the CO2 dissipates, the pH rises and some of
the ammonium ions (NH4) might convert to ammonia (NH3), which along with
the temperature rise, adds up to undesirable stressors. The now
increasing temperature also reduces the O2 capacity of the water (which
will already be low on O2), so I start giving them 'drinks' within a few
minutes (about 1/2 cup of tank water every 5-10 minutes gets poured into
the floating bags). A little Stress Coat in the tank works well too.

All this is generally applicable to any fish transport (except for bag
sizes, and we use cold-packs instead of heat-packs sometimes ;~)

cheers
NetMax

[TYNK 7]

>Subject: Re: Heat packs
>From: "Marksfish"
>Date: 4/7/2004 4:03 PM Central Daylight Time
>Message-id: >
>
>> The polystyrene boxes that are used ship fish have excellent heat
>> retaining properties. Most aquarists shops will have some.
>>
>>
>I am currently using the boxes with a bag packed inside with hot water. The
>water still becomes a bit too cold for discus though which is why I want the
>heat packs.
>
>Cheers
>
>Mark
>

Betta shippers often use them too.
Check out Bettatalk's site. Maybe Faith sells them or knows where you can get
them.
http://www.bettatalk.com/

[Dave Painter]

Marksfish > wrote in message
...
> Hi Dave
>
> Thanks for the suggestions but these are for fish that are being couriered
> overnight for next day delivery. Unfortunately, however much you label the
> box to be kept in a warm environment with live fish in, they are
inevitably
> just left in the warehouse with everything else. Haven't really had any
> major problems but I want to stop them arriving so cold.
>
> Regards
>
> Mark

Find a smaller courier company!
One willing to provide for your needs by using a 'warm box' and plugging it
in.
My local courier company are more than willing to take these sort of
'special' jobs.
You pay a small premium but you get the attention to detail, it could even
be the same guy
month in month out who makes the trip for you. Get a fish lover and ......
Robert would be your parents sibling! <vbg>

Dave