I'd rethink the fish truck option.
Your supplier buys their fish from the same sources as the fish trucks.
For the risk of bagging fish, compared to the risk of rigging up a way to use welding oxygen, I'd also rethink what their delivery charge would be, should you choose to try to haul them. To rig up oxygen, you'll need containers, flowmeters for each container, a regulator for the oxygen bottle, and splitters to go to each flow meter (or a valve for each container, should you choose that route.) If you buy the regulator and all the rigging, you'll be around $300, not counting diffuser hoses and their connections. To set up a rig to haul 4 different types of fish, that's a sizable investment.
Another idea is to use 48 quart coolers with Aquarium air pumps and air stones. With 120 volt converters in lots of today's vehicles, that might be a better choice. You could haul the minnows at two pounds per bag, kept cool, and they'll do fine. Then you need to rig up for the catfish, hybrid sunfish, and hybrid stripers. If you have two coolers, put the catfish in one, sunfish and hybrid stripers in another, and bag your minnows. One other thing about bagging the minnows. Put each bag into a five gallon bucket. That way, if they spring a leak, you don't have a mess.
I believe that somewhere here on the PB site are photos, and exactly what Bob discusses above.
I have very successfully moved a lot of trout, hybrid striped bass, and many much-hardier fish like bluegill and channel cats, from fish trucks to my ponds and a number of other ponds.
I have a rather old 12 VDC to 120 VDC converter that plugs into the the the cigarette lighter sockets in my truck. It operates about an inexpensive dual-output 120 VAC aquarium aeration pump. The aeration pump pushes air through two 12-inch long air stones.
If I'm going for an hour or longer, I usually drop a five pound bag of ice into the aerated cooler.
I've never lost a fish moving fish from a hatchery or fish truck with this rig.
I do add some non-iodized salt to the water in the cooler, but that is a different discussion.
Regards,
Ken
