Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait What's up with the scuds?

Land Dr.: Is there any info about scuds or shrimp on your site?

I don't know where he's getting those shipping estimates but I think he's really underselling the cost of shipping.

I don't know if this has been covered yet but PLM scuds are not unreasonably priced but they are crazy expensive to ship.

As an example, I just tried to ordering 1/2 gallon (the smallest amount they sell) of scuds. For them to be delivered from Minnesota to Pennsylvania, it will cost $340.

Below is the current price breakdown I'm seeing:

Your Final Total
Total For Products: $ 75.00
Shipping & Handling: $ 339.56 (to Indiana it is $307)
Tax (MN orders & pickup only): $ 0.00
Grand Total: $ 414.56

I can never justify paying 3-4x more for shipping than I do the product itself. Just know that before you buy scuds from PLM. Shipping is the real killer.

On the other hand, Goliad (who I believe sells Gammarus scuds) charges $45 for 1 culture (1000 scuds) and shipping is $50. Not great but a heck of a lot more reasonable than what PLM charges to ship

Hello.

When you will receive them you will have to be careful with the water changes otherwise you will lose them and your money

Make sure he doesn't send you Hyalella Azteca.
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I'm sure those costs were accurate for 2011, when he made that post.

Why against Hyalella Azteca stocking ?

Hello.

Because I already ordered from a company and they send me Azteca.

I thrown them in the garbage, I don't quarantine for what I already have.

There is a big difference between the Azteca and the Gammarus Fasciatus or Lacustris.
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Could you go into more details on differences ?

Hello.

It's the difference in size, in the river near me there are Gammarus fasciatus.

Here are some measurements, I don't know if they are very precise but it seems fair.

Gammarus Fasciatus 15mm
Azteca 5-8mm

The Gammarus Lacustris would be larger than the Fasciatus, but here he is in the St-Lawrence river.

Of course there are other differences, but I am not an expert.

What interest me is the size.
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I have had people request that I ship fish to them. I tried doing it last year, and the cost and more importantly the time associated with doing it made me put on the website that I am NOT going to ship fish any more.

It takes about 45 min to an hour to catch, count, bag, add O2 to the bag, then double bag, then source a Styrofoam cooler, source a cardboard box to put the cooler in, source a cold pack and make the label. Then it's another 1/2 hour (and 25 miles) each way drive to the UPS center to ship them.

I quickly found out that with the way shipping companies are run today, it's pointless to ship them any other way than next day air, for delivery by noon the next day.

My question to the people that think shipping and handling is too much, what would you charge for 2 hours of your time plus 50 miles? Then add in the shipping supply cost and the actual shipping cost (plus overhead to pay for taxes, etc.)?

esshup,

Thanks for all of the explicit info!

I suspect your time to do 200 fish is not much more than your time to do 20 fish. However, the shipping cost/fish would be drastically different.

There are certainly people in the market to purchase fish that have no clue as to the effort to raise and ship fish. If I was a fish supplier, I might even have a spot on my web page listing the factors you listed above. People are pissed to see a $400 shipping estimate when they get shipping for free on an inanimate item from Amazon. If they see the inputs, then they might better understand the actual associated costs.

I had a guy that lived on an island off of the southern coast of Florida order 2 rainbow trout in August and was very unhappy that I wouldn't ship them....... I sell the trout at around 1# each, I have no idea what it would have cost to ship them.

You are correct on not much more time, BUT if they aren't eyeballs and aholes size wise, I don't think I could ship 200 in one box.....