This is a fairly old post, but, I will reply with some of my experiences....I almost never ship fish anymore...The regs, state and federal are too cumbersome for my older, more feable brain to deal with...lol That said, forget the "breather bags"..They are all but useless if you properly ship. Breather bags need air surrounding them, and to ship properly, you need double layers of plastic bags that can not leak. The best shipping containers are used and designed for shipping "Tropical fish"...Hit up pet shops that are not chain store, like a PetSmart...They will often sell you the shipping containers for a few bucks each...then you need 15" square bottom shipping bags, and double bag. I originally used UPS to ship, but after many crushed boxes of dead fish, and fights for the refunds from UPS, I shipped overnight exclusively with Fedex, and only had 1 "bad" delivery after that...I am fortunate that I live near an international airport, so my cut-off was 9:45pm to ship overnight...and if I was late, a Fedex pilot would often take my packages and still deliver....Overnight is expensive, but reliable...Surprisingly, the least expensive was same-day air freight...I once shipped 400 pounds of fish from St Louis, MO to LA in CA, and the cost was only $175, and in the customer's truck 5 hours after I dropped off the fish....I used industrial oxygen to fill bags "loosly"...the gas expands in flight....It takes practice to do it right on the shipping end, but it takes knowledge and lots of research to ship legally. The Lacey Act of 1900 requires a shipper to adhere to all federal, state, local and international laws pertaining to all plants and animals....including shipping laws
