Hauling Fish

[canuckamuck]

I am at the point now with my fish experiments that I need to sell some to make more space.

I bought one of those 1000 liter plastic chemical tanks that are in a steel cage. Now I need to know the best way to make use of it.

I assume you cut a hole in the top so you can get a net in there. How big should the hole be? Do you need a lid?

I assume that normally you wouldn't fill it all the way to the top for transport because that would be really heavy and would make cornering more difficult too. How much water is best? 700 liters?

I have an Oxygen tank for it. What rate of oxygen should I use, and how many hours can you get on a tank of O2?

If these questions seem simplistic I apologize. So far I have been selling fish locally and only had to put them in 20 liter drums or hand them out in bags. Now I hope to find buyers who require bigger numbers.

The fish I intend to haul are 4- 6 inch Tab Tim fingerlings.

[slapout]

I Was press ganged into sharing driving duties on a fingerling delivery one time. It was a 1000 mile trip, one way. The unit was used on a regular route just for this purpose. The only stops were for meals for drivers, fuel for truck and ice.for the fish tank. Never shut the truck off.

A insulated tank which held about 800 gallon of water was used (looked like a oversized old style deep freeze with a non seal lid. A airerator/circulation pump was wired to the electrial system of the truck for continous running and we would stop at ice house and put in a 50+ pound. block of ice every 5 or 6 hours. This meant draing some water and checking fish for vitality/net out any dead one etc.

The other driver made a living driving this type of rig up, delivering live fish . He did seem to feel the reduced temp. thus the ice use was critial to good surrival rates. Good luck

[canuckamuck]

A trip like that must eat heavy into profits, you must have had a lot of fish on board to make it worthwhile.

I am hoping for 100kms or less, but I haven't stared sourcing potential buyers yet. At the moment I only have about 400 fish ready to go.

An electric DC air pump is a good idea, but I haven't seen any.

[IsaanAussie]

Go take a look at how these guys do it and what they use. 1000 litres of water is a very "mobile" tonne of weight in a pickup truck. The cube you are planning on using is top heavy weight distribution wise. You could get to know all about rollovers much easier than perhaps you think.

[ozzydom]

A trip like that must eat heavy into profits, you must have had a lot of fish on board to make it worthwhile.

I am hoping for 100kms or less, but I haven't stared sourcing potential buyers yet. At the moment I only have about 400 fish ready to go.

An electric DC air pump is a good idea, but I haven't seen any.

Check the Farmaqua website,they have 12V DC air pumps,located in Prachinburi, they will ship if required.

[canuckamuck]

Go take a look at how these guys do it and what they use. 1000 litres of water is a very "mobile" tonne of weight in a pickup truck. The cube you are planning on using is top heavy weight distribution wise. You could get to know all about rollovers much easier than perhaps you think.

Yeah I hear you. I am concerned, but I do see quite a lot of trucks with them on board. No need to hurry though, and I am thinking that it wouldn't be full either. I was hoping to hear from someone who has done it.

[IsaanAussie]

You do not have to wait.You have the drum so put 200 litres in it and go for a drive as you normally do. Back home and add another 200 litres and drive the same course at the same speed. You will notice a difference. The CofG is getting higher. Your empty pickup has a CofG at about the same height as the seat of your pants, hence the expression. Keep going adding 200 litres per circuit. by the time that 1000 litre container is full you will understand the danger if you have the go-nads to keep up the speed. By the way make sure your have tied the drum tightly to the sides of the body. 1000 kg sliding at 2G will <deleted> up your pickup bed pretty good.

You ever want someone to drive the truck for you, this exercise is a good training effort for them.

Some years ago a gas bottle company asked me to consult on some roll over accidents. One was a corker. The driver stopped on the verge of a four lane highway a little over the edge so he was fully in the emergency lane. He needed a leak and got out to do that as a matter of urgency so slammed the door on exit.The truck rolled over the edge.

[gamini]

Buy a lot of large plastic bags put 5 liters of water in each. You could put about 100-150 small fingerlings in each. squeeze all the air out of the bag and fill it from your oxygen bottle so it is about 75% 02 and 25% water .tie it with elastic bands. The fish will survive about 12 hours. I have transported live fish like this for aquariums, if your figerlings are larger you can reduce the number. But dont let the bags get hot.

[RedBullHorn]

Here's my IBC (Intermedia Bulk Container) "tank", you could see the lid. I cut it 3 sides and leave 1 side uncut, it works like a flip cover. Just cut it bigger than the hand held net so scooping fishes is a breeze. I fill about 350-400 L of water and load maximum 500kg of catfishes and deliver them 120km to wholesaler's farm after final pond clearing. You will need a DC water pump for you Tab Tim, the pump (small aquarium pump) is hook up to the car battery. Don't worry about pulling Gs, on the highway with mild traffic, i drive 90-100km/h (and overtaking slow coaches too), 40-50km/h when i bending corners. But it needs to be perfectly secure with ropes at the back of the truck.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/612480-farm-photos/?p=6282678

You notice mine's a double cab, worst weight distribution with a water tank, take note that your vehical will rock to-&-fro as you drive, stop, drive, stop (traffic lights junctions)...works better on straight cab.

[canuckamuck]

Thanks RBH, that is very helpful. I have a smartcab, so slightly longer bed.

I like the idea of the DC pump, but I have already bought the oxygen setup, and I will use that and see how it goes. Problem with O2 is there is no backup when it runs out, unless I get 2.

[RedBullHorn]

Some of my wholesalers deliver Pla Nim during Pla Duk off season, I've seen the aquarium pump hook up to their car battery... That's how i knew.

[Pacificperson]

Here are a couple of air pump set-up that I saw in Krabi not too long ago. One is electric and one is gas powered.

[Pacificperson]

Sorry, I thought that I could up load two pictures at once, but it didn't work. Here is the electric blower rig.

[canuckamuck]

I am surprised they need so much power to circulate air. They must have quite high densities of fish in the containers.

You could probably keep 10 divers alive with that gas powered rig. Or perhaps one motor is a back up.

[Pacificperson]

Each set-up has two motors and pumps for redundancy. They are probably running 20+ airstones. The fish are quite valuable grouper fry (30-60 baht each piece), and the boss would not be happy if they died.

[David48]

Have run out of likes ... will return soon.

canuckamuck ... hope you don't mind but have added this to the collective knowledge in the fish-farms-201

Just trying to bring all the references, tips and tricks together in one place.

.

[David48]

Mate ... hot off the presses.

MissFarmGirl returned to Thailand during the week and there was a Fish catch and the wholesalers came to the Farm ... these are their rigs for transporting fish.

Not exactly what you wanted but what the Thai's use.

You can see the tanks go to the roof line ... must be a heck of water in them.

I'm still in Australia.

.

[canuckamuck]

I would have to upgrade my suspension to try that trick. I am constanlty amazed at how much weight Thais pack onto to their pickups. Sometimes they must exceed load capacity by double, I'm sure.

[RedBullHorn]

The standard weight load is 1 ton, to increase just add more suspension - Truck Leave Spring.

I got mine second hand, cost me ฿200/ leave spring.