This may not be the best way and I'm no expert but I thought I'd at least get a thread started about making boxes for shipping/sharing fishes. Please jump on in this thread and share your tips with the group. Below box is designed for use with breather bags. I'm convinced I've suffocated fish with very tight fitting boxes in the past and have instruction to shave a 1/4" to 1/2" off many dimensions for this reason. If you intend to use oxygen instead of breather bags simply ignore the intentional sloppy fit instruction in red.



In the attached photos, I'm using 1/2" extruded foam sheets from the home improvement store. I assemble the box I intend to use and measure the A & C dimension. I then take 1/2" off each dimension and begin the layout on the sheet of foam. I use a "T" square but any straight edge will do. This dimension will be suitable for the top and the bottom so make it easy on yourself and layout the two at once (or all that you'll need).

I then measure the B dimension and subtract the total thickness of two foam pieces combined plus 1/4 to 1/2" depending on overall box dimension (less for very small boxes). Once I have this measurement, I measure the Adimension again and subtract 1/4". I then layout my measurements on the sheet and cut.


Now I use the same modified B dimension used to cut above sheet and measure C dimension. Make sure and subtract the total thickness of two foam pieces combined as you did with the modified B dimension. To save time layout several strips of the B dimension since you'll use this thickness for all side walls of your box.

For square boxes, you can ignore either the A or the C dimension and simply subtract one sheet thickness plus 1/4".

I meant to put this in my original post.......The above is why you should offer to pay a few bucks to the person that takes the time to starve the fish for a day or two, take tank water and treat it with shipping additive, buy the bags/oxygen, pack the fish up Sunday night/early Monday morning, make the labels/packing slips, buy, measure and cut the foam boxes, drive to the post office and finally hopes you get the fish before it freezes/bakes on your front porch.

Thanks for reading

This is why I rarely ship fish any more...