Shipping live shrimp in an Australian summer

Winter's risk for shrimp in the post is cold. Summer's is heat, and heat is the less forgiving of the two. A box that sits in a hot delivery van or on a sunny doorstep can warm quickly, and the shrimp inside have no way to escape it. Most of what keeps a summer parcel safe happens at two points: how it leaves us, and how quickly it gets from the front door into your hands.

What heat does to shrimp in a bag

Dwarf shrimp are ectotherms (cold-blooded): their body runs at whatever temperature the water is. As the water in the bag warms, their metabolism speeds up. They use oxygen faster and produce waste faster, in a small, sealed volume of water that can't be changed.

Warm water also holds less dissolved oxygen than cool water. So in a hot parcel, demand for oxygen goes up while the supply in the water goes down. That squeeze is why a heat-affected parcel is the one most likely to arrive with losses, and why time in transit matters even more in summer.

At home, Neocaridina davidi are commonly kept from 18 to 28 °C, with 20 to 24 °C the sensible target. A parcel left in the sun can go well past anything a shrimp would meet in a tank.

What we do at our end

• We only dispatch on Mondays and Tuesdays. Livestock is never in transit over a weekend, when a parcel could sit in a depot.
• Livestock always goes express post. It is the only service that reliably gets animals to you alive. Express post normally arrives within 48 hours.
• We pack for the season. Shrimp travel in standard fish shipping bags with added oxygen, inside an insulated box, with heat or cold packs as the season requires.
• We send juveniles. We ship unsexed juveniles (too young to tell male from female) at 0.6–1.2 cm.
• We may advise against dispatch in extreme weather. If a heatwave is forecast along the route, we may suggest waiting. Our Live Arrival Guarantee doesn't cover orders you ask us to dispatch against our advice during extreme weather, so it is worth taking the suggestion seriously.

We also can't send live animals to Western Australia, the Northern Territory or Tasmania; the reasons are on our DOA & Missing Items Policy.

What you can do: before delivery day

• Use an address where someone is home. Live animals must be received in person on the day of delivery. Safe-dropped parcels, PO Boxes, parcel lockers and post-office collections are not covered by the guarantee. In summer this matters twice over: a box on a sunny step is the single biggest avoidable risk.
• Watch your tracking. Know which day the parcel is due and plan to be there.
• Have the tank ready. It should be fully cycled, meaning the helpful bacteria that break down waste are established, so ammonia and nitrite read zero. How to cycle a tank for shrimp explains the process.
• Check your tank temperature too. A tank that is overheating in a hot room is a poor place to land stressed shrimp. Keeping the room cool, or the tank out of direct sun, helps both.

What you can do: when the box arrives

1. Bring it inside straight away and open it in the shade, out of direct sun.
2. Check the bags. Pale, still shrimp are normal after transit and usually colour up within the hour.
3. If anything is wrong, photograph and film first. Our Live Arrival Guarantee needs a claim within 8 hours of delivery, with your order number and photos plus a short video, ideally of the animals still in the sealed bag. Message us on Facebook or Instagram, or email support@shrimpzone.com.au. You choose the remedy: a refund of the livestock value, free replacements on your next order, or store credit.
4. Turn the aquarium lights off or right down. Darkness lowers stress while you acclimate.
5. Acclimate slowly. Acclimation means easing the shrimp into your tank's water gradually instead of tipping them straight in. Float the sealed bag to even out the temperature, then drip your tank water in slowly. Full steps are in our Care & Acclimation Guide and in How to acclimatise your new shrimp.
6. Don't pour the shipping water into your tank. Tip it down the drain.

How transit time affects cover

Because shrimp weaken the longer they are bagged, our guarantee is tiered by how long the parcel took from dispatch to delivery, per Australia Post tracking. Up to 48 hours in transit is full cover; 48 to 96 hours is 50% cover; beyond 96 hours is outside the guarantee, but get in touch and we'll work out something fair. That is transit time, not your claim deadline, which is always 8 hours from delivery. The full terms are in our DOA & Missing Items Policy, and none of it limits your rights under the Australian Consumer Law.

The first days after a hot trip

• Don't feed for the first 24 hours. There is plenty of biofilm (the thin film of microbes on every surface that shrimp graze) to keep them going.
• Expect hiding and muted colour at first. Shrimp that are grazing and roaming, with colour returning, are settling in.
• Anything look off? Message us the same day with a photo or video. We'd rather help early.

For keeping a tank comfortable once the shrimp are home, stability matters more than any single number; Water parameters for Neocaridina covers the rest. And if losses turn up later, Why are my shrimp dying? works through the usual causes.