Product Description
Kordon ® Breathing Bags™ represent a new approach to the problems of shipping
live fishes and other aquatic animals and aquatic plants, including over
long distances or for extended time periods. The product development staff
at Kordon, teamed with plastics chemical engineers, have taken a technology
first developed in space/military research and refined it to produce the
bags being offered today.
The Breathing Bags allow the transfer of simple and complex gas molecules
through the plastic wall of the bag -- carbon dioxide and oxygen in particular,
as well as other gases - providing a true "breathing" bag in place
of a "barrier" bag as is used in plastic polyethylene bags. As
long as there is a breathable atmosphere outside the Breathing Bag, the animals
inside will not run out of oxygen.
Carbon dioxide exits the bags at 4 times the rate oxygen enters the bags, thereby
constantly purging the water of toxic carbon dioxide, and allowing oxygen to
replace it in the water. Kordon has shipped around the world millions of bags
(termed "Sachets") of living foods (tubifex worms, brine shrimp, daphnia,
glass worms, etc.) for aquarium fishes using the Breathing Bag technology, and
hundreds of thousands of Breathing Bags have been used successfully to ship fishes,
coral reef animals, and aquatic plants.
Prior to this invention, the only plastic bags available for shipping fishes
and aquatic invertebrates were made of polyethylene and had no mechanism
to allow the passage of gasses through the bag wall. When using these "barrier" bags,
any oxygen must - of necessity - be added as a gas inside the bag prior to
sealing.
This process has many problems. High concentrations of oxygen can cause flammable
conditions. The presence of oxygen gas inside the bag takes up a lot of
valuable shipping space. Once the supplied oxygen is used up there is no more
available.
Toxic carbon dioxide from the fishes' breathing builds up in the water, displacing
the oxygen. The oxygenated air in the bags may not be satisfactory for fishes'
breathing, because (particularly from sources in underdeveloped countries), the
bottled oxygen may be contaminated. A bag partially full of water with the rest
filled with oxygen allows the contents to slosh during transport, stressing fishes.
Methods of Use For Fishes and Aquatic Invertebrates
After adding water and fishes or aquatic invertebrates to the Breathing Bag, seal the bag with no airspace or with as little airspace as possible.
Except for those few kinds of air-breathing fishes that are made uncomfortable
by the lack of an air space at the surface, fishes adapt readily to the lack
of an airspace and it is not needed. It is best if there is no air pocket
in the bag so that there is no water movement, keeping the fishes calmer.
An unneeded air space also uses up valuable shipping space.
Breathing bags can be sealed using all of the current methods: rubber bands,
twist ties, metal clips, etc. An even better way for fast efficient sealing is
with a bar type heat sealer. The plastic used in the "Breathing Bags" readily
seals with heat. Heat sealing can be done much more quickly than other methods
and greatly increases the speed with which bags can be handled and sealed. For
those sealing many bags for shipment the change will be a dramatic reduction
in labor.
Sizes
Available in three sizes: 5.5 x 8, 7.5 x12, and 11.5 x 19
Prices
| 5.5 x 8 | $24.95/100 bags |
| 7.5 x 12 | $31.95/100 bags |
| 11.5 x 19 | $41.95/100 bags |