<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11595222#post11595222 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jens Kallmeyer
HI there
On one marine expedition to the Arabian Sea we collected deep water amphipods (the giant ones, 6 - 8 " long) in 2000 to 3000 METERS water depth with a thermally insulated trap. The water temperature was 3 to 4 degrees Celsius (do your own calculation how much this is in fahrenheit). Decompression took several days, don't ask me how long. During decompression the trap was actively cooled with large electric coolers powered by deep water batteries. On one or two occasions we got small fishes in the traps as well and we got them to the surface alive. A few of them made it into the holding tanks which were inside the cold room at 4°C. The biologists had to kill the specimen for research, so I don't know for how long the fishes would have survived if one had tried to keep them alive.
The only pet we ever took home was a small pistol shrimp from the Chilean upwelling region, water depth was about 600 m. We shipped it home in a large jar in a 4° cooling container with all the other samples and it lived happily in the darkness of our cold room for over 2 years. Considering the cost of all this, this little shrimp would be worth thousands of dollars, I just don't want to think about fishes.
Still,
