Whats the best way to ship coral??

[mlamphere]

I have never done this before. Any advice on how would be great. I'd be shipping mainly softies. Xenia in this instance.

mike

 

[TheUltimateNoob]

just to make sure you know, xenia is one of the poorest shippers.

 

[MarkO]

I've got a white pom pom and a lt. brown elongata you can have. Just come up to Lowell and take as much as you want. Just promise to not curse me in a year.

 

[Moe_K]

I shipped coral frags to FL and NV a couple of years ago.
One big mistake was putting the frags in the Gladware containers (cheap Tupperware). The plastic containers leaked (bad lids) and the corals inside didn't make it. I had 4 or 5 containers of frags stuck inside a styro box and cushioned with styro peanuts. I had a few heat packs (hand warmers) in there.
In the same shipment, I put a couple frags (unmounted) of an acro species into a kid's lunchbox plastic thermos and sealed it shut.
The kid's thermos worked really well.
I figure any container with a good screw top lid will work well. Anything where the lid can pop off will leak.

 

[Jim Tansey]

THERMOS........thats a great idea. They are available with wide lids for soups etc. pretty cheap.

Jim

 

[mlamphere]

Thanks for the info. I think it might be wise to wait untill it gets a bit warmer. Its freezing here.

 

[wrassefan]

xenia almost never makes it...everyone ends up with a bag of "ooze".

 

[johnbarr]

Check with your local fish store(sponsor) and they will gladly give you plastic bags and even styro containers, if available. Triple bag the item and at this time of year add a heat pack to the inside of the styro and seal it - ship it - and forget it!!!

 

[Greg Hiller]

Whenever possible it's best to float corals upsidedown rubber banded to a small square of styrofoam. Triple bag as mentioned above. For Xenia it's best never to remove it from the water just prior to shipping. I've shipped it successfully a few times, but I've had it die in shipping as well. Of the two forms of Xenia that seem to be in the Boston area, I find the 'bluer' large stalked Xenia does better than the whiter more frilly type during shipping (slimes less).

 

[mlamphere]

great options, the xenia that i was thinking about shipping was the tan frilly type i got from my sister down there in taunton. i think i'll hold off till it gets warmer then it might have a chance. Xenia from what i have heard elseware too, has a hard enough time in transit, let alone with the sub zero temps here.