Shipping corals - tips/advice needed

[dmolavi]

I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with shipping corals (specifically thick branching frogspawn). What needs to be done w.r.t. packaging, heating/cooling, amounts of water, etc?

Thanks in advance.

[Nils]

I've never done it before but have seen on unboxing vids there is not a lot of water in the bag, maybe a little bit more than you need to cover the coral.
Insulation depends on where you live and where the customer lives, I'd pack it with a bunch of styrofoam and probably couple heat packs. Just make sure the bag can't move around the much.

[54seaweed]

I was talking with a friend of mine he ships a lot of stuff as that is his job .
anyway he had a awesome answer to my question about this .

first get yourself a medium size box 11 x 8.5 x 5.5 putting it together , now place a flat section of cardboard on the bottom of the box .

now we need a box of qt size ziploc bags , inflate 4 bags semi full of air seal them and place on the bottom of the box , this will give a air cushion . place a small liner of news paper down over the bags of air this will act as a insulator . remember to repeat this step when your closing the box.

since we are shipping frog spawn/torch/hammer take 1 stalk place it in a ziploc fill bag just enough to cover the stalk , now seal the bag about 3/4 of the way shut now roll the bag up keeping most of the water on the coral once done finish closing bag .

with every 2 of these you do place the 2 rolled bags into another ziploc and close it. this will keep things in place not moving around a lot . place your coral bags flat on the air bags. you may need to stuff some news paper to fill any voids .
place another layer of flat news paper down,

place a heat pack wrapped in paper in the center than add your air bag cushion
flat cardboard seal the box and your ready to ship ,

as for a heat pack wally world sells hand warmers for like 99cents the keep them in sporting goods and also by the registers.

[dmolavi]

It looks like FedEx doesn't allow live animal shipping (for non-commercial shippers, at least), and UPS doesn't appear to explicitly allow corals, only fish. My concern here is that if a claim needs to be made, since coral isn't on the UPS "ok to ship" list, the claim will be denied.

From https://www.ups.com/animals#Accepted...d+Live+Animals :

While the list of "Accepted Live Animals" provided herein is an exhaustive list of animals that can be offered for transportation in accordance with the conditions listed, the list of "Prohibited Live Animals" is only a partial list of animals provided to clarify specific species that are not accepted for transportation and may not be shipped via UPS. Any animal not specifically listed on the "Accepted Live Animals" list is prohibited by UPS and will not be accepted for transportation.

Accepted Live Animals

This is a comprehensive list of live animals accepted for transportation. Shippers are prohibited from shipping any animal not listed here, and all other live animals will not be accepted for transportation. The following live animals are accepted for transportation unless poisonous, venomous, and/or a Threatened or Endangered Species.

• Amphibians (All): Examples: frogs, salamanders, toads
• Crustaceans (All): Examples: crabs, crawfish, lobsters, shrimp
• Fish (All)
• Insects (Limited to beneficial insects only): Examples: bees, butterflies, crickets, lady bugs
• Mollusks (All): Examples: clams, mussels, snails
• Reptiles (Limited to the following):
  - Lizards: Examples: chameleons, geckos, iguanas, monitors, flying dragons
  - Turtles: freshwater turtles (except: snapping turtles), land tortoises, sea turtles
• Worms (All)

This is the only reference I can find on FedEx:
Shipping Terms - FedEx Package Tracking - Government Contract Services :

Live Animals

FedEx does not accept live animal shipments as part of its regularly scheduled service. Live animals will be accepted when the shipment is coordinated and approved by the FedEx Live Animal Desk. Acceptable shipments include, but are not limited to, zoo animals (to and from zoo locations only) and horses (from gateway to gateway locations only). Household pets, such as domestic cats and dogs, and live fish are not accepted.

So it looks like UPS is the only option, and there is risk involved in the event of a claim...

[54seaweed]

a lot of risk with ups especially on my end everything that comes ups is damaged
post office just as bad my wife is a carrier she says it's not worth the money for the inadequate service always taking longer to ship than it's supposed to. ship next day get it 3 days later . 2 day priority a week later .