Coral shipment delayed - what do I do?

[Tamberav]

I don’t think they have to pay you for insuring a live animal.

this is right off UPS website:

Any package containing a live animal shall be considered a perishable commodity and will be accepted for transportation solely at the shipper´s risk for any damage or loss arising from the perishable nature of the item. UPS shall not be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages.

 

[Tamberav]

Anyways it sucks and I have been burned enough I rarely order anything in winter or summer. I mostly buy in spring and fall. If it is not something super rare that you may not find again, it’s probably worth waiting for the weather to be nice or buying stuff local instead. COVID has only made shipping that much worse.

 

[Frogspon]

IMO it’s not reasonable but you have to look at it from their side too. I don’t know who you ordered it through but especially if it’s a smaller company that is a lot of money to lose on their side. And if their policy states that not much you can do :/

Meh, you'd be surprised. I've seen some of these companies never pay a dime for their inventory.

 

[JosephM]

Meh, you'd be surprised. I've seen some of these companies never pay a dime for their inventory.

That’s what the owner of my LFS told me today. He said you’d be surprised at how massive the colonies they have are and how much inventory they have that grows out quick and they can just keep going.

 

[SaltISlife]

As for acclimating cold corals go i suggest anyone to acclimate them to a warm room.. not the tank itself. Floating thrm would raise the temp too quickly in my opinion.

I ordered a torch coral. And it was 66f when i got it.. pretty darn cold. And i acclimated it to the rooms temps. Which were 76f took a few hours but id rather do that than have it sitting in my tank at 82f floating. It would go up in temp too fast that way

 

[JosephM]

As for acclimating cold corals go i suggest anyone to acclimate them to a warm room.. not the tank itself. Floating thrm would raise the temp too quickly in my opinion.

I ordered a torch coral. And it was 66f when i got it.. pretty darn cold. And i acclimated it to the rooms temps. Which were 76f took a few hours but id rather do that than have it sitting in my tank at 82f floating. It would go up in temp too fast that way

Interesting. I’d think that after being delayed for a while you’d want to get it out of that water asap? I get the whole not raising the temp quickly

 

[Frogspon]

That’s what the owner of my LFS told me today. He said you’d be surprised at how massive the colonies they have are and how much inventory they have that grows out quick and they can just keep going.

That's one way, but they have to get them first. They have other more predatory tactics.

Interesting. I’d think that after being delayed for a while you’d want to get it out of that water asap? I get the whole not raising the temp quickly

Best to rip the bandaid off IMO. Specially for fish. Allegedly that ammonia turns super toxic from shipment once the bag is opened and exposed to new air. I've heard that adding a bit of Prime helps tremendously if you plan to do a full acclimation

 

[JosephM]

That's one way, but they have to get them first. They have other more predatory tactics.



Best to rip the bandaid off IMO. Specially for fish. Allegedly that ammonia turns super toxic from shipment once the bag is opened and exposed to new air. I've heard that adding a bit of Prime helps tremendously if you plan to do a full acclimation

Not too worried about ammonia as my shipment is all corals. More worried they’ll be in that bag over 100 hrs in close to freezing temps and need to be brought up to temp and given a little light

 

[brmreefer]

Got a reply from my vendor and they will replace the DOAs. Thank goodness they are willing to do that considering their DOA policy states they are not responsible if shipment delays are the cause.
The only thing I would pay is the additional shipping costs. I'm on board with that.
My shipment was supposed to be delivered Thursday, but just arrived in Mobile, AL last night.

I'm going to ask to wait until travel conditions improve for a better chance of a successful delivery if this shipment doesn't make it. Fingers crossed.

 

[littlebeard]

Emailed the company pictures of my dead corals. Still waiting on a reply.... Since I didn't get a reply I acclimated them very slowly, however they were just powder and white skelly. I put them in my tank because I still haven't gotten a response

Just curious, has anyone ever gotten a tropical coral in 51 F water and have it live?

 

[sloogan]

Floated for 30 min and dropped mine into the tank. 19/19 survived. Anemone didn’t even get acclimated. Lobo lost some color due to the cold. Everything is opened up and fine as of today.

 

[JosephM]

Got a reply from my vendor and they will replace the DOAs. Thank goodness they are willing to do that considering their DOA policy states they are not responsible if shipment delays are the cause.
The only thing I would pay is the additional shipping costs. I'm on board with that.
My shipment was supposed to be delivered Thursday, but just arrived in Mobile, AL last night.

I'm going to ask to wait until travel conditions improve for a better chance of a successful delivery if this shipment doesn't make it. Fingers crossed.

Definitely not bad since their policy states they're not responsible. Smart move on waiting for weather conditions to improve

Emailed the company pictures of my dead corals. Still waiting on a reply.... Since I didn't get a reply I acclimated them very slowly, however they were just powder and white skelly. I put them in my tank because I still haven't gotten a response

Just curious, has anyone ever gotten a tropical coral in 51 F water and have it live?

Man that just sucks, sorry to hear. Let us know what the vendor says!

Floated for 30 min and dropped mine into the tank. 19/19 survived. Anemone didn’t even get acclimated. Lobo lost some color due to the cold. Everything is opened up and fine as of today.

That is crazy! Glad to hear they're all alive, hopefully they make a quick recovery

 

[William Morris]

This just in from Aquaculture Nursery Farms: Due to adverse weather conditions & warning notices from FedEx, we are holding all live shipments this week until further notice. We are hoping to start shipping again on Wed 17th or Thurs. of this week. Fed Ex has been unable to deliver 90% of packages this last week due to adverse weather conditions affecting different areas of the country which causes a bottleneck at their Memphis hub regardless of the delivery destination of the packages.

 

[JosephM]

This just in from Aquaculture Nursery Farms: Due to adverse weather conditions & warning notices from FedEx, we are holding all live shipments this week until further notice. We are hoping to start shipping again on Wed 17th or Thurs. of this week. Fed Ex has been unable to deliver 90% of packages this last week due to adverse weather conditions affecting different areas of the country which causes a bottleneck at their Memphis hub regardless of the delivery destination of the packages.

What makes me frustrated is that my package finally made it out of Kentucky and arrive in Shelby at 6am today. Shelby is the hub that delivers to me and of course they didn't send it out today... guess it's coming Monday. Good ole 5 day shipping for my corals.

 

[Seamore2001]

I had an order from CA to NC come in a couple of weeks ago - a number of acro frags. It was delayed for a few hours in KY, and when the corals arrived the bag water was 64. I did a normal acclimation and they all survived. Acros seem to be surprisingly resilient. I would imagine low temps are a bit easier for them to shake off than ones too high.

 

[Adamantium]

AFAIK, they are still offering insurance, but don’t guarantee delivery times any more, so you can’t get a refund if something is delayed. Now, how that impacts the insurance I don’t know. Having dealt with some vendors recently, though, it sounds as if they won’t pay out insurance settlements for delays. Only if they damage or lose something.

Could be wrong, but that’s my understanding.

 

[Adamantium]

That's one way, but they have to get them first. They have other more predatory tactics.



Best to rip the bandaid off IMO. Specially for fish. Allegedly that ammonia turns super toxic from shipment once the bag is opened and exposed to new air. I've heard that adding a bit of Prime helps tremendously if you plan to do a full acclimation

If you plan to use Prime, make sure the vendor doesn’t use copper. It’s a toxic combination.

 

[Kodski]

After going to the facility and banging on doors until someone could help me. I finally got my package. Got it home and checked water temp. It was 48.5 degrees..

 

[JosephM]

After going to the facility and banging on doors until someone could help me. I finally got my package. Got it home and checked water temp. It was 48.5 degrees..

Let us know how they look after they get acclimated!

 

[fish farmer]

What makes me frustrated is that my package finally made it out of Kentucky and arrive in Shelby at 6am today. Shelby is the hub that delivers to me and of course they didn't send it out today... guess it's coming Monday. Good ole 5 day shipping for my corals.

My egg shipment made it to Memphis last night, flown this morning to east TN.....only 3 hours to it's destination in VA, but not there yet and no delivery time stated.

I'm glad I didn't order a box of oysters for Valentine's Day, those would be suffering the same fate.