Got a shipping question

[foxhuntr]

I am planning on shipping out some purple hornets after thanksgiving..... I bought some chalice frags from Elitereefs and i recieved my frags in specimen bottles.....GREAT IDEA by the way....... and great guy to buy from......anyhow my question is can i float the purple hornets upside down in the bottle????? i have some other bottles with caps that i drilled a hole in the center of the cap so the stems of the frag plugs fit into the holes them i put a small rubberband to hold the plugs in the holes...then i glue the small caps with the holes to the underside of the cap of the specimen bottle....so the frag will be hanging upside down in the specimen bottles....so all you have to do is fill the specimen bottle with salt water and push the stem of the frag plug into the hole and attach the rubberband and screw the cap on...now the frag will never be out of the water...... but will it effect the zoanthid in any way????? i have seen and heard of people attaching a peice of styrofoam to a frag of frogspawn or hammer to keep it upside down in the bags...... will this also work for zoa's on a frag plug ???? please let me hear your input.... i just dont want to cause any kind of effect on the zoa.....

 

[MikeB]

We float all of our frags by glueing packing peanuts to the bottom of the plug.

 

[foxhuntr]

even zoanthids?????

 

[MikeB]

even zoanthids?????

Everything

 

[seafansar]

Make sure it's completely filled with water, so if it turns right side up it will still be underwater. But zoas will do just fine upside down. They're one of the toughest corals out there.

 

[foxhuntr]

thank you for the input ....i feel alittle better now

 

[lkjr409]

Upside down is not a problem....but I've had lots of stuff ship well without going through this. In fact, in some shipments I've gotten, the frags were off the styrofoam square because the rubberbands they used didn't keep the plugs to the styrofoam. You should also label your box with red arrows "up" and "Live" and "Perishable".

The bigger issue is shipping in cold weather...watch those heat packs....if you pack in a very small box, a heat pack can "fry" your corals. I just had the experience of coral specimen sent to me in a very small box with a heat pack - when I got it, the water in the bag was almost 97 degrees F! I wonder how high it got during transit? Those babies were pretty much cooked!

IMHO if you go FEDEX (my fav) priority overnight is a must..you can get stuff from the west shipped out in the afternoon and arrive at your destination on the east coast before 10:30 AM(that's the guarantee). I've got stuff from the midwest to me in the east (PHL) by 8:30 AM sometimes! Good luck.

 

[foxhuntr]

i am shipping in a insulated box 9.5"x7.5x5.5" inside..... there will be one specimen bottle surrounded with packing peanuts with a 40 hour heat pack....... comming from Pa going to Florida..... shipping UPS next day air......does this sound ok to you????

 

[seafansar]

Tape the heat pack to the inside top and cover it with some news paper to prevent what happened to lkjr409.

 

[mfinn]

And don't seal the box completely.
Allow some air to get in.
The heat pack won't stay warm if the O2 runs out.

 

[livingcorals]

I always shipped out zoas as is on plugs or rocks and if need just put another bag in there for cushion. Protecting the head of the hammer coral is a good idea but the base of its stalk can be sharp and puncture the bag. I have a few shipping carriers here and from my experience I'll never ship usps again. Just UPS

 

[H@rry]

For hammers and frogspawns, I cut a strip of small bubble wrap and wrap that around the sharp point with a rubber band. This keeps it floating and keeps the sharp point from poking a hole in the bag. Make sure you get the kind with small bubbles so you can cut a strip without letting all the air out of the bubbles.

 

[lkjr409]

Sounds OK...you can actually drill or poke a small hole on the top of the styrofoam container maybe twice the size of a pencil eraser or so. (The pack needs oxygen or it can't do its thing). Let the heat pack warm up for a few minutes too before you seal things. (Its a personal thing - but if things are dry, I like crushed up newspaper better than packing peanuts....just me )