How often do you lose new frags?

[dragon99]

I got a large order of acro's this week (17 total) and lost 2 within hours of them being in my tank and another 2 days later. Certainly no stranger to losing something, but it's been awhile since I've lost a frag that quickly.

Curious what other's experience has been. Is it common to lose the occasional frag that's been shipped halfway across the country?

 

[bobby.w.hodges]

Since I started drip acclimating all my new corals I haven't experienced any losses.

 

[OnPointCorals Verified Sponsor]

It’s likely that order experienced heat fluctuations during shipping. 2 hours in the tank the seller should be contacted.
That’s likely not on you as long as you temp acclimated them.

 

[Kfactor]

I don’t loose much but when I do it’s not till the 3 ish month mark don’t know why

 

[dragon99]

I hate to complain to the seller. It's possibly related to shipping, but I can't help feeling like I did something wrong. The corals I lost were some some of the last ones I got into the tank (but not the last, those 3 all made it).

 

[Nilo S]

Since drip-acclimating and light-acclimating, not a single one. The only coral I lost this year was a Bali open brain, because I couldn’t find a place with enough low light and low flow for it, but that took weeks

 

[Plecosam]

I don’t loose much but when I do it’s not till the 3 ish month mark don’t know why

Lefty loosey righty tighty!

 

[Sallstrom]

I think it depends very much on the species and individual colony. On how long it’s been in an aquarium, how well adapted the colony is to aquariums and how healthy it is.
What I’ve seen newly imported corals, mostly Acropora, can be very sensitive the first months. Other species are still hard to get good survival after fragging for us, even if the mother colonies been here for years.

So I think losing frags now and then are normal. Specially if they were cut and glued recently.

 

[Garia666]

In 8 years I lost only one new coral.

I have lost corals over the years but not new ones. Light shock moving to anew aquarium. Tube which got stuck with kh not providing the corals enough nutrients. Things like that.

 

[Plecosam]

Pardon?

 

[jda]

Most losses are a result of where they came from and how the got shipped moreso than what happened once they landed. Super healthy corals from a shipper can usually be in a box for 48 hours, get pretty cold and still do OK. Nobody has a chance if they get too hot.

 

[Eldredge]

Pardon?

I think he was making a joke about “loose” vs. “lose”

 

[andrewey]

In my experience, it depends on the source more than anything. From fellow hobbyists I meet in person, I think I've maybe lost one (curse you Red Dragon!). Those that get shipped to me- quite the range. I've started measuring the temperature of the box and water of all arrivals- it's pretty telling how well a coral is going to do with this single parameter. Obviously the species of SPS as well as how recently it was collected, fragged, etc all play a pretty large role. I suspect the diversity of answers you'll recieve is largely driven by the source of SPS and the species themselves.

Acclimation is usually all we're in control of, so we often put the sucsess or failure of a coral on how well it was acclimated, rather than considering the totality of the picture.

 

[Plecosam]

I think he was making a joke about “loose” vs. “lose”