How to Know if Frags are Dead

[trevorhiller]

I see a lot of coral websites offering a DOA guarantee. Many require you to email within 2 hours of arrival if something is dead. My question is, how do you know if they are dead and not just stressed out. I just received my first shipment of corals via the internet and here are some photos. 2 hours is not much time to dip, get in the tank and see if they open up. Some of these are looking pretty rough, but others are already showing polyp extension.

 

[Bribo12]

Every single one of those look dead/close to death. I’d email pics to the seller of them all and the water in the box. The only one I can’t really tell is the candy canes and they look fairly rough too. 56 degrees in the bag and 31 ppt salinity is pretty rough. Did they get delayed? Or just packaged poorly? (No heat packs?)

 

[muzikalmatt]

Maybe it's the daylight lighting but most of those do not look healthy and are likely on death's door. Lack of polyp extension is one thing, but many of them look like they don't have any tissue remaining.

2 hours also seems like a pretty short DOA guarantee to me. WWC for example has a 10-day guarantee for coral.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Even if theyre not dead, if they come in heavily stressed and bleached take pictures and send to the seller immediately like you did. Theres a chance some of yours may make it but they are definitely not looking good.

The easiest way to tell if sps are dead is when you can see the empty hole where polyps should be. If thats too hard to see, once the frag starts growing algae on it, its for sure dead. With lps its a lot easier as the fleash will jist be completely gone or deteriorating. Soft corals will just disintegrate.

 

[Chrisv.]

Yeah those are all either dead or will be dead shortly.

 

[Chrisv.]

How long were those delayed?

 

[trevorhiller]

They weren’t delayed. They were shipped yesterday around 530 pm and showed up today at 522 pm.

I’m kind of bummed. I ordered them from fishofhex from YouTube on January 8th. I hadn’t been able to contact him and hadn’t heard anything until Sunday when I emailed him saying I would have to cancel if he didn’t reply to my email. He replied saying it was too cold to ship, hence the delay and offfered to ship regardless. I emailed him back and said I was fine waiting if he thought it was too cold, but just wanted some communication about the delay since I hadn’t heard anything.

He ended up sending them out anyhow. It fortunately wasn’t terribly cold today, however; the heat pack wasn’t warm and something leaked for sure.

 

[shakacuz]

i usually take a blue light flashlight to the coral while its in the bag, taking pictures or even videos as i unpack. i temp acclimate the bag, and during this time i try to see of any polyp extension. usually at this time you'll see some PE, then i begin dipping.

in your case, based off the pictures provided i'd confidently say most, if not all, are dead. if you can't see any polyps, or flesh(you can tell the difference between flesh and bone on a coral), then it's dead. if it has some flesh/polyps left, it can still bounce back!

 

[trevorhiller]

So far the candy cane, green slimed and one other (unknown) are the only ones that are showing any polyp extension/fluorescence. The candy can definitely had some tissue recession around two of the heads.

I’m super bummed. I’ve waited 3 months to put anything but a mushroom in the tank and this is how they arrive. :-(

 

[shakacuz]

I’m super bummed. I’ve waited 3 months to put anything but a mushroom in the tank and this is how they arrive. :-(

it is definitely very unfortunate. i had a similar situation with an order for 1 coral. it was delayed, however, which was the reason for its DOA.

have you heard anything form him in regards to any replacements/refunds?

 

[trevorhiller]

I emailed FishOfHex all the photos. We’ll see what he says.

I did float the frags in the tank and dipped them as fast as I could to try to get them in the tank hoping they would be ok, but I’m bummed. Even the GSP frag I got isn’t showing polyp extension….

 

[Bribo12]

Definitely try to feed the candy cane if it will open at feeding time. The others that may still be somewhat alive still look really tough

 

[trevorhiller]

it is definitely very unfortunate. i had a similar situation with an order for 1 coral. it was delayed, however, which was the reason for its DOA.

have you heard anything form him in regards to any replacements/refunds?

Not yet. It hasn’t been long since I emailed him though, they just showed up this evening.

 

[Rollman]

Sorry to see that, happens sometimes hopefully the seller will resolve for you.

 

[Anirban]

So far the candy cane, green slimed and one other (unknown) are the only ones that are showing any polyp extension/fluorescence. The candy can definitely had some tissue recession around two of the heads.

I’m super bummed. I’ve waited 3 months to put anything but a mushroom in the tank and this is how they arrive. :-(

Those 2 SPS aren't dead. They are shocked and stressed. Just keep the parameters stable and keep them on a frag rack bottom of the tank for few days to acclimate them, They will be fine. The SPS will be white when they are dead.

 

[Shooter6]

I've dealt with frags both being dead and close to death and making a full recovery. I would put them in the tank (preferably a qt) and give them some months to recover. Ive got probably 12 frags that looked dead, turned white, then algae covered, come back to life a few months later.

 

[trevorhiller]

I've dealt with frags both being dead and close to death and making a full recovery. I would put them in the tank (preferably a qt) and give them some months to recover. Ive got probably 12 frags that looked dead, turned white, then algae covered, come back to life a few months later.

Unfortunately I don’t have a QT tank, these are literally the first frags I’ve gotten other than a mushroom. But I’m completely ok leaving them in there to see if they show signs of life. The tank is brand new, so it’s not exactly a display tank just yet.

 

[Chrisv.]

I'm sorry, but even the corals that Monty Python would call "not dead yet" are completely unacceptable. You can try to put them in your tank, but it's not okay for a coral to come in minutes from death with a hope of recovering in months.

I hope he makes this right.

 

[Chrisv.]

Also, sorry for this misfortune. What a let down when you have been waiting patiently.

 

[trevorhiller]

Also, sorry for this misfortune. What a let down when you have been waiting patiently.

Yeah it really did kind of take the wind out of my sails, especially after waiting 3 weeks for them to ship and 3 months into the tank. But I guess this goes with reef keeping…