How are you guys keeping your corals you buy if you hang out for the entire day? I want to buy corals as i see them during the day but want to hang out for the end day raffle? Do the venders keep them for you and pick up later? Make a trips back home? I would think palys and zoas would be good for the full day in my bags but dont really want to take a chance. Any suggestions? thanks
I live in Colorado, but just happened to be down in California while the show was going on. Being an avid coral junkie and former member of SCMAS I couldn't not stop by the show. So I popped in and figured I might pick up some bread and butter pieces for some clients back in CO. Nothing fancy or expensive. I bought eight pieces. Vendor bagged them for me and then put them in a plastic shopping bag. I went out to my car put them in a soft sided "thermal" type bag. I then went to a late lunch with a friend at a vietnamese restaurant in Westminster. I then stopped by a nephews football game in Orange. After that I went to one brothers house in la Mirada to pick something up for him. After that I drove back down to Garden Grove to meet with a friend for dinner. After that I then drove out the 91 and down the 15 to my other brothers house in Murietta. Brought the corals in the house lets say around 9:00pm last night. When I got in I filled a small water bottle with some warm water and carefully placed it in the thermal bag. I went to bed and woke up this morning @ 4:00 am. Hopped in the car and drove straight home 900 miles to Colorado, stopping a couple times for gas & food. I Arrived home just over two hours ago at about 7:15 pm and took the corals out, floated the bags to bring up to temp. Cut open the bags placed them in the egg crate and every thing is perfectly fine. Corals look great.
Corals were: birdsnest, war coral, cyphastrea, pocilipora, monti digi, monti cap, zoa's, and an acan.
Now having said all that. I must add that I've shipped fish and coral all around the country and have had stuff lost for days with little or no issues. I once had a very and I mean very expensive high end shipment of acan colonies get lost by fedex and ultimately come back to me nearly a week after being shipped. Expecting a devastating loss I was pretty amazed to find 98% of the shipment perfectly fine. Did I get lucky in this case? Absoulutely! Because it doesn't always go that way.
Now, I'm not advocating to be reckless or cavalier with live coral, but I've found that there are lots of corals out there that are pretty resilient and can hold up pretty good when inadvertently subjected to less than ideal shipping scenarios. Certainly not acros though.
Anyway, hope this gives you some insight.
TR
BTW: The show was great and I love seeing what it has grown into.
see ya then.
I would have had to know exactly which booth you were at. Which one was that, so I know for next time?
