Coral without water???

[yesjenks]

Read this on aquanerd. Has anyone ever done this?

"
Want to ship corals to a friend a few states over but hate getting hit with those outrageous overnight shipping fees? Why not ship the corals without water? Wait?what did I just say? Doesn?t seem to make any sense does it? Well, surprisingly, many hobbyists have been successfully dry shipping corals for years. Just toss a coral in a bag, tie it up, and ship it off. The corals usually make the trip just fine, and some coral keepers have reported that, with the exception of floating the bag for a few minutes, they don?t even have to acclimate them. How is all of this possible? The coral?s naturally occurring mucous protects it against temperature issues and keeps the important portions moist during the trip. Additionally, water from the shipping container usually gets fouled up pretty quickly, which only causes more problems for the coral, so dry shipping keeps the toxins from building up and harming the coral.
"

 

[skene]

yes... you can just throw a damp paper towel on them and it will usually be fine as well. just like shipping snails.

 

[RARECLOWNSNJ]

Corals and anemones are often exposed to air during low tide for hours.

one thing i have noticed is that shipping with a couple chunks of carbon can be helpful too.

 

[thirty5]

If anyone wants to test out this theory, I will be happy to accept any and all tests

 

[Jaftica]

If anyone wants to test out this theory, I will be happy to accept any and all tests

lmao!

 

[Mattl22]

I doubt acropora will make it!

 

[fishman1069]

I doubt acropora will make it!

Acros do get exposed to air, for long periods of time,during low tides

 

[skene]

If anyone wants to test out this theory, I will be happy to accept any and all tests

Sure.. I'll be more than glad to send you multiple items to test. Just Paypal me $100.00 to cover the costs of shipping the items to you.

 

[noelskii]

if anyone wants to test out this theory, i will be happy to accept any and all tests

+1

 

[zlin0524]

yesterday , i was trying to rearrange my rocks , i left one of my acro frags on the table for more than 3 hrs , i thought was dead was about to put it in the trash , . then i decided to put it back in the tank and see if it will come back , and it did today, it looks great.

 

[ruha456]

This is interesting since I'm doing a tank switch. So what corals can and can't be left out???

 

[tentacles]

I doubt acropora will make it!

Read up on tides in Fiji, acros and other corals are exposed to the highest levels of sunlight during low tide over a number of hours.

 

[rookie07]

And in australia also. There is an amazing thread on RC about harvesting in australia during low tide, with hundreds of pictures!
I believe the title is "how rare is this"....the first picture is of a tiny clown fish in someones hands (shape of a cup underwater)

 

[prattreef]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/eb/index.php

 

[yesjenks]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/eb/index.php

So cool!!! Does this mean that people can live underwater for short time periods without oxygen?!

 

[Turbovr3six]

After speaking at the lira meeting, Marc Levenson shipped some (damp)frags from Atlantis to Texas, and last I heard they all survived...

When I lived out west, I would pick up coral from LA and drive with it for ~6hrs home. My supplier was once packing a huge shipment of corals just damp with paper towels that he said was to be shipped to WI. He claimed no DOA's. :scratchch

 

[Chris Jury]

Some corals ship much better when damp shipped instead of shipped in water IME, including most Acropora. In fact, they seem to handle it as well or better than most. The one genus I know of that absolutely tends to die when kept out of the water >15 min or so is Seriatopora (birdsnest). One major issue during shipping in water is that there is a very finite amount of O2 available, even if they are packed with O2 in the bag, and many corals can end up going hypoxic or anoxic during the trip (especially if they are wild collected and have hitchhikers attached or are in a small quantity of water relative to the size of the coral).

This doesn't necessarily protect them from temperature swings, and in fact you generally need to be much more careful about maintaining temp as a result, since there is no water to provide insolation. However, if kept very well insulated, a lot of corals do very well when damp shipped.

For long transit times or with potential temp extremes I'd be leary about it and would rather pack in overly large amounts of water with O2, but in some situations damp shipping (and I want to stress, it's damp, not dry--dry will kill them before they make it to the bag) can work very well.

cj

 

[lfsmarineguy]

I remember reading an article years ago where I believe it was Julian Sprung was mailing acropora frags in an envelope with just a damp towel across the US and reported not only sucess but that some frags colored up.

 

[RARECLOWNSNJ]

Anemones are another one they say to ship dry but id be too scared.

When i used to do water changes when i had a magnifica anemone at the top of the glass it never minded being exposed or having to hang out.

Again im to scared.

 

[fjpod]

so... would three or four days wrapped in a damp paper towel be a safe limit?? Assuming the temperature is reasonable.