Coral transport,

Discussion in 'Corals' started by gregnlr, Mar 23, 2013.

  1. gregnlr

    gregnlr Grouper

    Ok I bought 13 frags to colonies in Boston. Now to get them home. I fly our Monday morning and want to pack these in my suitcase. I already bought an igloo tote to put them in, but what would be the best way to back these? No access to heat pack and right now have them in some Betta cups the nice people on Petco gave me ( the lids have holes. Open to ideas?
     
  2. tinkereef

    tinkereef Guest

    For a heat pack... Did you happen to pack toiletries in a ziplock? If so you could nab a hand towel from the hotel, wet it down and microwave it until its warm and put it in the igloo container away from corals. The insulation in the cooler should help hold the warm in. Hope that helps a little!
     
  3. graciesdad

    graciesdad Treasurer Staff Member

    I may be missing something but isnt lids with holes a bad thing.

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  4. gregnlr

    gregnlr Grouper

    Yes not a good way to transport, but until I get to a store for decent containers tomorrow it beat the leaky bags. So any suggestions for from what to pack them in to how to transport them is helpful. It already crushed me to break up a beautiful blue tip acro colony just to fit in a deli cup
     
  5. Andy

    Andy Guest

    Finding something like hot hands they keep warm for hours.
     
  6. 501scionxb

    501scionxb Moderator

    Tape the lids shut. The dollar store sales them. Or go to a sporting goods store. If possible.
     
  7. 501scionxb

    501scionxb Moderator

    And make sure you tape the crap out of the warmers to the top of the cooler
     
  8. monkeybone87

    monkeybone87 Administrator

    You might ask a restaurant if you could buy a few better deli cups. Or even a convenience store might have deli cups. As far as warm, hot hands will last about 4-6 hours and should get you through checkin and the flight.

    Also, since these guys aren't going to be taking care of your luggage in the way it needs to be handled for live animals (i assume you can't have them in carry on), you can wad up some zip lock or sandwich bags in the cups to keep the coral from banging around too much. And be sure to either tape the lids shut or use saran wrap to make sure the lids won't leak or come off.

    Good luck! You didn't happen to snap any pics did you?? :)
     
  9. ljinks

    ljinks Tang

    Hand Warmers from Walmart or sporting goods type store
     
  10. 501scionxb

    501scionxb Moderator

    Call TSA and ask if you can bring it on board.
     
  11. aaronh

    aaronh Guest

    ziplock tubs they range from pint to gallon size and dont leak and hand warmers work very well and can get both at wal-mart.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 24, 2013
  12. graciesdad

    graciesdad Treasurer Staff Member

    So did everything make it home safely?

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  13. gregnlr

    gregnlr Grouper

    The answer to that would be NO; while I think the flight was not the real issue I think the corals setting around in the same water,as little as that was, for basically two days and who knows how long they were bagged for the event. So far six of the 13 are alive and well, the thother 7 including the most expensive ones are nothing more than dead. So, $273 for corals, $25, for cooler, $20 for shippng supplies, and $40 to check and extra bag equals to about $60 a frag. So it is a lesson learned, if I want corals order them or buy them form the LFS, don't think without resources at hand that you can "Just do it".

    This could have been a more expensive lesson at MACNA, so I will tuck my tail and understand my limitations.
     
  14. xystic

    xystic Wrasse

    Guess I wasn't too crazy when I started building a Styrofoam tank for this weekend. I'll be transporting my own water, coral dip, battery powered air pump and random supplies. I was thinking some people might even bring fish and I was like, hmph, I'm the fish type guy so I may buy some, so I've decked myself out xD. Even though its only fayetteville, I guess its safe to be extra safe I guess.
     
  15. gregnlr

    gregnlr Grouper

    I would be careful of dipping your coral till you return home, after I dip and rinse I want the coral in moving water to remove any residue.
     
  16. 501scionxb

    501scionxb Moderator

    That dip is strong stuff and I would only dip if my tank was in my sight. Basically don't dip unless tou are at home. Its not that serious.
     
  17. xystic

    xystic Wrasse

    Will do. I probably won't be home straight away though. May spend the nights at the parents place. Guess I should set-up temp tank then there for docking till next day.
     

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