any shipped sps in damp newspaper

[johnvu713]

i know there are a few reefers out there that wrap sps frags in wet, damp newspaper. How long can frags last using this method? a day or two? I know the percentage is as good as shipping in bag filled with water if not better

 

[JR719]

I have not done that yet, but will next time I pick up a frag from someone. I think it was Eric Bornman who wrote an article on it. If is was Mr. Borman, he says it is better than shipping in water. The slime coat will basicall suffocate the coral in the water. The wet seaweed or paper towel allows the coral to breath and he had great success with coral when shipped "damp" in paper towels.
If I could find the article I would post a link.

JR

JR

 

[johnvu713]

I found it! The reason for this thread is that i asking a friend to send me some frags but dont know the time frame corals can survive in damp paper towels. If anyone tried this and had great success let me know thanks.

 

[CAreefer]

I shipped a box of corals from Central coast CA to Vegas. I packed 12 in standard bag/water. I put 4 common SPS frags, all actively growing, into damp paper towels. They were tucked in among the bags for better insulation and a heat pack was taped to the top of the styro box. Transport time was less than 24 hrs. All but one of the 12 is doing great, and none of the 4 shipped "damp" survived.

I may try it again when the weather is better, but not too promising thus far. In all fairness, I may not have had the paper towels wet enough. They were wet, but by no means soaked.

HTH
CAReefer

 

[merlock116]

i think in borneman's article you stick the frag and paper towel in a ziplock bag so none of the moisture can get out

 

[mokujin22]

Anthony Calfo reccommends "dry packing" in some cases where shipping will be quick. This entails placing the corals into the standard bag with just a bit of water in the bottom. The bag is then packed with media similar to Bio-bale, surrounding on all sides by the bale (coral "suspended" in the middle of the bag).

This is to keep the coral out of the bacteria-bath that the shipping water quickly becomes. It is best for short trips (<24 hours) for corals that are in tidal zones (zoos, some SPS).

Personally, I may be a bit of a chicken to try it with any nice SPS.

tony.

 

[johnvu713]

i'll try to get them shipped extremely damped overnight so they'd be here the next day. That would be less than 24hrs in most cases. I will report back if not then you guys know what'd happened

 

[jobob]

i have heard about doing this with fish. but i think they were eatting fish, red snapper and grouper. i not sure if anyone tired this with pet fish

 

[johnvu713]

pet fish in damped paper towel = eating fish

But that would be neat if it were feasible

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Actually, I think I've seen box puffers sent to my LFS in wet newspaper in a bag.

 

[masterswimmer]

I remember reading about this as well. I know Eric B was involved, I just don't remember if it was an RC thread or an article. I'm leaning towards thread, because there was really no conclusion. It was a little more than a hypothetical question on whether or not it could be done, because they only tried it a couple of times. Success rate couldn't even be calculated because the sampling was just too small it would have been skewed either way.

I lost track of the thread and don't know the end results but am very interested now. Is there any way to search RC archived threads within Eric's old forum? Or is that the road to eternal damnation and banishment?

I'll be following a long and will chime in if I've got some input.

Russ

 

[masterswimmer]

Has anyone tried wrapping a frag of sps in dripping wet, tank water soaked, paper towel? Then placing that towel in a small amount of tank water in a baggie. This way the slime coating doesn't turn the bag water rank, the paper towel contains it. And there's still a small amount of tank water to be regarded as fresh for an overnight (read < 24 hr) shipment.

Just some thoughts,
Russ

 

[jwalters103]

i had read of someone doing test runs of wrapping the coral in a wet paper towel then sucking all of the air of the bag--almost like vacuum packing and they had said it worked pretty well

 

[masterswimmer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6822758#post6822758 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jwalters103
i had read of someone doing test runs of wrapping the coral in a wet paper towel then sucking all of the air of the bag--almost like vacuum packing and they had said it worked pretty well

Pretty well ? or perfect? When I ship my animals, I want them to arrive perfect. So are you saying Eric's idea was less than ideal?

Russ

 

[johnvu713]

i think in his article he mentioned very little water in plastic bag so it wont foul the water-i dont know about sucking all the air out part

 

[MiddletonMark]

Here's the article:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/eb/index.php

It's a really interesting idea ... then again, I'm suprised that the people `in the trade' who transport large # of corals don't do this - figure it would drop the shipping weight majorly ...

I'd love to see a bigger study on it, as it would be great if very reliable - I'd just be concerned about having CAReefer's experience.

 

[masterswimmer]

Based on Eric's conclusions, high sliming animals such as Acro species (I think Montipora species as well, although he doesn't comment on them) would ship equally if not better in the damp/ziplock method. Seriatopora species (lower sliming, IMO) also in my opinion, would do better in a water filled bag.

I will definitely attempt this method and will report back here.

Russ

PS - Thanks for the link Mark. Just couldn't remember where I'd seen it.

 

[jobob]

the only thing that "sucks" is by studing this many corals will die. and im sure none of use wants to try it on an $100 acro. but im sure alot of frags will get tried. but im not sure frags will give an accurate answer. would larger colonies give off more slime coat to protect it than a frag would?

 

[wakefreak33]

I have transported corals locally with the damp paper towl method. I purposely left on coral in the bag for 18 hours and had no problems. I have not lost a single coral doing this method and I have used it about 15 times. One coral did get really stressed out and bleched some, but it has recovered. I dont know if it can be contributed to the paper towel method or not

 

[Valab]

Regarding paper towels, I once received a shipment of snails in a plastic bag to which a paper towel had been added to hold moisture. The snails were all DOA. I was told by the vendor that all the other snails (it was a new, home-based vendor who was starting a 'snails-for-sale' business) sent to other customers were also DOA.

The vendor believed that the particular brand of paper towels she used were toxic for some reason. She re-sent snails with a different brand of paper towel and they arrived just fine.

Lots of gardeners use shredded newspaper for mulch these days because the ink they use in newpaper is soybean based (i.e. non-toxic), so if it were me, I would stick with newpaper just to be sure.

That Borneman article is here: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/eb/index.php

Postscript: sry I didn't notice that the link had already been posted above.