How to move or ship gigantic euphyllia

[coldskier]

I have a very big frogspawn that I don't want to damage too much when I move or if I ship it to my brother in Florida. Any suggestions or experiences that will help?

[coldskier]

here is a picture of the monster.



http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/24927Mike_s_pix_135.jpg

[Travis L. Stevens]

That's nice and all, but that doesn't tell us how big it is. How big is the skeleton of the coral (don't include the polyps)?

[coldskier]

The skeleton is approximately 7" x 10" and 6" tall. The picture shows it in a 29 gallon show tank (30"L x 12" W x18" T). The thing has to weigh over 5 pounds. At least thats what it felt like the last time I had o reoganize the tank and I didn't even lift it out of the water.

My thoughts were to suspend it upside down from a thick disk of styrofoam that is larger than the frogspawn using some rope threaded through the skeleton and then float it in a bucket.

Any thoughts?

[rgulrich]

Plan to triple bag the coral. Get thick poly bags from a friendly petshop or your own preferred supplier, large enough to fit the entire coral with a little room to spare.
Plan on cutting a third down to fit under the coral and use as a "lift" bag, cutting some slits in it to drain the water out as the coral is lifted from the aquarium, and then again lifted from the shipping bags at the far end.
Cut another bag or two with good sized slits to place around the the outside of this lift bag, cushioning it against the inside the shipping bags.
Put enough water into the double layer shipping bags to easily cover the coral.
Place the slit cushion bags inside the shiping bags, lining the bottom, edges, and leaving some to cover the top.
Place the coral into the lift bag inside the aquarium, lift it out (draining some of the aquarium water out through the slits) and place it into the shipping bags, ensuring it is submerged.
Cover the top of the coral with the slit cushion bags.
Inflate the first bag and tie off with a few rubber bands.
Tie off the second bag with a few rubber bands.
Put the double-bagged coral into the third shipping bag with the tie in the opposite end, and then use a few bands to tie off the third bag (opposing ends tend to preclude the loss of water if the inner ties leak).
Ship it overnight etc.
I would advise against shipping tethered to a foam block; there is no guarentee the box will stay upright, or vertical, during the transport process. The object is to minimize the possibility of the coral getting damaged by cushioning with water baffles, and preventing it from drying out by keeping it submerged.
I used to receive larger corals this way, and they did pretty well. Just make sure the handling, acclimation, etc. is just as careful at the far end. You might want to tell them how you packed it to minimize the possibility of accidents.
Hope this helps.
Ray

[coldskier]

Thanks Ray. That sounds like a good deal. One of my major concerns was avoiding taking it out of water and having the polyps hanging off the skeleton. Even fanning them with water and touching them to close hasn't seemed to be very effective. The lift bag seems to be the way to go. Thanks for the advice.

[rgulrich]

My pleasure. The Euphy is a beaut; take good care of it!
You will still have to to the "double dip" a bit to get the polyps to retract, but they won't close all the way.
Plan the move out, get everything together, and make sure to do it all when shipping is available (wouldn't that be embarassing...).
Little cooler, styrofoam peanuts, newspaper-wrapped heat pack, tape...etc.

I hope it sees many more years of good care!

Cheers,
Ray

[justinzimm]

Good luck coldskier....

I've sent and received large euphyllia before and they have never seemed to ship well. Most of the time the water fouls quickly. Not sure why, might be the tissue sluffing off or extra slime produced. Also, the sharp skeleton will almost allways puncture the sides of the bag causing water to leak. I've tried 2X and 3X bagging but with no success. We even use the thick industrial bags used by public aquaria.

If I were to do it again, I would consider breaking the colony into smaller heads that are small and light enought not to break the bags. I would then wrap them in plastic strips to help suspend them in the bags.

The good news is they seem to heal up quick and return to their nomal size after a couple months.

Justin

[SDguy]

Wow, are we already doing holiday avatars?! :eek2: Have to go dig mine up....

[coldskier]

Thanks everybody for the tips.