Coral shipment was delayed, how can i save the coral?

[Blazingreef123]

So as the title states, my coral shipment was delayed. I ordered it on Thursday, January 19th, it should have arrived with two other boxes on Friday. However due to sever weather conditions in Wisconsin, it was delayed until Monday. A Hammer coral and a sponge coral came from the wisconsin facility so these are the corals needing help when they arrive. I called and they told me to double the drip acclimation time and slowly raise the temperature. I get the feeling they will probably be dead when they arrive, but i want to give them the best possible chance i can at survival. Any suggestions?

[Reef Dude]

Sorry to hear about your luck with this. I agree with your assessment that the animals all most likely be dead when they arrive. However, if they are alive, this is great and you should take an extra long time to acclimate them (bringing the temperature up specifically). You mentioned a Wisonsin faxility... Did you ordered these from live aquaria? If so, they usually pack the corals well with regard to heat packs, but this is an excessive amount of time so I'm not sure if it will hold up that long. The only thing I can add is to keep them in the dark or dim light for at least a couple days before you expose them to any aquarium light... This would be an additional stress for them initially. Crappy situation, but hopefully the seller is willing to work with you to replace these if the are DOA or die shortly after you receive them.

[wrott]

What is a sponge coral, just a sponge?
Inverts can w/stand extremes much better than fish, even shrimp are fine for 2-3 day delivery from some places---they will probably be fine.
I ordered 25 pep shrimp by USPS, came 2 days later, no casualties. good luck

[Blazingreef123]

Yes this was from liveaquaria, they will undoubtedly work with me. in fact, they were the ones that emailed me instantly saying it was delayed. Unfortunately i don't think the heat packs will last. I think this because i have been checking the heat packs that came with my other two shipments and they ran out of heat around noon today. Im glad you said something about the light, i definitely didn't think of that. How slowly do you guys think i should acclimate them by drip?

It was a "Photosynthetic Plating Red Sponge, Aquacultured" or http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+2341+2512+3540&pcatid=3540 heres the link.

Thank you guys for the help.

[Scorpius]

They'll be dead 100% guaranteed. I've lost coral on overnight shipping, less than 24 hrs in the box, when it's cold out.

[Higher Thinking]

So as the title states, my coral shipment was delayed. I ordered it on Thursday, January 19th, it should have arrived with two other boxes on Friday. However due to sever weather conditions in Wisconsin, it was delayed until Monday. A Hammer coral and a sponge coral came from the wisconsin facility so these are the corals needing help when they arrive. I called and they told me to double the drip acclimation time and slowly raise the temperature. I get the feeling they will probably be dead when they arrive, but i want to give them the best possible chance i can at survival. Any suggestions?

Sorry to hear about your luck with this. I agree with your assessment that the animals all most likely be dead when they arrive. However, if they are alive, this is great and you should take an extra long time to acclimate them (bringing the temperature up specifically). You mentioned a Wisonsin faxility... Did you ordered these from live aquaria? If so, they usually pack the corals well with regard to heat packs, but this is an excessive amount of time so I'm not sure if it will hold up that long. The only thing I can add is to keep them in the dark or dim light for at least a couple days before you expose them to any aquarium light... This would be an additional stress for them initially. Crappy situation, but hopefully the seller is willing to work with you to replace these if the are DOA or die shortly after you receive them.
Quote from Julian Sprung:
“In general it is not necessary to drip*acclimate*corals or to be very precise about making the temperature adjustment (ie floating the bag).*Temperature differences of 5 – 10 *degrees F are not a problem for stony corals. Furthermore, stony corals that have become too cold (below 70 degrees F) or too hot (above 85 degrees F) in transit benefit from being transferred to water at a normal temperature (74 – 78 degrees F) without delay."

[Reef Dude]

I'm afraid to ask... How did this end up working out for you?

[roli112]

Curious as well

[Blazingreef123]

Sorry for the late reply guys.

Unfortunately i did end up losing both the photosynthetic plating sponge, and the hammer coral, from the delayed shipment. i drip acclimated them both separately over the course of 3 hours. Apparently this did not work. When i received the hammer there was still flesh able to be seen at the head but it never once tried coming out and slowly turned to goop.

Even worse news, another order i had placed for a double headed torch at the same time has now died of brown jelly disease a week later. So out of this entire order the only 2 things that ended up surviving were my hyacinth birdsnest, and my spotted dragonet.

So now im at a loss as to how long i should wait to buy any more Euphyllia corals being as BJD was introduced to my tank.

Something interesting though... i contacted liveaquaria and reported the loss of the torch coral on monday and asked them to inform me if their facility in california has seen any issues with BJD. they replied today stating that they have not had any issues with it (which seems a little strange to me being as these are maricultured torches). So it either came from the hammer or the torch, or somehow was in my tank prior to being introduced and the stress from shipping left it vulnerable? Still very curious about this and have been doing 24/7 research into what causes it and and treatments. Seems like the hobby still has a lot to learn about BJD because there isn't much to be found.

[vikubz]

I had something like this happen and LA replaced my entire order.

[tonyjd34]

BJD does not have to be passed from one coral to another.. I believe a coral can develop this malady all on its own from improper handling, stress or many other factors. I have read that euphyllia are especially susceptible to it.

[Rambo610]

I actually have my package dropped off in the south side of my town. Luckily it want my first time ware of this because I was receiving mail from south side address also. Picked it up before FedEx could of probably taken it back to the warehouse

[djbon]

Keep the skeleton in your tank. You might see new head coming out after a while. As long as there is leftover cell on it.

[Blazingreef123]

I had something like this happen and LA replaced my entire order.
Unfortunately, they didn't offer me this option. Im guessing because i bought it on a weekly special price. They did refund the price however.
BJD does not have to be passed from one coral to another.. I believe a coral can develop this malady all on its own from improper handling, stress or many other factors. I have read that euphyllia are especially susceptible to it.
This would not surprise me as no other LPS in my tank have shown any signs of BJD whatsoever. Im going to be making a trip to omaha, NE. this weekend and going to pick up a few frags while im there. Think it would be a bad idea to get another euphyllia? Or wait a while?
I actually have my package dropped off in the south side of my town. Luckily it want my first time ware of this because I was receiving mail from south side address also. Picked it up before FedEx could of probably taken it back to the warehouse
Unfortunately my package was delayed in the same state that it shipped from. I live in Nebraska and it was delayed and taken back all while in wisconsin.
Keep the skeleton in your tank. You might see new head coming out after a while. As long as there is leftover cell on it.
Unfortunately i was paranoid about the BJD so i took it out and quarantined it. It died in quarantine so i decided to just keep the skeleton and now its sitting in front of me on my desk. However, i did decide to do this with my hammer coral! Im letting its skeleton sit in the tank since i had heard stories of this happening. I will be truly amazed if this happens!

[djbon]

As long as there are some living cell remaining it will grow back. I have one golden head hammer geown back a head before. Still growing right now.