How to best deal with receiving a cold cold cold shipped coral.

[99sf]

Yeah I wish I could find a red fungia frag at a swap lol... For that matter I wish I could find one anywhere!

My red fungia frag is very slowly growing (perhaps it will grow faster now that it is being target-fed RN products), but has shifted color from a nice red to more of a pink. At this rate, it will be ready to frag in 2015.

 

[GreshamH]

Be sure to mix RN products 4:1 (tank waterroduct) before target feeding.

 

[Thales]

If a coral comes in poor shape, the one thing you don't want to do is a drip acclimation. The best thing to do would be to get the coral out of the bad water immediately. With that being said, I think you would get much better suggestions if you could post a picture of how it looks right now.

Interesting, so coral tolerant sudden water change better than fish?

Depends. If the water is toxic, drip acclimating - or acclimating of any kind - only leaves the animal in toxic water longer.

 

[rygh]

I am a bit surprised by the advice to do a sudden change instead of acclimation.

Acclimating: You are leaving it in toxic water an extra hour or two, which gets diluted as you acclimate.
Assuming 18 hours or so to ship, that is really only 5%-10% longer.

Immediate transfer : You might be treating it to some very nasty transitions.
PH could be way off, especially if bag was just opened to fresh air.
Temperature was stated as being way off.
Salinity will likely be very close on a reef product, but still off a bit.

Edit : Slow week at work with the holidays coming up. To much time to think about things.

 

[GreshamH]

I am a bit surprised by the advice to do a sudden change instead of acclimation.

Acclimating: You are leaving it in toxic water an extra hour or two, which gets diluted as you acclimate.
Assuming 18 hours or so to ship, that is really only 5%-10% longer.

Immediate transfer : You might be treating it to some very nasty transitions.
PH could be way off, especially if bag was just opened to fresh air.
Temperature was stated as being way off.
Salinity will likely be very close on a reef product, but still off a bit.

Edit : Slow week at work with the holidays coming up. To much time to think about things.

OK acclimation 101:

shipments like this come in at a very low PH and sometimes with a bad amount of ammonia. As the PH rises the toxicity of the ammonia does as well. IME the best way to acclimate for shipments is to match the bag water PH, salinity and temp and immediately transfer them into that water. Then you allow the PH to rise to normal reef levels. I have arrived at this after acclimating thousands of shipments over the years while in wholesale and in retail. I don't do any real acclimation when I buy from stores.

IN the ocean some corals are exposed to much worse conditions as far as salinity swings. Some are exposed several hours to rain.

 

[rygh]

Now that method makes a LOT of sense.
Ok, maybe a bit more complex with the matching, but far from hard.
So why is that not standard advice, or at least often suggested? Grrr.

 

[r0ck0]

I never acclimate my animals. If its a coral I dip it in revive in the water it shipped, then rinse in a bowl of my tank water and then put it in the tank. Everything has done well, never had a coral RTN or STN and no pests that I know of.

If its a fish I dump the water into a bucket with a net to catch the fish and then toss him in the tank too.

Done and done.

 

[iCon]

I never acclimate my animals. If its a coral I dip it in revive in the water it shipped, then rinse in a bowl of my tank water and then put it in the tank. Everything has done well, never had a coral RTN or STN and no pests that I know of.

If its a fish I dump the water into a bucket with a net to catch the fish and then toss him in the tank too.

Done and done.

Really...? Corals sure but fish & inverts?

 

[daisy]

Save that coral skeleton, don't take it out of the tank and see if it comes back from the grave!

Partial mortality and the Phoenix Effect in stony corals

Interesting article. It doesn't mention anything about how long it takes for new tissue to appear though so I wonder how long you'd have to wait before giving up and tossing the skeleton.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

OK acclimation 101:

shipments like this come in at a very low PH and sometimes with a bad amount of ammonia. As the PH rises the toxicity of the ammonia does as well. IME the best way to acclimate for shipments is to match the bag water PH, salinity and temp and immediately transfer them into that water. Then you allow the PH to rise to normal reef levels. I have arrived at this after acclimating thousands of shipments over the years while in wholesale and in retail. I don't do any real acclimation when I buy from stores.

IN the ocean some corals are exposed to much worse conditions as far as salinity swings. Some are exposed several hours to rain.

+4 What we said

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Now that method makes a LOT of sense.
Ok, maybe a bit more complex with the matching, but far from hard.
So why is that not standard advice, or at least often suggested? Grrr.

Rich can talk about it at the next reef keeping myths presentation

It's standard advice within BAR when asked

 

[GreshamH]

I just reread what I wrote and I have a question... is there a "good amount of ammonia"?

 

[r0ck0]

I just reread what I wrote and I have a question... is there a "good amount of ammonia"?

Zero is an amount, right?

 

[Thales]

I am a bit surprised by the advice to do a sudden change instead of acclimation.

Acclimating: You are leaving it in toxic water an extra hour or two, which gets diluted as you acclimate.
Assuming 18 hours or so to ship, that is really only 5%-10% longer.

Immediate transfer : You might be treating it to some very nasty transitions.
PH could be way off, especially if bag was just opened to fresh air.
Temperature was stated as being way off.
Salinity will likely be very close on a reef product, but still off a bit.

Edit : Slow week at work with the holidays coming up. To much time to think about things.

Remember also that this coral arrived in a bag of brown water. Get it out of that water ASAP! Whatever temp/pH shock that might occur is nothing compared to getting the animal out of yuck. If you were in a bag of cold acid, you would want to be removed from it immediately even though the temp change would be painful.

+5 to what everyone else said about matching and faster acclimations.

The worst thing you can do is bubble air into bag water, but people still do! Crazy!

 

[anathema]

I waited five years. Took another chance on this vendor this week.

Ordered a Blenny and snails.
Blenny arrived with no eyeballs.
Cerith snails, order of twelve.

9 snails, 2 hermit imposters, 1 black rock.

They are shipping replacements, but still. I think I've made a mistake giving them a second chance.

 

[Enderturtle]

What kind of blenny? What vendor did you use ?

 

[anathema]

Liveaquaria. Orange spotted Blenny.

 

[euod]

Waited 5 yrs for refund and you got blenny with missing eyes? Brutal!
Here's another advice, don't order in Summer

Kidding aside, you can ask any lfs (Diablo and Collection) around here and they will be glad to get them for you.

Email Kevin at Liveaquaria and he will straighten it out in seconds flat.

 

[anathema]

It's straightened out. The poor guy is swimming around my first refugium bumping into things.

 

[anathema]

To make it clear, customer service side they are very accommodating. They are replacing the Blenny no cost. I decided to try them again even though they are on my personal blacklist because they had some types of snails that I wasn't able to find locally.

When I was looking, this Blenny was on sale, so I added him to the order. I kind of thought if the order went well I might consider trying a divers den item someday.

I think I'll pass.