Shipping, how hard is it really?

[GeoHawk]

I recently moved to the middle of no where Missouri, I used to live in an area where there were many reefers, and when I had coral that had out grown the amount that I wanted I would just sell it or trade it to someone for something I wanted. I now only know one other reefer within about 45 minutes from me. So I have been seriously thinking about shipping.

Supplies I have
8x8x8 box
Pink insulation (used for houses I think from home depot) cut to line box
72 hour heat pack uniheat
I would ship Fed ex overnight

coral I dont want
6 heads torch, 7 heads frogspawn, a colony of pink birdsnest, a 5"X7" orange monti, some AOG zoas, GSP, frag orange monti.

My question is how much risk is there in shipping?
Is it very difficult (like is it best to do some sort of trial run)?
Are the corals I have worth trying t sell online, or should I just set up a frag tank and keep them until I can go to a frag fest?

Sorry for all the questions, coral trading and selling has always been one of my favorite things about this hobby and where I am at makes it difficult.

 

[returnofsid]

Shipping is always a risk. However, you can limit the risk, by planning head, which you seem to be doing.

Limit the stress, to the coral, as much as possible.

For corals, with "heavy polyps" such as your Frogspawn and Torch, I'd recommend using a styrofoam float. Cut the styrofoam wider than the coral frag. Floating the coral, upside down, from the styro float, will keep the coral from contacting the sides of the bag. You can poke a hole in the styrofoam float, and use a drop of superglue, to keep the skeleton from falling out of the float. This float also works great, with any coral that's on a frag plug.

Large colonies, such as your birdsnest, will be a bit more difficult, as they're very fragile and break easily. You could ship out a colony of birdnest and the buyer could receive a bag full of frags...lol. Use a large bag! Wrap the colony in strips of plastic, to absorb some of the "movement." Make sure you have plenty of water. Using a float, for a colony, will also work well, IF the float is large enough to keep the colony from banging against the inside of the bag. Birdsnests are also notorious for poking holes in bags, so use a minimum of 4 mil bags and triple bag.