Travelling with Colonies

[sbash]

Hi Everybody!

I'm going to be travelling about 7 hours (one way) via car to pick up, let's say, 20 colonies (various species, a little bit of everything). As well as several shrimps, probably a few anemones and maybe other inverts (snails, crabs, etc).

My parents live at about the 3 hour mark in this trip, so I usually stay the night there then finish the trip and do the whole run on the way back home. THEN have to deal with unpacking all the livestock... It makes for a long day to say the least...

So I am milling over my options and wanted to bring it up for discussion:

What are the risks involved if I set up a holding tub and split the trip over two nights?
Should I just suck it up and do the whole trip at once?
Leave them in the bags overnight and skip the holding tub idea?
Perhaps use the holding tub and re-bag everything in the morning? (the original idea was to simply transport the holding tub with everything still in it; I've done this before with high success). However, to this point, the cold weather is upon us so there is a certain amount of risk of not using the heavy styrofoam containers.

Any other thoughts or options I might have?

 

[Sea MunnKey]

7 hours one way?

 

[sbash]

7 hours one way?

Yes, 7 hours each direction. The return trip is usually quicker because I am less likely to make stops and when I do stop I keep it brief. On paper it is really only 5.5 hours to the furthest vendor, but with traffic, fuel refills, food and bathroom breaks it ends up being closer to 7.

 

[Sea MunnKey]

If weather is accommodating it should be fine. I've had newly acquired wild sps colonies in my office for several hours & in a cooler and never experienced any death ... so far. Styrofoam boxes should be fine if you could get those types from the lfs.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hi Everybody!

I'm going to be travelling about 7 hours (one way) via car to pick up, let's say, 20 colonies (various species, a little bit of everything). As well as several shrimps, probably a few anemones and maybe other inverts (snails, crabs, etc).

My parents live at about the 3 hour mark in this trip, so I usually stay the night there then finish the trip and do the whole run on the way back home. THEN have to deal with unpacking all the livestock... It makes for a long day to say the least...

So I am milling over my options and wanted to bring it up for discussion:

What are the risks involved if I set up a holding tub and split the trip over two nights?
Should I just suck it up and do the whole trip at once?
Leave them in the bags overnight and skip the holding tub idea?
Perhaps use the holding tub and re-bag everything in the morning? (the original idea was to simply transport the holding tub with everything still in it; I've done this before with high success). However, to this point, the cold weather is upon us so there is a certain amount of risk of not using the heavy styrofoam containers.

Any other thoughts or options I might have?

If your getting everything from a LFS or wholesaler. See if they can provide a special carbon for shipping sea creatures, reox, everything ask them how to reox. No need for anything else. Keep eye on temperature too.

Or ask LFS if the carry some of that carbon. Before taking off. Hope it helpful

 

[andrewkw]

All the fish stores are 7 hours from me. I actually just brought back a couple of fish Sunday that were bagged for about 8-9hours. No issues. I always have a styrofoam box or ask the store for one before agreeing to purchase.

I've also kept fish in 5 gallon buckets overnight with air pumps counting this as the first TTM for QT - when I get small fish home they go in 10g tanks anyway. If you can make the trip in one night I would do that as you will almost certainly have 100% survival. Assuming you do break this into 2 days how long total will they be in bags? If it's less then 24hrs I'd probably just leave everything packed in the foam box. If it's longer you can put them into holding tanks and rebag. Oxygen concerns are only fish and inverts. You don't mention what types of colonies you will be bringing back but for instance if they are SPS and they start to slime up in the bags I would just wrap them in wet paper towels and transport them "dry". The longest I've kept corals dry is about 12hrs though so this would be if you spent the night and they looked slimy before continuing your trip. I'm sure someone else with more experience transporting this way will weigh in.

Keeping them warm is easier then keeping them cool. Almost everything we keep in our tanks spends a long time in transit. The most important thing is to make sure everything is properly packed for the trip be it 24hrs 7hrs or what have you. Make sure they know your plans and they will probably know the best option for transport.

 

[Error404]

Corals will be fine for the most part as long as they are bagged well with heat packs according to the weather and temperature. The same goes for snails , etc. I personally wouldn’t recommend anemones and shrimp as they are more fragile. Keep in mind that after 48 hours of not being placed in a tank with decent flow and parameters , the corals may suffer, especially sps.