Shipping Xenia - Best Practices Question

[danjen10]

I have had very good luck with shipping all my coral with the exception of xenia. The xenia shipping has been mixed. Sometimes it's fine and sometimes not. I know from a lot of reading that it's a hard coral to ship. I wanted to see if anyone else has any best practices they have followed or personal recommendations from experience for shipping and live arrival for xenia.

Thanks

[Loverotties]

Xenia is one of the hardest to send.

[ChrisPrusha]

I have tied mine to a piece of styrofoam, so they are hanging upside down, with some success. I might just be lucky, though.

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by ChrisPrusha

I have tied mine to a piece of styrofoam, so they are hanging upside down, with some success. I might just be lucky, though.

This has worked for me as well, but the more it is handled, the more likely that it will be to "dissolve" in the bag during shipping. For me the best shipping has been to grow the specimen on rock/rubble so that they are well attached at the time of shipping, then to rubberband the rock itself to the styro and float only a few (about 4) per quart bag of half-water half-air, deep enough on all sides so that no matter how you turn the bag the specimens do not touch the bottom (because for some reason, "this side up" and "fragile" translates in UPS-ese to "stomp, crush, and drive over" and "throw onto the tarmac" ).

Definitely overnight with appropriate temp control in a styro box, and ABSOLUTELY minimal time in the bag. Even then, expect about 10% mortality.

[danjen10]

Thanks for the tips...

Dan

[Jadinop]

Garf.org has some info on propagating and shipping xenia. Their method involves getting the xenia to slime up and then rinsing off the slime before putting it in the shipping bag. Never tried it but they claim to have success with it.

http://www.garf.org/howtodoinformation.htm#Xenia