How to ship live coral. Easy. Fairly Concise... with Links!

[Alpha Aquaculture]

What should i say to the employee when he asks me whats in the box? If i say coral, they might turn me down. right?

I was turned down as a hobbyist when I would try and ship and tell them it was a live coral. It was with FedEx. I don't use FedEx anymore and I am no longer a hobbyist. I have a business account with UPS and am an approved Live Shipper.

All I can say was that after that first time packaging everything up and driving over to the FedEx location and getting denied and having to bring it all home, I didn't want to experience that again. After that as a hobbyist I decided to tell them I was shipping something else. I usually chose something fragile (the box usually said fragile) like a vase. After telling them it was something other than coral I had no problems. Now that I have the account I no longer have to lie. Other people have said that saying it was a coral wasn't a problem in their area. All I was trying to do was let people know it was a potential issue and what I chose to do when it happened to me. Good luck and please let us know what you do where you live and how it all works out.

 

[davelink]

whenever i ship and they ask what it is, i say that it is "reef additives" similar to rocks.. they usually stop asking me when i give them that

 

[chestnud]

They dont usually ask me at drop off, but if/when they do I just say "aquarium decorations"

 

[Gitsoe]

cool thread! thanks for the tips and insight!

 

[SteezySPS]

I have been asked what I was shipping at fedex and told them they were ornamentals. one other thing i would like to mention is that if you tell them that your shipment is worth more than 500 when they ask, they are required to view the contents of the box. A fedex employee asked me to open the box after I had spent 2 hours preparing everything, so I just played it off telling her that this was only part of a larger shipment equalling that value.

 

[reefhobo]

Great thread, thanks for all the info everyone.

 

[shecter]

i told them glass. i had one woman argue with me saying i was stupid for sending it overnight. id be very interested in seeing what others say the contents are when shipping.

 

[budsbunny]

ok here's an idea for shipping...... take a gatorade bottle glue the frag to the lid and put the bottle under water as you put the lid on the bottle so you have zero air in the bottle reducing the sloshing around of frag during shipping and when possible fill the bpottle with macro algea to help keep the water conditions less toxic sorta of like a packing peanut with benifits for coral

 

[budsbunny]

and tell them it's a snowglobe.......fragile glass with liquid

 

[WesF]

I've always told the person at FedEx office that it is coral when they ask and it has never been a problem.

 

[coder35]

do you need to have fedEx account in order to send out a livestocks box?
can you send a livestock box without a fedex account anyone?

thanks

 

[goodtogo]

Great thread.

 

[RichieT]

I guess I'm not looking in the right place. Can someone give me the direct link to the bags normally used for shipping. All I see are the resealable ones. Also, with the weather being near freezing, is a 30 hour heat pack going to be ok for overnight shipping?

 

[Aquaph8]

I'm no expert but I think it's 3mil poly bags you want. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong though.

 

[Isoprene]

any thoughts on that Gatorade bottle idea? Im setting up a frag tank here in a few months with hope to eventually sell stuff, just looking for a materials list sorta

 

[fixedwing]

Great stuff!!!

 

[GregAW]

How did it effect the shipping price?

 

[buddythelion]

I remember finding this thread when people first started asking me to ship.

In my experiences USPS is getting more and more inconsistent. Although they say it's next day packages arrive 2-Day more often than they should. FedEx seems to be the top choice for most top quality shippers. But prices are so high. One time it cost me $120 to ship a 8x8x8 box to New York. I stupidly thought it would be $60 and just ate the difference since I already told the guy it was $60.

The link for the FedEx discounts doesn't work anymore, does anyone know how to get cheaper FedEx rates that aren't as bad?

 

[RacinRevo0818]

Set up a FedEx and you save about 20%. It's still expensive but helps. You also need some kind of scale but usually for overnight they go by size of box more then weight. I think they allow like 8lb if the box is like 8x8x8. But the price doubles if the box is 8x10x12 so pack them tight.
The best way to get great prices is to friend someone with a business that sends a ton of overnight packages aka unique corals!! If they can ship overnight for like $28 you know there fed ex rep hooks them up. Even if they charged $10 and sold you a shipping label they could make a small fortune! Just from the r2r community and would transform reefing in general.
It's no fun having to pay $120 to ship for a trade but that's what we have to do!!

 

[SantaMonica]

My fav way to receive frags: the floating upside-down with foam technique.