The USPS Flatrate Option for coral shipping

I'm not an expert on corals and this isn't some kind of study. Just a little FYI and to pass on what I know works. Most of the corals pic'd below where shipped to me USPS flatrate from Vancouver WA to where I live in extreme Southeast South Dakota. Avg. daytime temps were in the low 30's with nighttime lows in the upper teens. The box was mailed on Monday afternoon and I recieved it on Wednesday morning 3/1. 3 days is pretty normal for priority anywhere in the contiguous 48 states ime. That's an important point..I wouldn't try this with a package that will sit 'idle' on a Sunday in some warehouse which would add a day.
The frags were shipped in disposable tupperware type containers. There was no leaking. The box was very well insulated with lightweight rubber foam. There were two 72 hour heat packs in the box. One taped to the inside bottom of the box, one set on top of the insulation under the top flaps. These were still warm to the touch and working well. The box was clearly marked 'live animals' 'fragile' 'this end up' on the outside.
All of these factors combined proved to successfully ship:
5 X 4" GSP frags
1 Pavona frag + 2 small chips
5 X Neon Riccordea
1 big 100+ polyp colony of Dragon's Eyes ( I immediately split 25 polyps off and glued them to a shell to start a new colony)
1 rock with unknown palys (or maybe zoo's, I always confuse the two)
A bunch of asternia and micro serpents.
It's been two weeks today since the box came. Here pic's taken this morning:

One of the GSP colony's from Greg..aka Eddie

The big colony of Dragons Eye's

The Pavona frag. There was tissue loss from stress with this shipping method but this frag has made a very quick recovery and tissue regeneration is greater than 50%.

The ricki's and paly's (or zoa's lol) If anyone looking can ID the polyps I'd appreciate it. Those guys love mysis when they catch them in the flow @ fish feeding time.
The next one isn't from Greg..just showing it off cuz it's my favorite polyp, I got it on 2/27 this year as a single head. It's already popped three baby's. you can see two of them but the third is real tiny still and is covered in the pic.;D

 

Great post! That being said, I don't trust USPS enough to ship SPS corals with them. We've learned the hard way that just because you pay for overnight delivery doesn't mean you get it.

Don't you need a permit to ship live animals through the USPS?

 

I love USPS flat rate boxes. Makes selling on Ebay much easier. Plus its real easy to pay and print the label right from paypal. Also, from paypal you get free delivery confirmation. The problem with it is if you use the delivery confirmation from paypal it doesnt update until it arrives at the destination. If you get it from the post office it tracks similarly to how UPS does - a bit slower.

 

Apparently not..but I'm not 100% on that.
Greg and I worked together on this. In the post I forgot to mention that overnight from WA to SD was 55.00-60.00, this was 10.00.
I agree with you on alot of sps, the pavona looked pretty rough and I had my doubts but it's made an amazing recovery.

 

Just read on their website that a permit is not required. I must be thinking about FedEx or something.

 

I totally agree even though I don't sell on eBay anymore and have moved into a retail store. If priority is an option to get goods to me I'll choose it every time due to the cost and fact that the wait is unlikely to be longer than 3 days.

 

Yes the amount some charge for shipping is a joke. I have seen stores in California that want 65$ for overnight to Reno. Its less than 200 miles. I work for a freight company and we can send a whole plt over night from CA to Nevada for $65. And that's like 800lbs. So I have to pay the same for a 1lbs box?? Not saying its the store fault, just that the 2 big parcel shippers are ripping us off.

 

usps me some fire and ice ;-)

 

Is that what those red skirted zoa's are? The bunch on the rock below the dragon's eyes that is.

 

yeah