shipping woes

[sharelove]

I had a shipment of stuff come on the bus yesterday and it took 30 hours to get here and one of the bags had burst or somehow opened and needless to say, everything was nearly frozen! The water in all the bags was ice cold. I don't think everything survived. I am amazed to report that most did and I'm wondering if there is anything I should be looking for in the next days or so to make sure these critters are going to make it-long term... 2 lipstick conch, 6 nassarius, one orange spotted sand snail-(not looking good), 4 very small cowrie-(some look alive and some look, well, dead...), peppermint shrimp-who couldn't move when first opened, and I thought was dead, but with acclimation seems to have recovered and is moving around..., one yellow cucumber-very small and very dead..., a yellow feather duster which is alive-anyone know what to do with one of these? Where do I put him/her? how do I get it to stop being blown around the tank?
Well that's the shipping horror story yet for me... hopefully this doesn't happen too often.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!
peace,
marc

[DanG]

Did they not use any heat packs when shipping? No double bag either?

[AndyL]

And never ship by greyhound without ticking off the NBO (next bus out) option, costs 5$ extra, but knowing it isn't going to sit around for the next bus with room = priceless.

Andy

[sharelove]

thanks for the tip about greyhound, I didn't know that option existed...
as for bagging and heat packs, everything was done correctly, it's just that when water is freely moving around, it's going to stop the heat pack from working. I think it was just bad luck that one of the shells perhaps poked through the double bagging...
anyhow, I'm just watching and waiting to see if everything survives.
happy new year all