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Originally Posted by kaboom
Can you describe the steps you take from when the corals leave the store/house? How long are the coral's out of water and what type of corals have been successfully transported this way.
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Sure. I have done this twice. Corals that have survived include acros, birdsnest, zoas/palys and cyphastera - LPS scared me but they seem to be fine to transport like this. Depending on what you read it may actually be better to transport some corals without water, as they slime and that's what ends up killing the corals in the bag. - Too long in the bag is worse with water and my recent experience may back this up.
This time was not ideal at all. I wasn't in montreal to buy corals but since I have no opportunity to buy corals here I took this chance. I purchased the corals Saturday afternoon kept them in the bags in my hotel overnight in the ice bucket which I also put a bag of warm water in to keep them a little warmer then room temperature. I likely kept them in the bags too long about 24hrs when I probably could have wrapped them a little earlier. Like I said I took a chance on a piece that looked fine but it was in a tank with many suspect pieces and was greatly reduced in price.
Prior to heading to the airport I laid some paper towels down in the sink and poured the water from the bags over them. I got rid of most of the water that soaked in then completely covered the corals in the paper towels then removed most of the air from the bags and then closed them (ziplock). They were out of the water from about 1pm to 10pm. I transported them inside a lunch bag that was insulated in my carry on bag.
The first time I did this last year I bought corals and did the switcheroo in the airport washroom. The corals only spent 1hr in their bags and maybe 6hrs out of water. That time I had 100% survival 6 or 7 pieces. I would feel comfortable transporting any sps, zoa or paly, as well as most lps. I was hesitant to try anemones, or mushrooms. Other soft corals may be okay but haven't personally tried.
If I was buying hundreds of dollars worth of coral I'd probably check the bag and just pack them like how corals that are shipped are backed, but for a small amount this is more cost effective as it can be done in carry on and you don't have to tell the airline. Apparently air canada changed their regulations about fish / pets (which somehow include coral) and require them to be shipped via cargo at an additional cost. The funny thing is when you want to get a store to ship you via air canada cargo they may tell you they don't ship animals cargo to small airports.
Porter seems to have a more liberal policy. With that in mind on my next trip which actually is partially just to buy corals / fish I will check a bag.