Need some advice.

[cvcdrk]

So I ordered a bunch of frags cheap from this reefer on another site. They came today. Packed beautifully, I might add.

As I was unpacking, though, I noticed a few things. First of all, both the green and pink birdsnests are an off-white color. The LOOK good...but completely bleached. Are they a lost cause?

It's all in acclimation right now. Plan to do that until 4pm (so a little more than 3 hours of acclimation time on slow drip). There was also a free (not attached to a plug) floating something in one of he tiny containers. I thought it was a rock at first and almost discarded it, but when I touched it it felt soft so I tossed that in too.

Also, when I opened the container there was a definitely fishy smell. I know that is not good. What would you estimate my chances of saving all or most of this are? Sucks if I'm out the $$.

Pics of what I'm talking about:

Packing:

Little extra something that looked like a rock but is softer. If no ID can be made I will try to take some better pics later.

Bleached Birdsnests:

 

[cvcdrk]

I flipped the soft thing over and it definitely looks like it is polyps of some kind now. I;m thinking it fell off that really bleached-looking frag there in the pic. Just in case, though, I'm going to acclimate it loose and then glue it to a rock separate from that frag.

 

[yote]

Just going off the pictures here. But it looks to me like somebody sold you some very unhealthy frags.
As to weather or not they'll come back, that's anybodies guess. But it's worth a shot.
I'd be raisin hell over em though.

 

[cvcdrk]

To be fair, they were healthy. It was WYSIWYG. The rest look good.
I think it was the two-day shipping. Also it had heat packs in it and it was like 70 here today. It was packed really well. It may have been the length of transport, which was my doing ($10 shipping vs. $38 shipping I took a chance).

 

[Amba]

IME,there is no substitute for priority overnight with FedEx. I wouldn't order any other way for that reason.

 

[Zissou]

There are few areas one can save money in the reef hobby; saving money shipping livestock shouldn't be one of them.

 

[cvcdrk]

It was an option. I was told I could get them fedex overnight or usps second day. There was a $28 difference. I didn't think it would make that much of a difference if they were being shipped in the current temperatures and with heatpacks.
I figured they would look a little worse for wear, but the one is straight white with a few little brown spots. The other one has a little more color (brown) but still looks bad.

Everything else looks pretty good, though. Maybe just the birdsnests don't ship well?

 

[cvcdrk]

How long past a few days should I leave them in my frag rack to see if they survive? It's not like they can come back weeks or months later, right?

 

[yote]

I'd give em a week or so and see what happens.

 

[FishyReef]

I can't see the pics (blocked at work), but if the birdsnests have polyps extended even if they are white then I'd leave them in your tank for awhile and see if they color up under your lights. Otherwise its a sad loss. Glad the rest of the stuff made it okay!

 

[cvcdrk]

I can't see any polyp extension at all. It looks like hard white skeleton. I haven't touched it just in case.

The one looks worse than the other. The other one is a little more brown colored towards the base but the top seems to be hard and white like the other one.

I will give it a while. There's no harm in keeping it in the tank. I'm hopeful at least one will pull through.

 

[FishyReef]

Now I'm home and can see the pics - and from your description they look and sound completely dead. I know it was wysiwyg, but maybe the pics were taken awhile before they were actually sold? I'm really surprised an extra day in shipping could do that much damage, but I suppose if the container got really hot.... either way that's a total bummer :(

 

[cvcdrk]

Yeah I'm going to leave them in the tank for awhile just in case of a miracle. I'm pretty much writing the really bad one off as a loss. Meh...it's only $8 down the drain. I'll get a birdsnest eventually. :)

 

[Cheeser]

Where did u order them from?

 

[cvcdrk]

A reefer on another site who frags out of his 100 gallon tank and sells sometimes. idk...he had good rep and the pics were nice looking. It was cheap....like $8 per frag plus shipping. I chose to save even more and go with 2-day. I wouldn't do that again.

 

[Bifferwine]

I think the birdsnests are dead. :( Sorry. There are some corals that would be fine with two day shipping -- mushrooms and zoas... For the rest of them, I wouldn't risk it.

 

[cvcdrk]

Biff do you think the one with a little brown color and some tissue could potentially rebound or do you think I should just write them both off and remove them from the tank?

I'm ready to write off the one. It's white color has if anything, gotten worse with better lighting and it looks like hard white skeleton with little brighter white dots on it now.

The other one, though, seems to still have some brown tissue closer to the base and it has some darker brown spots. I don't know anything about birdsnest corals, how to treat them, etc. I've read a lot about them but haven't found any resources on how to treat them when bleached like this.

 

[Bifferwine]

I would leave them in the tank until they are completely white. That way you know that they are dead for sure. And if algae starts growing on the skeleton -- it's dead.