How to Ship Caulerpa

[CarmieJo]

Has anyone had any experience shipping or receiving caulerpa? How was it packaged? Overnight or Priority mail? I'd also be interested in knowing if you have had a bad experience and what the circumstances were. Thanks.

[Rob]

i have never had it shipped or shipped it, but i cant imagine it needs much more than a bag of water.. lol..
sorry i cant really help much on this one..., no experience..

[BrianPlankis]

Generally in a bag of water with some air space to allow air exchange. Try to clean out the caulerpa (remove detritus) before bagging it so it doesn't foul the water. The longer you take to ship it the better the chance it can "go sexual" during shipment and kill itself.

Also remember that shipping of caulerpa into and out of California is mostly against the law. Almost all species of caulerpa are banned in that state as they are considered (rightfully so) potentially invasive species.

The last I heard Florida was also considering similar laws, but don't know what became of them.

Brian

[Cyclura]

yes, but unless the laws have changed, its still legal to ship from NC to GA

[CarmieJo]

OK, I have had a bag of it with some water sitting in my frag cooler for 3 days. The water looks a little cloudy but not bad and the caulerpa looks good. I also read yesterday to wrap it in a damp paper towel and put in in a bag with only minimal water. So now I have that sample sitting in my cooler :) I'll let you know how that one does.

[CarmieJo]

After 4 days the caulerpa in water looked bad, slimy and starting to break up. The water was cloudy but not terrible. I didn't open it but it looked like it would be smelly. But, in 2 days the caulerpa wrapped in the paper towels was smelly and slimy.

Cyclura, what is the weather looking like for you? It is supposed to be nice here. I could ship the first of the week.

[Seahorsedreams]

I'm waiting to see how this works out for y'all before I ship any of the precious red grape. Hopw it all goes smooth.

[CarmieJo]

Renee, is that one of the varieties you are allowed to ship to/from CA?

[Seahorsedreams]

Heh... I guess the red grape I'm allowed to have.

It's the caulerpa I'm not allowed to have over here.

The red is just slower to grow, harder to get in a trade and expensive to buy. I never have more red grape than I need.

If I loose green grape in shipping... oh well, no big loss. But I wouldn't want to loose the red grape.

I had my huge mother colony crust up with freaking coralline.

Nobody report me to the California Caulerpa Police.

[CarmieJo]

Gotta watch out for the CCP! I'll let you know how it goes. This grows fast so I didn't mind wasting it on experiments.

[Cyclura]

hows it doing now in the bags?

[CarmieJo]

I tossed it yesterday. I could try another experiment of wrapping it in a paper towel and just letting the caulerpa moisten to see how it does. Otherwise I think I would just ship in in a bag with water. Based on my limited experience from here to GA it should do just fine.

[Cyclura]

. Based on my limited experience from here to GA.

its about a 10 hour drive from here to myrtle beach so its doubtful the trip would be very strenuous for the macro. How are we going to go about on shipping charges? I dont mind paying.

[CarmieJo]

I'll package it up and send it out if you PM me with your address. I feel like Priority mail would be fast enough and should cost <$10. I'd have to go to the PO to get an exact price but none of the packages I sent my sister when she was in Iraq cost more than $10. Do you use PayPal?