How To Import Salt Water Corals

Check out this youtube video on what it looks like to unpack a shipment of live salt water corals. At our store we are able to buy corals wholesale. Vendors will only supply brick and mortar stores and usually will require business license, tax numbers, import permits and photos to prove you are an actual business. This specific shipment came from Indonesia and we couldn’t be happier with the arrival and health of the corals. Up until recently Indonesian corals were banned from export out of their country but the government worked with local farmer to introduce new rules regarding export. These rules have banned the collection of most wild corals and are designed around supporting sustainable coral farming which we couldn’t be happier with here at Fragbox Corals.

Importing corals is  a tricky business. You  need the proper import permits for the country you live in and it varies from country to country. You also need proper export permits from the country that it is being exported from. Almost all hard corals are now protected under CITES with the exception of soft corals. Even the base they come in, the live rock is protected and considered alive so these the rock bases needs a permit which may sound strange. Every year more and corals are added to the list of vulnerable species are no longer allowed to be touched. When I began importing corals many years ago we could get acquire 10x the species we could now acquire. From a business stand point its not ideal but from an environmental stand point its for the best.

When importing corals the highest cost comes to shipping. Airlines are charging more and more every year and corals need to get to us as fast as humanly possible. They are often in the bags for 48 hours which is normally ok, anything longer than that and they won’t survive. There is usually about 1-5% die off on every coral shipment and there are minimum order amounts with almost all suppliers. There is a very limited amount of CITES permits issued each year and vendors want to maximize the amount they can export. For example if their cties allows for export of 300 pieces you would need to take this many colonies. You would not be able to order just 25 or 50 corals. Coral shipments can often cost $20,000 USD and and its quite risky. One delayed flight and you could lost the whole shipment. The price of the coral is relatively cheap but the shipping is crazy high. Most vendor will replace just the cost of the coral if you have more than 50% DOA. But they don’t reimburse and of the shipping charges which is often 75% or more of the order. On a bad shipment you would be out these monies and over the years I have seen a few bad shipments but stores out of business. This industry deal with time sensitive animals and is definitely not for the faint of heart.