success rates on mail order SPS

[guppychao]

recently i purchased a frag pack from a vendor on R2R, and wondering other peoples success rate in general. Bought 10 frags for a great price including shipping, however all but 2 rtned on me and left with 2 that have been doing well.
contacted the vendor as an FYI and as of today no response yet. not sure if i am doing something wrong, however all frags were relatively in the same area and acclimated the same too.
be nice for the vendor just to acknowledge.

 

[mainereefer]

the vendor should have been waiting for your message saying if the coral arrived healthy or not.with usually only a 2hr window to let them know how the coral arrived. it is important that they are in contact with you! you say it is a vendor here, so I would put a message in their board asking to contact you...
(squeaky wheel gets the grease )

 

[bairdimusprime]

absolutely agree with the above post. any dealings ive had with R2R vendors have always had constant contact from the vendor.

 

[jgalen0025]

If something was wrong with them when you got them then you need a refund but if you put them in the tank and rtned, then it is your fault. Something is probably wrong with your water or tank maturity.

 

[guppychao]

most likely my fault but why would 2 survive and florish? Also my other frags are fine (bought from LFS)

all frags came in well, however the water was a bit chilly, other than that all was good.

the frags all rtned at a different rate, one was the next day, and now another so my question is what are other success rate for sps frags? imo, i would think at least one or 2 would not survive out of 10.

If something was wrong with them when you got them then you need a refund but if you put them in the tank and rtned, then it is your fault. Something is probably wrong with your water or tank maturity.

 

[Robink]

First, sorry for your loss... I've made several purchases from vendors on this site... live sales, etc. I've had bad experiences with fedex, but not usually the vendor. Some pack better than others. Haven't had any casualties as of yet. I take my time acclimating the corals to my water. so far so good. Starting in October purchased my first SPS, have five now and they're all doing well. All were shipped except one from a frag show.
could be any number of factors, lighting, temp, water parameters.
Most vendors guarantee arrival of healthy coral, if there was any question of the health of the coral a picture says a thousand words...
If everything doesn't look good right out of the box I take pictures.

 

[guppychao]

Another question is what are the success rates on fresh cut frags, or frags that only heal for maybe a week or two before shipped. I am tentative to purchase sps again from mail order due to my luck, all sps purchased locally for me has thrived, just the mail order ones I have not had success.
They seem to do well for a couple of weeks and then just rtn while all my other local bought survive. Any thought on the rational?

 

[Piranhapat]

Fresh cut will likely RTN before encrusted SPS that healed. If you got a fresh cut and temp was on cold side. Most likely it's not your fault. Try buy SPS that encrusted and healed before they ship.

 

[Piranhapat]

I bought all my high ends SPS through mail. Only lost one out of 10 because it was cut the day before it came. I wanted it ship in my first order to save on shipping. It was one that wasn't healed.

 

[oceanreefer]

I would ask the seller to hold for a few weeks if they are fresh cuts. Most will not have problem with that. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Pete polyp]

In my experience the survival rate depends on which vendor you get them from. I have ordered from some vendors without losing anything. On the other hand I have ordered from vendors and lost 90%.