Butterflies order review

ninjamyst · Jul 2, 2026

I placed an order about two weeks ago during their father's day sale for:

- 2 pyramid butterfly
- 1 copperband butterfly
- 1 red mandarin goby

These are all relatively expensive and expert level fish hence why I decided to get them from Dr. Reef.

I will document the process as I personally find reviews from real people very helpful. I have purchased livestock from other online vendors and also live in Orlando so I have my pick of some of the biggest and most well known local LFS but so far have been disappointed with their fish quality.

The ordering process is straight forward and I find their website easy to navigate. I was expecting to wait a month for them to acquire and quarantine the fish I ordered but within two weeks I got the email that my order is ready to ship. They responded quickly to my inquiry about how long the fish been quarantined for.

ninjamyst · Jul 2, 2026

Arrival Day
I chose UPS hub pickup and I would recommend it to everyone. Usually my UPS livestock shipments don't get to my house till late in the afternoon. This time my order arrived at the UPS hub at 9:40am. However I did not get a notification email from UPS. I just happened to be checking the tracking every 30 mins and saw it arrived. I was at the store by 10am and the pick up process was very easy. The employees were inquisitive about the box that says live tropical fish. I did not charged extra by them for hub pick up.

Packaging is superb although I was surprised no ice packs despite shipping to Florida in the summer. But they must know what they are doing since the water temperature was room temperature and not hot or cold. Each bag has plenty of water making the box a good 20-30lbs. The UPS employee was surprised how heavy the box was. All the fish were swimming and in great shape.

Color and size of the fish are amazing. The red mandarin is the standout. Perfect fins and a nice fat belly.

15 mins float in my sump, empty into a bucket, and scooped into the display. Lights were out (thank you hub morning pick up) and they settled in nicely.

Will update tomorrow.

ninjamyst · Jul 3, 2026

Day 2
All 4 fish alive and seems to be doing well. My tangs been showing some aggression to the butterflies but nothing too concerning.

The copperband ate a mysis for lunch. Very happy about that. Two pyramid butterflies not eating yet but one is showing interest. Red mandarin....is somewhere....saw it this morning for a brief moment. I added pods last night.

Dr. Reef · Jul 3, 2026

Hi
Thank you for your in depth review and feedaback.
Glad all fish are doing well, They shoudl start eating within a day or so. Soometimes shipping stress can cause them to stop eating but normally will recover over a few days.
If they dont eat or thing go south, let us know we will take care of you.

Ice Pack or heat pack: (Only for knowledge, How this work)

Regarding ice pack, We pack early in the morning here in Tulsa OK. They stay at ups warehouse from 3-4pm to 9-10pm here in Tulsa, Then they fly out to Kentucky. They stay there in ups sorting facility till 5-6am and then fly out to respective States. They reach their destination States about 7-8am, They they get trucked and out for delivery by 10am to 2pm depending how far your address is from ups hub.

So for the first 16hrs or so they are in midwest. Temps here are hovering around mid 80s in day time and lower 70s or even upper 60s at night.
Each cold pack has ability to drop the temp inside the box by 20-25F. If we use a cold pack with night as cool as 70F the temp inside the box will drop to 50F likely killing the fish.
We only use cold pack when nights are going to be above 80F on average.
They are staying in midwest for 80% of the time thus we have to monitor that temp for most part. Once they reach the respective State its just a matter of 2-4 hrs for delivery.

Styrofoam box alone can keep temp inside the box favorable for 14-16 hrs before it starts to climp if left in hot climate.
We have done extensive study on this and thus we are confident of our shipping protocol.

In this chart as you can see, Ambient temp swings from 90F (daytime) to 68F (night time) then back up.
If we do not put anything and let styrofoam do its job (in pink) you can see temp remains in ideal range all the way till 36-40 hrs, never going out of favorable range.

With 1 cold pack it also remains favorable but starts to dip under 70F thus can be an issue if it dips any further.
With 2 cold packs it definitely dips under 67F and can be an issue for some fish.

Hope that helps.

Please keep an eye on the pyramids and let us know if they dont start eating by monday.
Happy 4th Happy reefing