Divers Den - 2 thumbs up, California facility needs help

Treefer32 · Sep 11, 2020

I ordered 6 Caribean Blue Chromis off Divers den as a package, the fish are all beautiful active. They don't like my frozen food much, but, they did eat some and are doing well in my tank (at least for the first 4 hours) and they all arrived in individual bags, with tons of air. They were packaged amazingly well! They were from the Wisconsin Biota facility. The fish were way more beautiful than I expected. I got an ORA clown fish shipped from the California facility. The heat pack was cold, the fish was tiny. Less than quarter inch (probably shouldn't have been sold yet?) And it was dead in the bag.. The bag was so tiny, it was about the size of one of those small coral baggies I've seen corals shipped in. The water was freezing cold, so pretty sure it froze to death. It would be nice to get consistent service from the different LA facilities. Overall extremely pleased with the Divers Den. Very displeased with general stock.

LiveAquaria · Sep 15, 2020

@Treefer32 Good morning---we are very happy to hear that you had a great experience with your recent DD shipment--great feedback! We are disappointed, however, to see that your California shipment did not arrive alive, and was lacking in adequate packing. If you will please PM us your order information, we would greatly appreciate the opportunity to look into this further. Thank you and have a great day!

Flame2hawk · Sep 22, 2020

Treefer32 said:
I ordered 6 Caribean Blue Chromis off Divers den as a package, the fish are all beautiful active. They don't like my frozen food much, but, they did eat some and are doing well in my tank (at least for the first 4 hours) and they all arrived in individual bags, with tons of air. They were packaged amazingly well! They were from the Wisconsin Biota facility. The fish were way more beautiful than I expected. I got an ORA clown fish shipped from the California facility. The heat pack was cold, the fish was tiny. Less than quarter inch (probably shouldn't have been sold yet?) And it was dead in the bag.. The bag was so tiny, it was about the size of one of those small coral baggies I've seen corals shipped in. The water was freezing cold, so pretty sure it froze to death. It would be nice to get consistent service from the different LA facilities. Overall extremely pleased with the Divers Den. Very displeased with general stock.

I too have had issues with California. Been wanting to pull trigger on a Aussie harlequin tusk from California facility and have been very hesitant to do so....

Apachefirestorm · Sep 23, 2020

I've had the same issues. My experiences with DD and Biota have been great. I will no longer purchase fish shipping from CA.

Treefer32 · Sep 23, 2020

Flame2hawk said:
I too have had issues with California. Been wanting to pull trigger on a Aussie harlequin tusk from California facility and have been very hesitant to do so....

I have gotten fish from LA from California that arrived healthy and survived. I had ordered two pyramid butterflies. Not cheap fish by any means. One arrived not looking well but figured it was just shipping stress. Put both in. one is still alive to this day the other one never started eating and died within 2 days of being added. I was able to get credit for the dead one, so, I do appreciate the warranty. Prior to that I've ordered probably a total of 15 fish from LA and I haven't lost a single one prior to the Pyramid Butterfly loss.

Out of my current 25 fish 23 came from LA and are all healthy. I do appreciate the guarantees! I would state that the stuff from DD out of Biota and Wisconsin are steps above the quality of care, handling, and quality of specimens is way higher. But that said, I have had good experiences. It is unfortunate we hear mainly about the bad.