Dr Reef honest review, B minus

[breathing underwater]

Wanted to post an honest review of my experience with Dr Reef after a few orders.

First order was very good: a captive bred Majestic and Multibar angelfish, and a CB mandarin pair. All packed well, the female mandarin was sadly DOA. It was also extremely small but I expected that with captive bred and no issues with that.

Second order, was a shipping delay. Sat in the Tulsa UPS for over 24 hours. Not in any way DrReefs fault, and when I let them know they said they would try to get the package recalled to help the fish. Shortly after this it got moving, but I give big points for trying to rescue stranded livestock. Order arrived with a DOA coral, and a fox face that was pretty banged up. Dr Reef assured me they would stand by the fox face, and when it passed several days later (never ate due to an injured mouth they said must have happened in the bag and listless since arrival), they did honor the guarantee even past three days. Again, plus points for me. They did however ship me one less than the number of chromis on the shopping notification, and sent me the wrong urchin, a non reef safe fire urchin rather than the Halloween urchin (I feel like these are obviously visually easy to distinguish). Offered credit but I asked for a refund instead as livestock not shipped is not DOA policy. They graciously complied.

Third order just came in on time. A healthy replacement fox face, which is great, along with two conchs. But I had ordered three more chromis as the first batch was very enjoyable in my SPS reef. They shipped four all in one bag, one was DOA. They were all much smaller (ordered medium sized both times), with pinched bellies and thin behind the skull. One has died within the hour. The other two look stressed. Also, I had a replacement coral for the previous DOA which I now realized I paid for again as it was not credited. To be fair I forgot to note this in my order like I did for the fox face, being a replacement for DOA. And, the five turbo snails that were invoiced and noted as shipped were nowhere to be found.

Overall this gives me a lot of mixed reactions. Some solid, diseased free fish which were what I expected given the price and reputation for fully quarantined, quality livestock on this forum. On the other hand, quality is very uneven with some animals of poor quality, more than one instance of paid, invoiced stock not being in the box, mistaken species and what seems like a lack of quality control and missed billing credit for a DOA. Hence my 'B minus' grade to date.

This is a tough business and losses happen. I certainly don't blame them for UPS being late. While email responses are short to the point of being only a few words, they have stood by their guarantee and then some. All in all I am unsure if I will order again. This feels like maybe growing pains for a business that has built a strong following and now is trying to scale up to fill the void from live aquaria, but that is only my personal impression and I am speculating. I truly hope this is not representative over the long term as I hope they thrive as a business.

Ymmv and I just wanted to put this out there for fellow forum members to be aware of.

 

[breathing underwater]

Wanted to post an honest review of my experience with Dr Reef after a few orders.

First order was very good: a captive bred Majestic and Multibar angelfish, and a CB mandarin pair. All packed well, the female mandarin was sadly DOA. It was also extremely small but I expected that with captive bred and no issues with that.

Second order, was a shipping delay. Sat in the Tulsa UPS for over 24 hours. Not in any way DrReefs fault, and when I let them know they said they would try to get the package recalled to help the fish. Shortly after this it got moving, but I give big points for trying to rescue stranded livestock. Order arrived with a DOA coral, and a fox face that was pretty banged up. Dr Reef assured me they would stand by the fox face, and when it passed several days later (never ate due to an injured mouth they said must have happened in the bag and listless since arrival), they did honor the guarantee even past three days. Again, plus points for me. They did however ship me one less than the number of chromis on the shopping notification, and sent me the wrong urchin, a non reef safe fire urchin rather than the Halloween urchin (I feel like these are obviously visually easy to distinguish). Offered credit but I asked for a refund instead as livestock not shipped is not DOA policy. They graciously complied.

Third order just came in on time. A healthy replacement fox face, which is great, along with two conchs. But I had ordered three more chromis as the first batch was very enjoyable in my SPS reef. They shipped four all in one bag, one was DOA. They were all much smaller (ordered medium sized both times), with pinched bellies and thin behind the skull. One has died within the hour. The other two look stressed. Also, I had a replacement coral for the previous DOA which I now realized I paid for again as it was not credited. To be fair I forgot to note this in my order like I did for the fox face, being a replacement for DOA. And, the five turbo snails that were invoiced and noted as shipped were nowhere to be found.

Overall this gives me a lot of mixed reactions. Some solid, diseased free fish which were what I expected given the price and reputation for fully quarantined, quality livestock on this forum. On the other hand, quality is very uneven with some animals of poor quality, more than one instance of paid, invoiced stock not being in the box, mistaken species and what seems like a lack of quality control and missed billing credit for a DOA. Hence my 'B minus' grade to date.

This is a tough business and losses happen. I certainly don't blame them for UPS being late. While email responses are short to the point of being only a few words, they have stood by their guarantee and then some. All in all I am unsure if I will order again. This feels like maybe growing pains for a business that has built a strong following and now is trying to scale up to fill the void from live aquaria, but that is only my personal impression and I am speculating. I truly hope this is not representative over the long term as I hope they thrive as a business.

Ymmv and I just wanted to put this out there for fellow forum members to be aware of.

Just to follow up on this, @Dr. Reef responded quickly but very briefly to note that they showed packing list showed 7 snails had shipped. I re-looked in the box and found they were shipped in damp paper towels in an empty bag. They had sat in the box and extra 3 hours or so at room temperature, so added them (no way to acclimate something when it's not in water!). Only two survivors, the rest sat still until I checked them 36 hours later and they are rotting and removed. Side note they had some aiptasia on the shells as a bonus.

Only one chromis from the batch lasted more than a few hours. And the fox face seems fine, hiding a lot but they are kinda skittish fish IME, at least early on.

DrReef has been brief but so far has promised to work with me on crediting the losses. No comments at all on the lack of care and quality of this shipment relative to the first, just single sentence requests for DOA photos of lost livestock.

Overall I'd say my B minus grade remains accurate. No disease and honoring DOA but not the best or most consistent. Nowhere near the old school Divers Den experience for those of us that remember that era of "fully quarantined" online experience and quality.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Thank you for your feedback.
Its very common to ship sensitive snails like turbo and trochus to ship without water.
If you ship them with bag full of water, if 1 dies it nukes the entire lot and all you receive is a bag full of murky water with smell that wont leave for few days.
but if you put them in a bag with moist paper they will not kill eachother if 1 dies.
this is a very common practice not sure why hobbyist are not so familiar with it.

to acclimate just add a little tank water to them in a bowl and keep adding little more every 5 to 10 min till they are submerged. Then release.