Dr. Reef sent me EXTRA fish, what should I do.

[Dr. Reef]

Hi Everyone
This concern has been brought up a few times on different forums and also emailed to us regularly.

Answer to this question is:
We do ship extra fish on some species that do not ship well. For example: Chromis, Lyretail or dispar Anthia, Green Clown Gobies, Yellow coris wrasse, Melanarus wrasse, carpenter or Mccosker wrasse to name a few.
Reasoning is they dont ship well so we ship extra. When you place an order for example for 1 yellow coris, we reserve 2 in your name out of our inventory. If 1 doesnt survive the qt process we have a backup and you dont lose time waiting for a 2nd one to come and wait another 30 days. So mutliple fish are reserved for you. Once we ship we ship extra of that fish so in case 1 doesnt make shipping atleast you have a backup.

Now to the question what if both make it and I dont have room to keep both.
What we recommend is to keep 1 healthier/active looking fish in the main tank and other in acclimation box or sump or in a area where you can grab it back out easily. After 1 week has passed and you are comfortable to say one in main tank will settle and live well then take the extra one and give/gift/sell the other one to local fish store or fellow reefer or donate it to schools/aquariums/zoo's or another place where they can accomodate a fish. If all efforts fail keep it in the sump till you can find a home for it.
Normally your reserved fish would have been qted together, so likley they might coexist but not a guarantee.

Why do we do this?
Well no one likes to lose fish, Unfortunately it happens in shipping with some fragile fish. If you were to order and receive dead fish after waiting for a month it would not be a good expereince. Then you will have to wait another 30-45 days to receive a replacement which will also not leave a good taste, Also as a business point of view its cheaper to ship an extra fish than to pay for shipping, use more resources like labor, effort, packing material and sticker labels etc all over again to replace what we already know might be a problem shipping.

We are always looking for better source for these fish and once we do find a good source then extra fish will go away on that species.

If you have any more questions or concerns please feel free to ask, We are very transparent on what we do and how we do it and if there is a problem or issue we do our best to make it right for you,

You will find our customer service top knotch.
Like Mike (dr. reef) always says, Hes not in it for money, rather passion for the hobby he has.

 

[PharmrJohn]

Wow. NOT something I'd expect to hear! Just gotta drop a thank you for your procedure. I'll be sure to note this in my ever growing Tasks App! IMO, an excellent practice! I've already heard good things about y'all. Having NEVER purchased anything online, this increases my comfort level.

 

[Tamberav]

I think most people would be happy about this, a few might not like it.

The closest LFS is 2 hours away and maybe 3 other people have tanks in my town (maybe less?)

I would still rather have an extra fish than no fish though!!

 

[FDAWG]

I would prefer having a single, healthy fish in quarantine rather than dealing with the extra work and stress of finding a new home for a second fish if it happens to survive. Perhaps this could be offered as an option during the checkout process.

 

[KrisReef]

I would prefer having a single, healthy fish in quarantine rather than dealing with the extra work and stress of finding a new home for a second fish if it happens to survive. Perhaps this could be offered as an option during the checkout process.

Agreed.

I need to work out something with the Dr to send me these overages

 

[ninjamyst]

Was gonna buy two Gem tangs but now will just buy 1....


Jk!!!

 

[rc1626]

Just received an order from Dr. Reef a few days ago. Ordered three Carberryi anthias and he sent four. Also ordered a cleaner wrasse and he sent two. I was pleasantly surprised!!! Unfortunately one of the anthias was doa so the extra certainly helped maintain the trio. Both wrasses survived so now I have two. Shipping weather was cold and from what I’ve read anthias sometimes don’t ship well even with how well the animals were packaged. That could have been the reason. Thank you Mike!!! Will definitely be ordering fish again from Dr. Reef!

 

[EliMelly]

I think it’s a great policy overall. I ordered 9 Anthias as part of an order and got 11. Who am I to complain with extra fish.

Thank you Mike.

 

[EliMelly]

Wow. NOT something I'd expect to hear! Just gotta drop a thank you for your procedure. I'll be sure to note this in my ever growing Tasks App! IMO, an excellent practice! I've already heard good things about y'all. Having NEVER purchased anything online, this increases my comfort level.

Definitely try Dr Reef, I’ve gotten probably close to 7-8k in fish over the past couple of years from him and have never been let down.

 

[SpyC]

I appreciate the thought process on this and trying to ensure a healthy fish makes it to your customers, but some hobbyists are not in a positon to have an 2nd large or potentially territorial with the same species fish or able to rehome it. For me, that fish will have to be in a 6"x5" area in my sump for its entire life or sent to die in a petco tank. Neither are fair for the fish.

 

[EliMelly]

I appreciate the thought process on this and trying to ensure a healthy fish makes it to your customers, but some hobbyists are not in a positon to have an 2nd large or potentially territorial with the same species fish or able to rehome it. For me, that fish will have to be in a 6"x5" area in my sump for its entire life or sent to die in a petco tank. Neither are fair for the fish.

As a longtime customer of Dr reef it tends to be the very sensitive shippers. Like mentioned before Anthias, gobies, some wrasses. I have never had that with tangs and I’ve gotten at least 10 at this point. Same with angels.

 

[SpyC]

As a longtime customer of Dr reef it tends to be the very sensitive shippers. Like mentioned before Anthias, gobies, some wrasses. I have never had that with tangs and I’ve gotten at least 10 at this point. Same with angels.

Some wrasses do not get along well with each other and will need to be kept separate permanently. Nearly any fish is large in a 5"x6" section of a sump

 

[Dr. Reef]

Chances of both surviving, species mentioned, is very rare. If I was to put a number on it I would say out of all the doubles we ship maybe 25% of the time both survive.

 

[EliMelly]

Some wrasses do not get along well with each other and will need to be kept separate permanently. Nearly any fish is large in a 5"x6" section of a sump

I hear you, here’s the thing. If it’s actually so much of an issue where you can’t give it to a friend, lfs, or sump you can just email Dr reef and ship it back.

 

[SpyC]

I hear you, here’s the thing. If it’s actually so much of an issue where you can’t give it to a friend, lfs, or sump you can just email Dr reef and ship it back.

I assume the required packing items such as bags, heat or cold packs, bag closures, and return shipping will also all be provided for the sensitive fish's return trip? I know this is a good example of no good deed goes unpunished, but maybe reach out to the customer to confirm they are ok with this before doing it.

 

[Dr. Reef]

I assume the required packing items such as bags, heat or cold packs, bag closures, and return shipping will also all be provided for the sensitive fish's return trip? I know this is a good example of no good deed goes unpunished, but maybe reach out to the customer to confirm they are ok with this before doing it.

The whole reason to write this post is to educate everyone including us and come up with solution. So good point and we will incorporate a question to be anwered by customers if they are ok to receive extra fish. We will ship according to thier answer.

 

[fishywishy]

Is there anyway you can let us know before you send the fish so we have time to prepare in case both fish survive?

 

[Dr. Reef]

Is there anyway you can let us know before you send the fish so we have time to prepare in case both fish survive?

We are making changes to the site and auto emailing system.
Basically if some one was to buy one of the fish in question they will get an email asking them if they want us to ship 2 fish.

 

[twentyleagues]

I think this is a great practice. Especially for things like wrasses and anthias which are known to be poor shippers. Having worked in lfs and seen how bad these guys can come in I would hesitate to have them shipped to me with this if I dont find what I am looking for locally I will definitely order from you.

 

[blecki]

So Dr Reef sent me an extra anthias. I was stoked. Four instead of three? Amazing. I release them into my QT (minimal acclimation - I match the tank to the salinity in the bag, and since it's empty, I can do it quick) for observation (no medication) and hold them there for a month, in which time they all grow and one begins to show signs of transitioning. Over this time I bring the QT up to the display's salinity, all that stuff, spread over a month so there's 0 stress...

Transfer the fish. One immediately dies. Like, swam from release, into a corner, and dropped dead.

what the heck anthia. what the heck. RIP free fish. Now six months later I've got... the three I paid for, thriving.

Also if the forum software is going to replace Whisky Tango Foxtrot with what the heck it could at least keep the capitalization consistent.