Frags2fishes.com reviews

[Brad Miller]

FRAGS2FISHES
Http://www.frags2fishes.com

Location;
29 Kimbelot Ln
Landenberg, PA 19350

If anyone has been there or bought online from him, please feel free to post your experience here.

Please keep the posts about this vendor only so it stays a clean review.

I recently heard about this vendor (sells online and does local selling also) and searched on here for some feedback but found very little.
From what I’ve learned, he started up in his house in 2008 and has a good bit of very positive feedback locally, on Facebook and other places.

Figured I would title this thread as I did so we can document our experiences for other more easily.

I really like that he quarantines everything, as was done years ago by vendors and is hardly done at all anymore.
He also packs his coral to ship, like Tidal Gadens does with styrofoam and upside down.

Ive emailed John and am hoping to stop out and see him on 4/20/19 (only open on Saturdays 10-4)
He has a Tomin Tang listed on the website, but site is being upgraded....I asked him in the email if he can have one there for me when I go visit. (1.5 hrs drive away from me)

Ill take some pics on my visit and update this post then.

 

[PatrickMorris]

My son and I went up to visit him without doing any research, I think I found him from doing a google search for coral shops within a hundred miles. I didn't know that it was a home based store but other than not being really sure where to park it was no big deal. I was impressed with his prices and selection and wouldn't hesitate to go back up there again. All the corals I purchased are doing great.

 

[Brad Miller]

I forgot to post back.
I decided to wait on a visit since John is in the midst of major renovations.
For another 6-8 weeks, due to cycling the tanks and all, the fish side of the business is not up and running.
Feel free to post here if you’ve dealt with John.
I will make that visit when the work is done and post some pics too.

 

[OutsideBrian]

They have a pretty good following on their Facebook page. I haven’t personally purchased or visited, yet... I am planning on it though

 

[lilfish717]

Well it appears other people like him. Personally I only ordered once but wasn't the happiest. I recieved 2 chalice and a cyphastrea. I went to pick them up. I noticed the one chalice wasn't looking to hot and was all broke up. I out them under the light still in the bag and immediately noticed something was wrong. All the edges were broken and missing tissue. And half the thing was white(no tissue). I immediately contacted them and they said "yeah, I think it fell off the frag rack before bagging" so In other words they knew they gave me a damaged coral. I decided to wait until I see if it got better to even ask for a refund. After a week it was just getting worse and I didn't even bother contacting them because I figured I'd just get the typical "it's been over a week since you received this frag" It had alot of damaged for just falling off a frag rack though. Also pests. The other chalice I recieved had some catapiller worm like animal living in the skeleton. White stringy stuff coming out of it and a bunch of what I'm assuming pineapple sponges. But going to ask on here for a positive Id. Both have since died and have nothing but an eye on the broken one left and 2 eyes on the pest one.

 

[Brad Miller]

That’s not cool !;Facepalm

 

[lilfish717]

That’s not cool !;Facepalm

Yea, I'm willing to give them another try. Not sure when, but when I do I will do a follow up here.

 

[Brad Miller]

Saw John at our annual club frag swap last Saturday.
I know he’s been very busy with all he’s doing lately, so keep that in mind when you read this....

Most of his coral were very freshly fragged and glued to the plugs, which I’m not personally a big fan of.
Bought 2 of those and am letting them heal up in my frag tank....appear to be doing good so far.
Quite a few of those frags he had there were hurriedly or improperly cut and glued so that the polyps weren’t whole and edges of the frags were rough with loose rock pieces.
The two I got have air bubbles coming out of the glue after a day in my tank

 

[jwalker314]

Saw John at our annual club frag swap last Saturday.
I know he’s been very busy with all he’s doing lately, so keep that in mind when you read this....

Most of his coral were very freshly fragged and glued to the plugs, which I’m not personally a big fan of.
Bought 2 of those and am letting them heal up in my frag tank....appear to be doing good so far.
Quite a few of those frags he had there were hurriedly or improperly cut and glued so that the polyps weren’t whole and edges of the frags were rough with loose rock pieces.
The two I got have air bubbles coming out of the glue after a day in my tank

Brad,
John, owner of F2F here. I am sorry to hear you are not happy with the frags you purchased last weekend. You mentioned that "Most of his coral were very freshly fragged and glued to the plugs" I would like to comment that the only pieces that were freshly fragged were some of the zoas we were selling, due to this we made sure they were all chunky pieces to ensure they were healthy. The rest of our other corals were cut at least 2-3 weeks prior to the show. Also we felt everything was priced very fairly at $20 ea for the majority of our frags. If the frags you purchased were something other than zoanthids it is possible that they needed to be reglued due to falling off the plugs.

As always customer satisfaction is number 1 to us and I invite anyone who has an issue with anything we sell to address it with us so we can do our best to correct the issue and ensure everyone is happy. I appreciate you checking us out at the swap as well as your feedback. Happy Reefing!

-John

 

[jwalker314]

Well it appears other people like him. Personally I only ordered once but wasn't the happiest. I recieved 2 chalice and a cyphastrea. I went to pick them up. I noticed the one chalice wasn't looking to hot and was all broke up. I out them under the light still in the bag and immediately noticed something was wrong. All the edges were broken and missing tissue. And half the thing was white(no tissue). I immediately contacted them and they said "yeah, I think it fell off the frag rack before bagging" so In other words they knew they gave me a damaged coral. I decided to wait until I see if it got better to even ask for a refund. After a week it was just getting worse and I didn't even bother contacting them because I figured I'd just get the typical "it's been over a week since you received this frag" It had alot of damaged for just falling off a frag rack though. Also pests. The other chalice I recieved had some catapiller worm like animal living in the skeleton. White stringy stuff coming out of it and a bunch of what I'm assuming pineapple sponges. But going to ask on here for a positive Id. Both have since died and have nothing but an eye on the broken one left and 2 eyes on the pest one.

Dante,
I am sorry you were unhappy with the items you picked up. If you can post some pictures of the "worm" you are describing I would be happy to ID it for you as I don't think from your description that it was a pest. We obviously were unaware you were having any issues other than with the chalice due to our conversation with you on Facebook (see below.) I also would have happily replaced the chalice if there was a follow-up that it wasn't doing well.

As always we want to make sure our customers are happy and have healthy corals so don't hesitate to reach out to us with any issues in the future.

Happy Reefing!

-John

 

[lilfish717]

Dante,
I am sorry you were unhappy with the items you picked up. If you can post some pictures of the "worm" you are describing I would be happy to ID it for you as I don't think from your description that it was a pest. We obviously were unaware you were having any issues other than with the chalice due to our conversation with you on Facebook (see below.) I also would have happily replaced the chalice if there was a follow-up that it wasn't doing well.

As always we want to make sure our customers are happy and have healthy corals so don't hesitate to reach out to us with any issues in the future.

Happy Reefing!

-John

Yes the refund part was my fault. I just didn't want to message 2 weeks later asking for a refund. It would've felt wrong on my end. I did pick up something at the recent frag swap at tfptpp. So far so happy. As I stated above I would try again sometime as I didn't feel it was too bad as I didn't even give you guys a chance on the refund. And I did that and currently pleased. Thanks.

 

[jwalker314]

Yes the refund part was my fault. I just didn't want to message 2 weeks later asking for a refund. It would've felt wrong on my end. I did pick up something at the recent frag swap at tfptpp. So far so happy. As I stated above I would try again sometime as I didn't feel it was too bad as I didn't even give you guys a chance on the refund. And I did that and currently pleased. Thanks.

no worries, we understand sometimes it can be uncomfortable communicating an issues with a vendor. Next time you stop in remind me and I'll toss you a frag on the house plus a replacement for the chalice for the issues =)

Happy Reefing!