Has anyone else had recent negative experiences with saltwaterfish.com?

[Biokabe]

I've ordered from saltwaterfish.com many times and have always been impressed with what I got. The fish were healthy, acclimated well, clearly labeled in their bags, protected well, and started acting like... well, fish, immediately upon going into the tank.

So I just received an order from them earlier this week (Tuesday), and 2 out of 3 fish are already dead, and I'm not too optimistic for the third. A spotted mandarin (dead within a day), a royal gramma (retrieved his corpse last night), and a yellow watchman goby (not confirmed dead, but haven't seen him in at least 36 hours).

I had the order shipped to a FedEx location, shipped out on Monday night and I picked up the package around 9:30 AM, started temperature acclimation immediately. As soon as I took them out of the bags, both the mandarin and the gramma were very off. Both had trouble swimming straight, the mandarin would bounce around erratically - often going vertical and seemed to have difficulty orienting itself. The gramma was, honestly, very similar - it had trouble staying upright, it was frequently swimming upside down (not too unusual for basslets, I know, but it didn't seem intentional). Neither ever swam out in the open, both immediately sought out hard surfaces to push their heads into - if you've ever seen a cat bunting, it was like that. The mandarin found a cave and was dead within 6 hours. The gramma alternated between a few different caves, but was never clearly visible and I found it behind the rockwork last night.

To be clear, I'm not certain that saltwaterfish is the ultimate culprit - I wouldn't be surprised if FedEx handled the package too rough and gave the poor fish brain damage. Still, though, they are choosing to use FedEx, and if FedEx can no longer be trusted with fish they might need to switch shippers.

Has anyone else had similar issues recently?

 

[JumboShrimp]

I have not used them in many years, if ever, but I think you stated a cogent case for being upset.

 

[RoanokeReef]

I used them a few months ago with no issue, don't know about the West coast but the East is having crazy high temps, not sure where SW ships from. Maybe heat was an issue?

 

[Biokabe]

I used them a few months ago with no issue, don't know about the West coast but the East is having crazy high temps, not sure where SW ships from. Maybe heat was an issue?

I don't think so, they ship from California, I'm up in WA. I don't know what temps were like in CA when they shipped, but here in WA we were mid-70s the day before. Our high that day was 82-ish, but I picked up in the morning from their facility, before temps had even climbed up into the 70s.

 

[Miami Reef]

I bought around 8 maxima clams from them. Very happy.

 

[Biokabe]

How long ago was that?

Basically, I'm what I'm trying to ascertain is whether:

A) Saltwaterfish is still a good supplier and I just happened to get a bad batch of fish

B) Saltwaterfish is good, but FedEx is not and we all need to urge them to switch

C) Saltwaterfish used to be good, but has since changed something in their practices and is no longer reliable

My gut feeling is that either A or B is true, but I know that other vendors have gone down path C in the past (Live Aquaria, for example).

I've used saltwaterfish before and been very happy with the outcomes, so I do hope that I just got unlucky here. I don't particularly enjoy adding to the fish graveyard beneath my rose bushes.

 

[Miami Reef]

Got them a few months ago. They were drop-shipped from ORA.

 

[salinity now]

I've ordered from saltwaterfish.com many times and have always been impressed with what I got. The fish were healthy, acclimated well, clearly labeled in their bags, protected well, and started acting like... well, fish, immediately upon going into the tank.

So I just received an order from them earlier this week (Tuesday), and 2 out of 3 fish are already dead, and I'm not too optimistic for the third. A spotted mandarin (dead within a day), a royal gramma (retrieved his corpse last night), and a yellow watchman goby (not confirmed dead, but haven't seen him in at least 36 hours).

I had the order shipped to a FedEx location, shipped out on Monday night and I picked up the package around 9:30 AM, started temperature acclimation immediately. As soon as I took them out of the bags, both the mandarin and the gramma were very off. Both had trouble swimming straight, the mandarin would bounce around erratically - often going vertical and seemed to have difficulty orienting itself. The gramma was, honestly, very similar - it had trouble staying upright, it was frequently swimming upside down (not too unusual for basslets, I know, but it didn't seem intentional). Neither ever swam out in the open, both immediately sought out hard surfaces to push their heads into - if you've ever seen a cat bunting, it was like that. The mandarin found a cave and was dead within 6 hours. The gramma alternated between a few different caves, but was never clearly visible and I found it behind the rockwork last night.

To be clear, I'm not certain that saltwaterfish is the ultimate culprit - I wouldn't be surprised if FedEx handled the package too rough and gave the poor fish brain damage. Still, though, they are choosing to use FedEx, and if FedEx can no longer be trusted with fish they might need to switch shippers.

Has anyone else had similar issues recennt

 

[salinity now]

I hate FedEx they have burned me on several live shipments. Saltwater fish made it right but their coral is undersized and over priced. I have learned that when the weather is extreme I hold off on buying any. They ship out of the same supplier Hawthorn CA that Petco uses.