First off I want to preface by saying I am a liveaquaria and bluezooaquatics guy and before that I loved flyingfishexpress. I decided with my next few orders I would be trying out multiple other online shops to see which one could compete/possibly beat liveaquaria or bluezoo. I figured that the doa rate with liveaquaria based on my past 10 orders was roughly <10% and bluezoo was very close to that figure as well. The mortality rate within the first 2 weeks for these 2 shops was probably around the 10% mark as well. I will throw some quite specific details of my order at saltwaterfish, doa rate, mortality rate, customer service, etc. I also have an order from reef2go.com coming tomorrow as well which I will also update with the same level of details. (BTW The parameters are all great before arrival, I have no bias towards any vendor, I just thought it would be helpful for those of you deciding on where to buy livestock.)
Saltwaterfish.com
Order placed on December 15th
Shipped on December 18th (I asked for a delay to my shipment due to schedule conflict)
Arrived on December 19th at the FedEx facility (they would not allow a delivery to my house due to the winter weather +1)
The order:
Now for my order from reefs2go.com which is on its way and will arrive tomorrow, I will update this as it arrives and in a weeks time too.
Saltwaterfish.com
Order placed on December 15th
Shipped on December 18th (I asked for a delay to my shipment due to schedule conflict)
Arrived on December 19th at the FedEx facility (they would not allow a delivery to my house due to the winter weather +1)
The order:
Item | # Bought | Arrived Alive | Lived for >7 days | Rating | |||
Red Leg Hermit Crab- Mexico | 20 | 16 | 16 ? | C | |||
There was a large number of empty shells, not just with this item but with the cerith too | |||||||
Bubble Tip Anemone | 1 | 1 | 1 | A | |||
This guy looked great from the get go and still looks great, he opened up right away and hosted the clowns within an hour | |||||||
Pistol Shrimp - Randalli | 1 | 1 | 1 | A | |||
This guy arrived great, still is doing great | |||||||
Shrimpgoby - Yellow Watchman | 1 | 1 | 1 | A | |||
Likewise, he is in great shape, a good size for a ywg | |||||||
Mandarin Dragonet - Green - | 1 | 1 | 0 | D- | |||
This little guy didn’t look that great from the get go. He was skinny and didn’t eat any of my live pods at all. He died after a week, I assume he starved as I never saw him eat. | |||||||
Nassarius Snail - Group of 10 | 20 | 22 | 22? | A+ | |||
Great shipment of Nassarius | |||||||
Turbo/Astrea Snail - Group of 10 - | 20 | 20 | 20? | A | |||
Great shipment of Turbos | |||||||
Cerith Snail - Group of 10 | 20 | 12 | 12? | D | |||
This shipment was lacking a number of live snails, they had a number of empty shells. | |||||||
Peppermint Shrimp - | 2 | 2 | 1 | B | |||
These guys looked great from the get go. 1 was very large for a peppermint and the other was very small. The very small guy died within 24 hours. | |||||||
Flame Angel | 1 | 1 | 0 | F | |||
This guy arrived weak, stressed out and had an abcess of some sort on his gill. He died within 12 hours. | |||||||
ORA False Percula Clownfish - Aquacultured | 2 | 2 | 2 | A+ | |||
These guys are possibly the best clowns I’ve ever owned in regards to quality. They ate right away, hosted the anemone right away and look great. | |||||||
Scooter Blenny | 1 | 1 | 1 | A+ | |||
This one sort of shocked me. He arrived perfect, he ate right away with frozen foods, I’ve seen him eat pods as well. Best scooter ive owned so far. | |||||||
Sand Sifting Starfish | 1 | 1 | 1 | A | |||
Arrived well, large size, still in great shape and moves quite a bit. | |||||||
All in all I thought the experience was adequate. I felt the customer service started off great, the prices are definitely competitive and the quality was hit or miss. I would give them a B overall and would suggest getting hardier fish from saltwaterfish.com for now. I am awaiting a credit for the doa and 14 day window deaths, I will update when that comes through as well. | |||||||
Now for my order from reefs2go.com which is on its way and will arrive tomorrow, I will update this as it arrives and in a weeks time too.
Item | # Bought | Arrived Alive | Lived for >7 days | Rating |
Green Coral Goby Fish | 1 | | | |
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Black Ray Shrimp Goby | 1 | | ||
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Green Pistol Shrimp | 2 | | ||
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Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp | 1 | | ||
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Starter Refugium Pack | 1 | | ||
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Orange Sun Coral | 1 | | ||
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False Perculas | 2 | | ||
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Scopas Tang | 1 | | ||
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Feather Duster | 1 | | ||
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Copepods | 250 | | ||
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FREE 10+ Heads of Zoos | | | ||
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