R-BallJunkie
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- Joined
- Aug 2, 2006
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Here's my vendor review for the above.
End goal is to be unbiased and give an honest opinion. As with anyone that's been in the reefing game awhile, i've been burned with adding that 'just one more fish' to my tank, wiping out everything days afterwards. Fast forward a couple of decades, I'm much more cautious on what go's into my system, whether its coral, LR or fish. Happy to say that i have no aptasia, funky flatworms or other reef cooties after setting back up. I filled out my initial stock of fish with doing a quasi quarantine/observation. My go to online fish vendor has been NY Aquatics but his pass thru shipping costs add a lot to the final price tag. My QT process was more than likely an inadequate and only partially effective process. I guess this was further spurned on my Humble Fish's presentation during the last bingo session.
Dr. Reefs is located in Tulsa, OK which means a shorter flight for us Texans. I've never heard of him before a couple of months ago.
My "last" fish for stocking consisted of the following fish:
You can look up the semantics between the two, conditioned vs quarantined.
Order date: 05/03/22
1st shipment date: 06/08/22
2nd shipment date: 06/30/22
When the 1st order arrived, the packaging was surprisingly small. My thoughts are, since they can ship late and have the package arrive before noon, shouldn't be an issue.
After un-bagging and dripping all the fish, i put them in a separate divider for observations.
Overall, all of the fish are very healthy and eating immediately. Only kicker was, at least for me was the size of a few of the fish namely the blenny, goby and mandarin. Not sure if the impetus was on my to ask ahead of time.....it's a new age with many tank bred fish.
All are doing fine except for the initial mandarin fish that was ordered. After i dropped him in, was immediately eaten by one of my Randalls gobies. After a quick google search, yes, carnivorous. I emailed Dr. Reefs and he was totally willing to work with me on this, explained the Mandarins were sourced from Biota. I think if I were to order again, this would be an in advance question i would ask.
2nd shipment, once again, all fish looked healthy. Out of what was initially shipped, only one fish didn't make it....one Anthias. This was my fault. While transferring from observation into the DT, did a head first dive onto the tile floor. I put him back in the tank but I think the damage was already done....
10 days have passed since fulfillment of the final shipped fish and have to say, all specimens are doing great including the replacement Mandarin fish. No signs of health issues. There's a premium to use Dr. Reefs, sure you can get fish cheaper and definitely faster.
I am adding them to the list of fish vendors i will use in the future.
End goal is to be unbiased and give an honest opinion. As with anyone that's been in the reefing game awhile, i've been burned with adding that 'just one more fish' to my tank, wiping out everything days afterwards. Fast forward a couple of decades, I'm much more cautious on what go's into my system, whether its coral, LR or fish. Happy to say that i have no aptasia, funky flatworms or other reef cooties after setting back up. I filled out my initial stock of fish with doing a quasi quarantine/observation. My go to online fish vendor has been NY Aquatics but his pass thru shipping costs add a lot to the final price tag. My QT process was more than likely an inadequate and only partially effective process. I guess this was further spurned on my Humble Fish's presentation during the last bingo session.
Dr. Reefs is located in Tulsa, OK which means a shorter flight for us Texans. I've never heard of him before a couple of months ago.
My "last" fish for stocking consisted of the following fish:
| Moorish Idol - Conditioned |
| Evansi Anthias (conditioned only) x 5 |
| Blue/Green Mandarin - Quarantined |
| Neon Blue Goby (Captive Bred) - Conditioned |
| Tailspot Blenny - Conditioned |
| Mystery Wrasse - Conditioned |
You can look up the semantics between the two, conditioned vs quarantined.
Order date: 05/03/22
1st shipment date: 06/08/22
2nd shipment date: 06/30/22
When the 1st order arrived, the packaging was surprisingly small. My thoughts are, since they can ship late and have the package arrive before noon, shouldn't be an issue.
After un-bagging and dripping all the fish, i put them in a separate divider for observations.
Overall, all of the fish are very healthy and eating immediately. Only kicker was, at least for me was the size of a few of the fish namely the blenny, goby and mandarin. Not sure if the impetus was on my to ask ahead of time.....it's a new age with many tank bred fish.
All are doing fine except for the initial mandarin fish that was ordered. After i dropped him in, was immediately eaten by one of my Randalls gobies. After a quick google search, yes, carnivorous. I emailed Dr. Reefs and he was totally willing to work with me on this, explained the Mandarins were sourced from Biota. I think if I were to order again, this would be an in advance question i would ask.
2nd shipment, once again, all fish looked healthy. Out of what was initially shipped, only one fish didn't make it....one Anthias. This was my fault. While transferring from observation into the DT, did a head first dive onto the tile floor. I put him back in the tank but I think the damage was already done....
10 days have passed since fulfillment of the final shipped fish and have to say, all specimens are doing great including the replacement Mandarin fish. No signs of health issues. There's a premium to use Dr. Reefs, sure you can get fish cheaper and definitely faster.
I am adding them to the list of fish vendors i will use in the future.
