This is a warning to fellow hobbyists to beware when ordering from this vendor. The general rule is you get what you paid for and this vendor is no exception as you're getting fish that are not eating and have a low survival rate due to poor shipping and bad husbandry. In addition the DOA policy advertised by the vendor is a scam because the fish have very little chance making it alive through acclimation and quarantine due to poor shipping methods.
I received two shipments from this vendor. On the second shipment I ordered 10 evansi anthias as well as a couple of tangs. He was certainly nice enough to talk me through his stock and help me pick out potential tangs for my 220g system. After exchanging text and a couple of phone conversations we agreed that I would buy a purple tang and a yellow eye kole tang since I thought I was getting a great deal by paying $139 and $25 for each fish respectively. I sent him paypal as a friend on February 16 and the fish were shipped out on February 17th. I am located in Virginia and he is located in NY so the temperature during this time was in the high 30s.
On February 17th, fish arrived at approximately 9:30am via Fedex and immediately opening the box I saw that fish were not shipped in a hard styrofoam box, instead they were in a air inflatable container that was not properly sealed to keep the temperature
constant.
This is the inside of the shipping container.
All the fish were in single bags. I saw that one of the bags containing two anthias had leaked over 50% of the water and one anthias was dead. The water in all the bags had a bad odor and was cloudy but surprisingly the other fish were alive. Even worse was that the water in each bag was frigid cold since the outside temperature was reading 38 degrees that morning.
Here is the busted bag holding two anthias.
Picture of one dead anthias.
I immediately text him that I was surprised he did not ship with heat packs to which he promptly responded with
“There are heat packs you must be joking just look and give the fish a chance to acclimate. Tell me after an hour or so. If you have anything that is not alive I need a picture”.
I took all the fish bags out of the box and saw that there were two newspaper wrapped heat packs sitting at the bottom of the container and they were soaking wet. The busted fish bag obviously leaked water all
over the heat packs and soaked them to the point where they were not heating the container. I’ve ordered from many online vendors in the past and I’ve never had an experience where heat packs were placed on the bottom of a box. They are usually tapped to the top of the container lid to prevent the exact scenario I just encountered.
After 2 hours of drip acclimation I added the fish to my QT and texted him back to say that all fish were acclimated. In addition I texted him a pic of the fish bag that busted as well as the soaking wet container. No response from him.
Later that day I came home from work and checked on the fish in my QT. All anthias as well as the purple and kole tang were lying dead on the tank floor. I called the vendor and we talked as I explained all fish died and that I felt the freezing temperatures
from shipping was problematic and may have been the cause of the fish death. He said he was in the middle of driving to the airport to ship out packages and that he would call me back to discuss how we could resolve my order.
This is a pic of some dead anthias as well as the kole eye tang.
I never heard back from him and on February 18th I texted him to complain that it was fair to refund me my money since the busted shipping was the cause of all fish death. I also offered to eat the cost of shipping. There was no response.
On Feburary 19th, I called and he picked up. His initial response was that he did not know who I was and I had to explain I was the one who received all the fish that died. Based on that conversation he said he would make me happy by shipping me new fish equivalent to what I paid. Just tell him what I wanted from his reef2reef listings. Despite the red flags raised from the earlier shipment I agreed and said I would reach out to him with what I wanted.
On February 23rd, I texted him that I wanted a blue face angel, purple and yellow tang and kole tang as replacements. There was no response.
I texted him again on Feburary 24th to ask if he received my earlier message regarding replacement fish. He responded with
“Yes I’m considering it. Sorry for today just went through oral surgery so a bit out of it right now”. I told him to get back to me soon.
On February 27th, I had not heard from him so I texted again to see what he was going to do. His response was,
“I will take care of any fish that did not arrive alive but will not take responsibility for fish that were put into acclimation of customers parameters”.
I was utterly dumbfounded. I immediately called him after receiving his text response but he would not answer the phone. I sent one last text to say that if he screwed me over I would share my experience on reef2reef to show everyone
his unprofessional behavior as well as the poor shipping practices he employed that give fish very little chance of survival when arriving to the customer.
His response to my text was simply, “You all think you have power to threaten”.
As of my writing this post today, he has not reached out to me and has ignored my attempts to reach out to him. Even the dead anthias that was DOA is not compensated. Unfortunately I misplaced my trust in him and sent paypal to him as a friend thinking it was a nice gesture to save him the paypal fee.
I’ve come to the conclusion that this is a tough and expensive lesson in misplacement of trust as well as being very careful to order from reputable vendors. 3 to 5 Aquatics is in my opinion a shop that is simple moving fish for a fast buck. The vendor’s lack of integrity and ethics in dealing with fish is evident in his cutting corners during shipping, making false claims of fish that were eating, and simply not following through on promises made to customers. There is a troubling lack of customer service that is crucial in the long term viability of a business and unfortunately anyone ordering from this vendor has a high risk of losing their money.
I hope that sharing my experience will help fellow hobbyists think twice when deciding to order from 3 to 5 Aquatics. Do not get suckered in by the low fish prices.
I received two shipments from this vendor. On the second shipment I ordered 10 evansi anthias as well as a couple of tangs. He was certainly nice enough to talk me through his stock and help me pick out potential tangs for my 220g system. After exchanging text and a couple of phone conversations we agreed that I would buy a purple tang and a yellow eye kole tang since I thought I was getting a great deal by paying $139 and $25 for each fish respectively. I sent him paypal as a friend on February 16 and the fish were shipped out on February 17th. I am located in Virginia and he is located in NY so the temperature during this time was in the high 30s.
On February 17th, fish arrived at approximately 9:30am via Fedex and immediately opening the box I saw that fish were not shipped in a hard styrofoam box, instead they were in a air inflatable container that was not properly sealed to keep the temperature
constant.
This is the inside of the shipping container.
All the fish were in single bags. I saw that one of the bags containing two anthias had leaked over 50% of the water and one anthias was dead. The water in all the bags had a bad odor and was cloudy but surprisingly the other fish were alive. Even worse was that the water in each bag was frigid cold since the outside temperature was reading 38 degrees that morning.
Here is the busted bag holding two anthias.
Picture of one dead anthias.
I immediately text him that I was surprised he did not ship with heat packs to which he promptly responded with
“There are heat packs you must be joking just look and give the fish a chance to acclimate. Tell me after an hour or so. If you have anything that is not alive I need a picture”.
I took all the fish bags out of the box and saw that there were two newspaper wrapped heat packs sitting at the bottom of the container and they were soaking wet. The busted fish bag obviously leaked water all
over the heat packs and soaked them to the point where they were not heating the container. I’ve ordered from many online vendors in the past and I’ve never had an experience where heat packs were placed on the bottom of a box. They are usually tapped to the top of the container lid to prevent the exact scenario I just encountered.
After 2 hours of drip acclimation I added the fish to my QT and texted him back to say that all fish were acclimated. In addition I texted him a pic of the fish bag that busted as well as the soaking wet container. No response from him.
Later that day I came home from work and checked on the fish in my QT. All anthias as well as the purple and kole tang were lying dead on the tank floor. I called the vendor and we talked as I explained all fish died and that I felt the freezing temperatures
from shipping was problematic and may have been the cause of the fish death. He said he was in the middle of driving to the airport to ship out packages and that he would call me back to discuss how we could resolve my order.
This is a pic of some dead anthias as well as the kole eye tang.
I never heard back from him and on February 18th I texted him to complain that it was fair to refund me my money since the busted shipping was the cause of all fish death. I also offered to eat the cost of shipping. There was no response.
On Feburary 19th, I called and he picked up. His initial response was that he did not know who I was and I had to explain I was the one who received all the fish that died. Based on that conversation he said he would make me happy by shipping me new fish equivalent to what I paid. Just tell him what I wanted from his reef2reef listings. Despite the red flags raised from the earlier shipment I agreed and said I would reach out to him with what I wanted.
On February 23rd, I texted him that I wanted a blue face angel, purple and yellow tang and kole tang as replacements. There was no response.
I texted him again on Feburary 24th to ask if he received my earlier message regarding replacement fish. He responded with
“Yes I’m considering it. Sorry for today just went through oral surgery so a bit out of it right now”. I told him to get back to me soon.
On February 27th, I had not heard from him so I texted again to see what he was going to do. His response was,
“I will take care of any fish that did not arrive alive but will not take responsibility for fish that were put into acclimation of customers parameters”.
I was utterly dumbfounded. I immediately called him after receiving his text response but he would not answer the phone. I sent one last text to say that if he screwed me over I would share my experience on reef2reef to show everyone
his unprofessional behavior as well as the poor shipping practices he employed that give fish very little chance of survival when arriving to the customer.
His response to my text was simply, “You all think you have power to threaten”.
As of my writing this post today, he has not reached out to me and has ignored my attempts to reach out to him. Even the dead anthias that was DOA is not compensated. Unfortunately I misplaced my trust in him and sent paypal to him as a friend thinking it was a nice gesture to save him the paypal fee.
I’ve come to the conclusion that this is a tough and expensive lesson in misplacement of trust as well as being very careful to order from reputable vendors. 3 to 5 Aquatics is in my opinion a shop that is simple moving fish for a fast buck. The vendor’s lack of integrity and ethics in dealing with fish is evident in his cutting corners during shipping, making false claims of fish that were eating, and simply not following through on promises made to customers. There is a troubling lack of customer service that is crucial in the long term viability of a business and unfortunately anyone ordering from this vendor has a high risk of losing their money.
I hope that sharing my experience will help fellow hobbyists think twice when deciding to order from 3 to 5 Aquatics. Do not get suckered in by the low fish prices.
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