Thoughts on Dr. Reef

[rtparty]

Just received another order of fish from Mike and once again everything came in and is doing well after a little bit.

The Pygmy wrasse came in basically floating and curled up funny. I thought for sure it was dead. I went to pull it out and saw the eyes moving so straight in the tank it went. It couldn’t swim straight and looked like a swim bladder issue. I let Mike know and he said give it 24 hours with lights off to recover. It ended up taking 3-4 days but now the wrasse is healthy as can be and swimming around just fine hunting for pods. I’m glad I didn’t quickly give up on the wrasse and it was nothing Mike did that caused the issue. Fish don’t ship well.

They did send me an incorrect fish. I ordered a Midas blenny but received a lawnmower blenny. I’m not even mad since I wanted a lawnmower but held off. They immediately responded they will get the correct Midas out asap. I offered to buy the lawnmower since they are out the money and sent me an amazingly healthy fish. Mike refused and said absolutely not, it’s their fault. I need snails for this tank so I bought some to send with the Midas blenny.

I’ve had 2 DOA in the 20+ fish I’ve ordered. Both were anthias and they are notoriously horrible shippers. I was told by others (not Mike) to order 10 if I wanted 5. Sadly, the anthias ship that poorly. I ordered 10 from Mike in total and 8 came in healthy as could be.

 

[SpyC]

Yes, we did respond to that thread as well and I'll mention is it here as well.
Industry standard is a 2 mil simply plastic bag sold for pennies on many wholesale websites. That's why they double triple the bags. Those bags require metal ring to seal it or rubber bands. Either way both don't seal properly and give when it comes to pressure and or abuse.

Our bags are 4mil standard, usable for heal sealing equipment. They are twice as strong and if sealed properly they won't burst open.

Fish getting stuck in corners is something we heard maybe from few customers and honestly in 5 years of doing this commercially has never been an issue. Not even 0.25% doa claimed due to fish stuck in corner.

However because its been brought up, We talked to our bag manufacturer.
We have special bags that are built for our needs and with our specs.
These bags are heat sealed from top while from bottom there is a one way air valve to push oxygen in. So after we run out of the current stock, by end of this year, we will move on new bags coming in that are square bottom rather than round which will solve that problem.

That is great to hear! I am looking forward to placing another order in the coming weeks.

 

[Dr. Reef]

That is great to hear! I am looking forward to placing another order in the coming weeks.

if you like to pm me your order number ill make sure to heat seal the rounded corner as well so it doesnt have the round effect or sides for fish to get stuck in.

 

[Dr. Reef]

if you like to pm me your order number ill make sure to heat seal the rounded corner as well so it doesnt have the round effect or sides for fish to get stuck in.

Also we are very open to custom suggestions.
Some like us to put a smiley face sticker on the box, some want us to write certain notes on the box. some want us to pack all fish in black bags or clear bags, some want us to use heat pack or not etc.
We do listen and cater to such requests, so if you have a special request like please seal all corners so there are no corners for fish to get stuck in, please put it in the notes. we will take action accordingly.
We realise its not just a fish its someones pet, family member or close to heart livestock. and we are not in it for money as Dr reef says, its the passion and we are here to prove it.

 

[Dr. Reef]

I'm *considering* getting a group of blue/green chromis for my tank. I understand there's a higher-than-average risk for uronema with them. Does anybody have personal experience with Dr. Reef's quarantined chromis? There's a disclaimer that despite their quarantine process, "sometimes" they show signs of uronema from shipping stress. I understand the process isn't 100% effective, but I'm curious how common it is with his quarantined chromis vs other sources. Are there any other reputable sources of quarantined chromis? Or even captive bred (I don't think I've heard of this yet)?

If it comes down to "rolling the dice" with LFS I'll just pass

*edit*

I'm asking about experiences with Dr. Reef's chromis specifically. I already know he has a really good reputation in general.

+1 - as Dr Reef stated, he doesn't have a store front so many won't sell to him. He does some direct imports and such. He puts out lists of what is available and people can order from them. He is a sponsor on another forum so that is where the lists get posted.

I got two leopard wrasses, jawfish, goby, anthia from him so far. I have gotten a few things from Dr Reef as well. Only problem is Dr Reef is much farther away from me and shipping is dicey for the type of fish I want.

so nice of you to do that, this will help him stock more livestock and variety,

Some people would be like why are you hooking your competition up with wholesalers. This itself proves our goal which is not money but passion for good quality service and livestock.
This would be like Walmart helping Target or Amazon helping Ebay or something like that.
I would have loved to help him more, Hes a very genuin and nice guy, like I mentioned earlier I was only able to break through 1 out of 20ish wholesale places due to their requirements and eventually just begged 1 sales rep for a favor to get him in.
Trans shipping is good but it cost too much in various fees and they dont have a lot of fish one needs in 1 list or order. Trans shipping is a very different beast, They release multiple listinngs. So for example they have a listing of Asian fish, Indo fish Aussie fish and so on and from each list you must choose xxx $ worth of fish and then pay for bags, packing and international freight and fees then tax and custom and clearance and then shipping from CA to their respective state. fish are exhuasted when they get to you and they cover no losses.
Fish is cheap but its hard to make that minimum from each list. Also they charge taxes, fees and packing charges per box and they pack just a few fish in each box so you are paying for lot of boxes. Thats where they make theor money.
These are things I should not be mentioning but again my Passion compels me to.
Whatever you know as a hobbyist, trust me when you cross over to commercial side of it, becomes myths.

 

[blecki]

I’ve had 2 DOA in the 20+ fish I’ve ordered. Both were anthias and they are notoriously horrible shippers. I was told by others (not Mike) to order 10 if I wanted 5. Sadly, the anthias ship that poorly. I ordered 10 from Mike in total and 8 came in healthy as could be.

You want to know about Anthias. I ordered a trio because I wanted a trio; Dr Reef sent four. They look great. Get them in my QT to observe and grow out for a few months, no problems. They grow a lot, to where I feel they can thrive in the big tank with the much larger fish, so I transfer them. Everything about the tanks is the same - literally use waste water from the big tank as new water for the grow out tank. Temperature matches. PH matches. Salinity of course matches. So, scoop and plop it is. One of the anthias immediately drops dead. Doesn't even last a whole day in the big tank. Just immediately swims into a corner and dies. I have the trio I wanted after all.

Anthias man.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Just received my first order and got everything squared away….now we wait. Fingers crossed. I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little stressed.

I guess everything appeared ok, I had to FaceTime for verification. One bag (flame hawkfish) was a little deflated and quite light in comparison with others and there was water in the packaging. With that, I skipped the salinity acclimation process and got him into an acclimation box right after temp acclimating. It’s lights out so we’ll see how he’s doing in the am. I expect he’ll be ok as he was swimming a little.

We thought a pajama cardinal was doa and laying in the corner of the bag but as soon as I got them in a bucket they were all swimming. They sent an extra which is nice.

A flame angel and Copperband seemed to be swimming around happily without a care about being shipped in a dark box like the jackhat crew in the roller disco skit in the back of a box truck.

There were two extra trochus snails as well.

A nice big chunk of red ogo. Not the typical golf ball bs other vendors are shipping.

As stressful as it is for me to put my faith in someone else, the rest of the process was super smooth and easy. They answered every question, offered opinions on fish stocking options, and were great to deal with every step of the way. Here’s to hoping I don’t have any issues! I do feel like I’m in good hands though.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Just received my first order and got everything squared away….now we wait. Fingers crossed. I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little stressed.

I guess everything appeared ok, I had to FaceTime for verification. One bag (flame hawkfish) was a little deflated and quite light in comparison with others and there was water in the packaging. With that, I skipped the salinity acclimation process and got him into an acclimation box right after temp acclimating. It’s lights out so we’ll see how he’s doing in the am. I expect he’ll be ok as he was swimming a little.

We thought a pajama cardinal was doa and laying in the corner of the bag but as soon as I got them in a bucket they were all swimming. They sent an extra which is nice.

A flame angel and Copperband seemed to be swimming around happily without a care about being shipped in a dark box like the jackhat crew in the roller disco skit in the back of a box truck.

There were two extra trochus snails as well.

A nice big chunk of red ogo. Not the typical golf ball bs other vendors are shipping.

As stressful as it is for me to put my faith in someone else, the rest of the process was super smooth and easy. They answered every question, offered opinions on fish stocking options, and were great to deal with every step of the way. Here’s to hoping I don’t have any issues! I do feel like I’m in good hands though.

Snapped a pic this morning. Sorry if it’s crooked and blurry.

 

[ravi197699]

thank you for sharing the pictures, fishes look good, keep us posted on how copperband is doing? by the way nice sticks in the background, looks like your tank is thriving,

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

thank you for sharing the pictures, fishes look good, keep us posted on how copperband is doing? by the way nice sticks in the background, looks like your tank is thriving,

Thank you! I for sure post back to update.

 

[jp_75]

I have had some fish what he qt 4-5 years now?