saltwaterfish.com :( :( :(

[Hockeyben51]

I ordered:
5 blue reef chromis
2 neon gobies
1 tiger goby
10 blue legg hermits
1 tiger pistol shrimp
2 rusty clown gobies

I acclimated exactly as wriiten on the site.

I checked the bags twice for the fish that was in them and they put every thing in there own bag except the hermits. I had only recieved 1 neon goby.
Everything but 1 rusty, the shrimp, the hermit, and the neon, died. I assume stress and another complant i have is the the chromis has white blotches on them and very in a wide spectrum of size. I sent all the dead fish back and will replace another order since you can't just get ur money back. i am very unhappy with swfish.com don't buy there

[SPStoner]

Hey Ben,

You should do a search on this forum before you try a new vendor next time. I came real close to ordering from saltwaterfish.com, but checked them out here first and got scared off.

Tony

[NewMariner]

Sorry to hear about your loss....SWFish does have a history, those that have had no problems stand by them....those that have had problems dont....

I agree with SPStoner, next time do a search about any potential vendors, it might just save ya some heartache...

[cwbroden]

Sorry to hear that. I had order from them once and had good luck. But as others have said, experiences are mixed. How was the temps of everything when you received the fish. I know it has been HOT HOT HOT here on the east coast lately.

[Hockeyben51]

well there were pretty warm it seemed like the 25 minute time in the tank was to cool them off rather than heat them to tank temp.

I emailed them saying I only got 1 neon goby and they took forever to respond and they said they sent 2. I can't even get my money back, i have to order other fish and pay a 30 dollar shippng order for them.

[diverdan814]

toughest thing about them is no phone at all. I guess this is one reason their prices are competitive; they don't have to pay anyone to do customer service by phone.
I just completed an order from them; four fish; two survived one was DOA the other didn't make it through the night. I am waiting to see what they will do for me. I had to send the fish back, packed in salt.

[diverdan814]

I might also add that an order from fishsupply.com arrived this morning with three healthy Golden Butterflies.

Had phone support the entire time.

[cperez155]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by diverdan814
[B]toughest thing about them is no phone at all. I guess this is one reason their prices are competitive; they don't have to pay anyone to do customer service by phone.


i agree with that i just got this email from them and i have only ordered from them once.

Saltwaterfish.com's Repeat Customer Program

Saltwaterfish.com is very pleased to announce its new Repeat Customer
Program! We would like to thank the tens of thousands of you that
constantly make repeat purchases from our company. So many of you
continue to purchase from us again and again, many of whom have passed the
50 order mark, and we wanted to offer you something in return for your
loyalty. We have designed a Repeat Customer Program that entitles you to
free fish, corals, or inverts for each of your repeat purchases.

The way the program works is each live goods purchase places you into a
corresponding "Level". Each Level (1,2,3, etc.) will offer you a choice
of different free items each time you order. Our system will recognize
you once you've logged into the shopping cart and notify you of the level
you've reached, along with your choice of free items. The free items will
change from time to time and are only on the list during the time they're
in stock.

We're dedicated to bringing you the best possible live fish, corals, and
invertebrates from around the world and we want to thank you for
recognizing that with your repeated purchases from our company. We look
forward to continuing to serve you in the future.

www.saltwaterfish.com


They have alot of great deals, like the free shipping that they offer and the much cheaper fish, corals and inverts that you can find on their site as oppose to their competitors. I guess its ok to order from them if you plan to get hardier specimens from them other wise i would not sugguest them next time.

[Jamesurq]

Originally posted by diverdan814
their prices are competitive;

Not what I have found at all. Comparison shopped with my two trusted LFS and the LFS is very competitive. 10-20% more. Which for a visually inspected, 2-4 week quaranteened, healty, eating fish is WELL worth it. (IMO)

[dcoufal]

Ordered from SWF on Monday - just to check out there new "Repeat Customer Program". I've placed 4 orders from them over the past year and I've only had one DOA (a neon goby during a 3/$9.99 special). Heck, an orange Linkia is still alive that I purchased from them.... I always drip acclimate *everything* for a minimum of 1.5 hours. The Linkia was acclimated for 3 hours.

As for their "Repeat Customer Program": My order showed I was a "Level 2" and got to pick from about 15-20 different items, including: neon goby, LMB, 2xEmerald Crab, 10xBlue Hermit, Royal Gramma, etc. Basically, it was about $10-15.

Dwain

[bluehippotang]

Originally posted by Hockeyben51
[B]I ordered:
5 blue reef chromis
2 neon gobies
1 tiger goby
10 blue legg hermits
1 tiger pistol shrimp
2 rusty clown gobies

I have never ordered from them, but I think that adding that many fish at one time cannot be good. Too much extra bioload at one time.

[Hockeyben51]

well i've learned my lesson and i will never order from them again

[CountersCC]

I agree with most posts. I would never buy from them again. I should have just used the $100 I sent them and wiped my a$$ with it. Everything was gone with the first 3 days. I did the acclimation to the "T" 2 were DOA and the other 2 lasted 2 - 3 days. Now I have to pay 30$ to get them shipepd again. The whole point was to save money but I got screwed. SALTWATERFISH.COM BUYERS BEWARE

[darrellh]

I received an order from them that included a DOA cleaner shrimp and a $99 Chevron Tang that was never healthy. After the Chevron died agter I had it 5 days, I emailed them to get credit. Forget trying to talk to talk to these people on the phone. When they finally responded 3 days later, they said I was outside of the guarantee period and that I would not receive credit for either. Even though the Cleaner Shrimp was DOA, they said I still had to mail it back to them to get credit (again, I was now outside the guarantee window).

I didn't bother trying to argue with them via emails. I simply filed a grievance with my VISA card and received full credit.

Darrell

[Marshall]

Originally posted by darrellh
I emailed them to get credit. Forget trying to talk to talk to these people on the phone.

Did you read their website? It says explicitly what to do in order to receive a credit. They also included a piece of paper right on top of the order telling you what to do (for me at least). I am also dealing with a fish that died the day after I bought it and it is unfortunate that they will not let me credit that fish towards another order (only replace the exact same fish) but those are the rules. You should read the fine print very carefully and understand it is not an easy task for fish to go across the country in 90+ weather, even overnight. You pretty much need to expect some kind of casualties here or at least be very prepared for them. Also their emails have been about a day apart, I haven't waited more than 1 day for a response unless it was over a weekend.

The other two fish I ordered are very good specimens and I was pleased. The fish that died was terrible looking and I knew it was going to die. They said they just can't find powder blue tangs that aren't pinched to send off. Oh well... my LFS is way expensive.

Cheers,
Marshall

[Jamesurq]

Originally posted by phrawd
They said they just can't find powder blue tangs that aren't pinched to send off.

So they knew beforehand they were sending you an unhealthy specimen - and sent it anyway?

[Hockeyben51]

talk about a good and honest business From what i see saltwaterfish.com is all about money but i guess you gotta make money some how

[Marshall]

This is what they said:

Hi,

Thanks for the email. Our Powder Blues are in excellent health and eat everyday. They have nothing to graze on all day long like they do in the wild or in a home aquarium so they are not going to be fat at that size. It is up to you to provide the proper environment to fatten them up. We provide them to you in excellent health, quarantined, and eating.


The other fish looked great (even I was surprised) but that PBT looked terrible. He was not colored up well and was very skinny. Hopefully I just had a bad experience with that difficult fish. Fingers are crossed for the next order!

[dcoufal]

This:

Originally posted by phrawd
Thanks for the email. Our Powder Blues are in excellent health and eat everyday. They have nothing to graze on all day long like they do in the wild or in a home aquarium so they are not going to be fat at that size. It is up to you to provide the proper environment to fatten them up. We provide them to you in excellent health, quarantined, and eating.

and, this:

Originally posted by phrawd
They said they just can't find powder blue tangs that aren't pinched to send off.

are radically different.... The 2nd is not a fair representation of their real response to you.


And, I received my order from them today: 10 fish total.
6 Green Chromis
2 Clowns
1 Yellow Watchman Goby
1 Neon Goby

Everything is acclimating well and (it's just something I do) taking food well during acclimation EXCEPT one Clown... It looks like it's having difficulty breathing. We'll see.

Dwain

[Marshall]

I see what you're saying but if you saw the fish they sent me as in "excellent health, quarantined, and eating" you would agree that their statement is a serious misrepresentation. You could make out all of the bones and looking down on him the width of his nose was wider than his body.

Also the discrepancies between my statement and theirs is not radical I don't think. They said they don't have fat ones to send off, I said basically the same thing. The assumption I made was that 'not fat' == 'pinched' which based on the fish they sent me as 'healthy' is accurate. But I posted what they said to clarify. Thanks!

[Hockeyben51]

well i like to uncover another piece of bad news. The 5 chromis i was sent were seriously infected w/ velvet as they had red gills, patches of discolor, rapid breathing and all died w/ in 3 days. Now my the othe fish look like they are taking to the infection and i feel helpless to what to do.

[dcoufal]

Hockeyben51 -- The green chromis that I received from swf a week after you received yours are still doing great.... 2.5 weeks later.

I wonder if they have multiple tanks and it's just the "luck of the draw"??

Dwain

[Pistonkev]

I must be the luckiest reefer out there I have 5 orders over the last year I think I have only lost one cleaner shrimp to date.

[Confooseld]

Ben assuming you are quaranting all of your fish you just added ten fish at once I hate to say it but you set yourself up for disaster. I'm not a fan of swfish.com or an enemy but c'mon with ten fish at once you have to expect lots of deaths.

[SuperNerd]

They seem to be not very good at sending refunds either until they get caught as well:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...5&pagenumber=1