saltwaterfish.com submitted 4 ur review

[Awibrandy]

Hey guys & gals! Just thought you would like to know what the guarantee at "saltwaterfish.com" is really like.
I bought 3 tangs from them last week. #1 THEY WERE HALF THE SIZE, #2 TWO OF THEM WERE PRETTY BEAT UP, #3 they claim to QT their fish, and that you get nothing but healthy fish. Follow their acclimation procedures and you'll have no problems.
Not true!! Followed all of their steps, which are no different then what I do any way. And still two of them ended up with ich.
I feed my fish a variety of foods plus vitamins and garlic. THEY WERE NOT PICKED ON AT ALL. Now the pbt is missing which I know this means he is dead somewhere in the 200lbs of lr. In order to get a replacement I would have to take my tank apart to find it. Once found I would have to cover it in a thick layer of salt place it in 3 ziploc bags, and ship it back to them. THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN, SO I'M OUT 49.99 FOR 1.5" PBT.
In any case here lies the problem. I wrote to them immediately, the first email was received by them without a problem as far as I can tell.
The second email has been returned to me by Mailer Demon stating that they are not receiving emails from me. That you may see that I have not written anything that should make them come to this decision I have inserted copies of the email I sent them, and what I received from Mailer Demon.


"
To whom it may concern: I am writing this email concerning the below order # 64910. I will make this as simple as I can. I didn't complain when the size of the fish was not what I was expecting, only the sailfin is the 3" described the other two are half the size. And further more, now I stand to loose all my fish because two of your fish have ich.

I chose to purchase my fish from your web site because I understood that you quarantine your fish, and I would be receiving healthy fish. Unfortunately this appears not to be the case. The fish arrived alive, were acclimated as specified on your web site; 1.5"(not even close to the 3" advertised on the web site) Powder Blue Tang 4+ hours, Sailfin Tang-Red Sea 4+ hours,1.5"(again as with the Pbt not as advertised) Tennent Tang 3+ hours. All the fish were properly acclimate as all my animals always are. I have been keeping fish for over 34 years, marine fish and invertebrates for over 6 years.
Now I come home check on my animals as always, and what do I find? The Powder Blue & the Sailfin both have ich. Now what am I suppose to do?
This is a 155 gallon reef filled with 200 pounds of live rock with corals attached to them, along with 3 wrasse, pt tang, yellow tang, 5 larytail anthias, 2 bartletts anthias, 3 blue/green chromis, a scooter blenny to name the ones that I can remember. There may be others that I've forgotten. Now I am expected to tear this tank apart to catch the fish and quarantine them and medicate them. THIS IS A NIGHTMARE.
I sincerely hope that you will have some advice, and or remedy this situation.

Be blessed,
Awilda


Customer Information:Delivery Address: United States

Order information :
Order Id:64910 Product Name:QuantityPrice Per UnitPowder Blue Tang1$49.99Tennent Tang1$24.99Sailfin Tang - Red Sea1$39.99
Total Shipping: $0.00Total Surcharge: $9.99Total Fuel Charge: $9.99Total Tax: $0.00Order Total: $134.95Payment method:Credit Card"
"The original message was received at Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:54:19 -0400 (EDT)
from mail.saltwaterfish.com [64.106.136.10]


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From: [email protected]
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:54:00 EDT
Subject: Order # 64910
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[fritz]

If you can PM me the header file that you posted above, the site may have changed the formatting a little. It looks like the error is on your side as it looks like you're e-mailing [email protected] instead of [email protected] I'm not sure where aol comes into play but their mail server is mail.saltwaterfish.com which should give their e-mail an @saltwaterfish.com ending.

Also they recommend quarantine for a reason and you did not follow that. Tangs (as Cali often mention) are Sooooo prone to ich that it almost inevitable that they catch it in a healthy tank, much less in a bag shipped across the country. A slight dip in water temp with some free swimming ich and they've got it. This is a horrible lesson to learn but one we've all experienced. If you dont' QT your fish this is where the road leads. Ich in your display, or worse. It's a bad thing to play russian roulette with.

saltwaterfish.com aside you really can't trust any fish or vendor to have ich free animals. Suppose they fish has no ich but there ends up being some in the bag. Suppose that ich ends up on the net when you go to transfer the fish into your tank......

There's million scenarios for this but honestly you can't fault the vendor on this especially since they are tangs and they were shipped to you. Personally I don't trust a tang coming from someone's healthy tank much less a store. Them asking to have the fish returned to them also sounds reasonable.

You can try a cleaner shrimp in the meanwhile.

 

[fritz]

Sorry if I came off harsh I was just thinking of when this happened to me and how angry I was at them, at myself. It was horrible. It really is an awful lesson to learn and I HOPE that others can see this and learn so that no one ever has to experience this.

On another note I'm really glad that you posted this. So many times people don't post the bad that happens and that is where the learning experiences are. Everyone wants to try and show off the greatness of our reefs and hide the bad things. It's the bad things that help all of us to learn. This will make me think twice about ordering from online discount venders. I like being able to see the fish and inspect it in person. I'm often tempted to order from an online place but this will make me think twice.

 

[Awibrandy]

It is perfectly OK by me for you to call me stupid in trusting that the fish would be healthy. And you are absolutely right in a lesson learned again. Just can not get away from qt regardless of where the fish come from.
And of course it is reasonable for the vendor to request the animal back. What I said was that in tanks with large amounts of lr it is nearly impossible for one to go through the trouble. Therefore one forfeits the guarantee. Do you not think that they are counting on this?
As to Mailer Demon or not they have not bothered to respond to my first email.
I have two cleaner shrimps in my tank.
THANK GOD SO FAR MY FISH ARE LOOKING GOOD. HOPE IT STAYS THAT WAY.
I'm back to the lfs for my fish. Never liked buying fish without viewing them first anyway.

 

[fritz]

You may be able to try using a powerhead to blast around certain parts of your LR. The flow may push him out into the open. IME the longer he sits there the less there will be to find.

I'm not calling you stupid! As I said this has happened to me before and to a few other members in the last week! What's stupid is that after this happened to me I continued to not use a QT out of laziness! THAT is stupid!

Anyone who reads this and thinks they don't need a QT then posts a similar thread in a few weeks.....well. :fishhit:

 

[Awibrandy]

Hi Fred, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner I had to run to my dentist appointment.
I wasn't, and I'm not, nor would I be upset if you or anyone called me stupid for not qt regardless of where I got the fish.:p Because it was stupid.:banghead: I was trying to not set up the qt sort of out of laziness, I have very little energy these days. I have all the equipment I need for it, so I am just going to do a little every day until I get it set up. Although I am afraid my chance for having a pbt is shot.
Look again a the 1st post at the bottom you will see the correct address that the email was sent to, and my correct email as well. And I highlighted the part where it states that they are not accepting emails from my email address. I went to my sent mail folder and double checked the address I sent to, and it was [email protected]
Also, apparently I am not the only one they have refused to receive emails from check out the responces I got at RC.
Click here: Reef Central Online Community - Saltwaterfish.com 4 ur review


:hug:

 

[crox99]

Awilda

Sorry to ear that about your bad experience. I alsway received healthy fishes from SWF.com and the few that didn't make it I got credit for. A qt is imperative if you are geting tangs.

 

[deelucky]

sorry for your loss,that does reek of dead snails.i have ordered from them,between me and my folks we ordered a total of 11 fish(not at once).i have been happy with everything as they did come in healthy.the only thing i was not happy with and that was my blue throat trigger,they came in bigger then the size posted.what i dont like is there return policy.it sucks to have to send the fish back where others just ask for a pic. good luck with the fish you do have, feed heavy garlic and vitamins.wish you the best.

 

[Awibrandy]

Thanks Crox, Deelucky. I still haven't found it. Fritz suggested a powerhead to blow him out of the rock work, but even that will be difficult. I will just take the loss.

What really bugs me is that they still have not bothered to answer the email. I even left them bad feed back on their site.
So far I only see a couple of specks on the tennent. All the others are clean. I do feed twice a day with 1/2 a capfull of garlic extract & vitamins once a day. And I have 4 cleaner shrimps, and I have even witnessed the blood shrimps doing some cleaning. God willing they will prevail this one.

I'll stick to the lfs & qt for now on.

 

[underwatercreations]

sorry about the loss. Hope the other fishes are well.

 

[deelucky]

whats your temp like?

 

[Awibrandy]

whats your temp like?

Normaly around 78 degrees. Lights are still out can't see a thing into the tank.

Kathy. I checked emails were sent to [email protected]. Not my mistake at all. Also, there is another guy on RC that was also put on their DO NOT RECEIVE EMAIL from this address.

They are the only online company that does not take the time to reply to their emails.

 

[cali_reef]

Have you try calling them? I never ordered any fish from on-line sources, but its hard for me to believe they would lock out your email address after your initial email. Do keep calling them before giving up and post what you learn.

The missing PBT is probably a pile of fish bones after 36 hours, dead fish rots and gets eaten pretty quick if the tank is healthy with lots of critters.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Post on Reef Central as well when you get a response from them.

 

[michael stern]

Have you try calling them? I never ordered any fish from on-line sources, but its hard for me to believe they would lock out your email address after your initial email. Do keep calling them before giving up and post what you learn.

The missing PBT is probably a pile of fish bones after 36 hours, dead fish rots and gets eaten pretty quick if the tank is healthy with lots of critters.

They don't give their phone # on their webiste. Also, IMO, a bad sign.
Awilda, definitely curious how this turns out.

 

[cali_reef]

They don't give their phone # on their webiste. Also, IMO, a bad sign.
Awilda, definitely curious how this turns out.

I am not sure a vendor should bad mouth another vendor in public.

http://www.switchboard.com/swbd.mai...O=&SD=-1&search.x=46&search.y=1&search=Search

 

[michael stern]

SWF is not a vendor on this site.
Also, I was not bad mouthing them, or that was not my intent.

A well know and personally liked member is having difficulties with a supplier. I am just pointing out that calling them is not an easy option, nor one that the seller makes available to it's customers. I am sorry, that IS a bad sign. IMO (as stated in previous post).

If I wanted to bad mouth them, I'd point out that blocking emails from an honest customer with an honest concern makes you a SCU$ BA%, but that would be bad mouthing, so I won't say it.

 

[crox99]

They don't give their phone # on their webiste. Also, IMO, a bad sign.
Awilda, definitely curious how this turns out.

(772) 462-0203rangehat

 

[crox99]

I am not trying to say that they have an exceptional customer service but they always responded to all my e-mails.

 

[Awibrandy]

Thank you all for your responses. As of now I have still not heard anything from swf. And of course if I do hear back from them I will not only post here on MR, but on the other sites that I have posted my problem with them.
I don't only speak ill! I also do compliment when a compliment is earned.

It so happens that I had called them before I even purchased the fish. I searched the phone # through the yellow pages, and found it. Their voicemail was full.
I'm just hoping for the best outcome with the rest of the fish. I feed a variety of foods twice a day soaked in Garlic Extract, and they also get vitamins once a day soaked into their food as well.
As I stated before "God willing they will make it". So far I see ich on the tennent only, another swf fish. And yes, if I could catch them I would QT all of them. This is an impossible task, at least for me. If one of you think you can come here and catch them please let me know. I do have all the equipment necessary for qt.