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Mail order cherry shrimp and flag fish advice

2K views 19 replies 9 participants last post by  RoseHawke 
#1 ·
Hi,

I tried finding a local store that carries the above but have been unsuccessful. The only place I found on the web is azgardens, they have both but I've never ordered from them before. Has anyone done a livestock order with them with good results? Since its the winter here on the east coast good packing and heat packs are important.

Thanks,
-Mike
 
#2 ·
Mike,
I have never used AZGardens but have heard good things. One thing to be aware of is the flagfish may eat your shrimp if they are small!
If you are interested in cherries though, I can sell some to you. I charge $37.50 for 10 and for overnight delivery it is an additional $15.00! Let me know!
 
#3 ·
Well, Florida Driftwood also has them but at the moment I can't recommend them as I ordered 3 Flag Fish on the 8th, was told in a very succint e-mail they would be here Tuesday, have a tracking # (for USPS Priority, they're supposed to be coming USPS Express) but so far it's not even showing in the system. I hung around all day Tuesday, and all day Wednesday, I had to get out today to get groceries for my mum, and now I'm just to the point of not worrying about it. It is the Christmas Rush season after all. C'est la guerre, it's a learning experience :icon_roll.

Maybe somebody will chime in with another source for the flagfish.
 
#5 ·
Momotaro said:
Have you scoured AquaBid?

I would look toward other hobbyists for fish and shrimp before I looked toward some online retailers.

PM me if you have a question! ;)


Mike

We must've been writing at the same time :icon_mrgr . Dunno about the first Mike, Mike (heh), but I've been watching Aquabid and Flag Fish seem to be a fairly rare commodity; at least now that I want some!
 
#6 ·
I'm going to call AZGardens tomorrow and see how they pack/ship their stuff. I imagine shipping is going to be around $25-$30 for overnight so hopefully they have some other items I want. As for putting them together, the flag fish are for my cichlid tank, the cherry shrimp will be for my community tank.

Dwarfpufferfish, I'll send you a PM about the cherries thanks.

-Mike
 
#8 ·
Rex,

Thanks for the advice, believe it or not I actually used the search function first. But I still wanted to get some fresh opinion on the subject before dropping close to $100 on some fish and shrimp. I'm going to call them tomorrow to get more details on packaging and shipping.

-Mike
 
#9 ·
I've ordered 6 cherry shrimp from AZGardens before. It was an overnight shipment that also included a bunch of plants and four dwarf puffers. The packing is top notch - the shrimp are in the standard plastic fish bag (which also included some kind of red plant,) and put inside of a styrofoam container and placed inside a larger box with lots of newspaper packing. Unfortunately, I had 3 DOAs with the shrimp, 1 DOA on the puffers, and another puffer didn't make it through the night. I was never compensated for the DOAs even though everything was done according to their ordering and overnight guidelines. I absolutely love their plants and will buy from them again, but never live stock...that's not saying it's their fault the animals died, but they were never replaced.
 
#10 ·
Hi,

I called them today to find out how they pack their livestock, he told me that if anything arrived DOA I would be given credit. Their packing methods sound ok, they do bag multiple fish per bag which isn't the best thing and don't use breather bags, but will use heatpacks, and the standard styro-box. Shipping would work out to around $40 for me (including box charge), since I'm in NY. Did you talk to them on the phone and they refused to issue credit for the DOA items?

Thanks,
-Mike
 
#11 ·
I hope you have better luck than me. I did receive my fish today. Do you know what? They were sent Priority. Do you know what else? Apparently they were sent out on the 13th. By my calculations this means they've spent the last 5 bloody days in a box with NO heat pack during some of the coldest weather we've had this season. To top it off of course they were stuck in the mailbox instead of being delivered to the door since it was Priority and not Express. I'm amazed they're alive. I don't know how long that state of affairs is going to last though :icon_roll. I've got them floating in the tank in a small plastic container to which I'm slowly adding tank water. I swiped a bit of their water and it appears to be quite acidic, in the neighborhood of ph 6 compared to my 6.8-6.9. Then I'll net them out. I really don't expect them to survive. We'll see. Needless to say I'll not do business with this particular company again :angryfire .
 
#12 ·
I don't think I would order fish from anyone until after the holidays. I got my plant shipment from azgardens today. It left their place in Arizona yesterday at 7pm eastern time and I got them at 2:30 eastern today. 19 1/2 hrs is pretty good considering that I live in Cincinnati. They were packed beautifully and looked to be in excellent shape. I will give them my business again.
 
#13 ·
I just ordered a good number of cherries from them. I'd have to look it up on the invoice, but it was appprox 15. Three were DOA, but I'm on the east coast, it was cold that day, and that seems quite reasonable. Must have been hearty stock.

What I find unreasonable was that I recevied one less than I ordered (I'm positive, I counted three times) and they shipped in a huge volume of water. I'm sure that helps them a great deal on not having to do any refunds on DOAs, but it is done at the outrageous cost of shipping that the customer has to bear.
 
#14 ·
Scolley,

For that shrimp order, Was it shipped overnight? And how cold was the night on that shipment?

I'm itch'n to order a couple of them from Florida to New Jersey, but a little nervous about it. I was planning to ask him to shipping 10 per bag (4 bags worth of shrimp) next day. I know, yours is from Arizona to Connecticut.

TIA :) ,
T
 
#15 ·
ThomE - It was overnight. But I believe I opted for next afternoon, vs. next morning. And to make matters worse for the shrimp, FedEx got confused over the address, so I had to go down to their facility to pick them up around 6 PM because the truck couldn't find my house! And it was COLD that day.

So all things considered, the hand full of DOA's seemed pretty reasonable. I don't fault them for that. And they did separate the shipment into two bags. That's why I could count them - the group was broken up into to sets. That many shrimp would have been really tough to count if they were all in one bag.

But you might ask them what the shipping is going to be. Once again, I got some big, heavy bags of water (ka CHING! $), so that many shrimp could cost more to ship overnite, then the actual cost of the shrimp.
 
#16 ·
Shipping for fish and invertebrates is horrendously expensive and will always be chancey, but if it's something you particularly want, your LFS doesn't have (whatever) and can't get it what else can you do?

Update on my own situation. I fired off a hot (hot for me anyway :icon_roll ) e-mail to the vendor (Florida Driftwood) of the Flag Fish I ordered and they did own up to accidentally shipping them Priority instead of Express. I have been promised a replacement shipment after Christmas at no additional charge :proud: . I would rather, of course, that such a mistake had not been made to begin with, but sometimes the ratings of a company depend on how well they handle the problems as well as the "good" transactions.
 
#17 ·
Hi,

I agree ordering livestock via mail can always be dicey, but I've had pretty good luck with the SW fish and corals mail order. I think the packing and pre-shipping treatment of the livestock plays an important role. I was surprised that azgardens does not individually bag their fish, all my saltwater fish come individually bagged, even the cheaper ones like blue/green chromis. Let me know how the flag fish turn out, since I may order from driftwood if things turn out well for you, since they are in FL, transit time will be shorter. 50 % mortality rate is pretty bad IMO so I may hold off on azgarden.

-Mike
 
#18 ·
It actually looks like two out of the three flag fish I was sent might make it! :eek: That says something about the amazing toughness of this fish. Right now they seem fine (I did lose one) swimming and eating, not hiding. If this state of affairs continues I may ask the vendor for a refund or a credit of the difference in shipping and for the dead fish rather than having another shipment of flag fish sent out. Not really sure I need five of the little b*ggers :icon_bigg !
 
#19 ·
Hi,

Just an update, I ended up ordering 5 flag fish and 6 dwarf cory cat's from azgarden overnight priority. I wanted to get the fish before the holidays so I took a chance, lucky for me all the fish arrived alive and I'm acclimating them right now. I specifically asked that they bag a maximum of 3 fish per bag, they double bagged their fish. The big thing that shocked me was the packing method, I'm used to ordering saltwater fish and corals mail order and was expecting a standard foam fish box with heatpack taped to the inside lid. What I received was this





The heat pack was cold, but I expected that based on the way things were packed. I think I was extremely fortunate to have mild weather today and to have ordered hardy fish. Acclimating the fish right now but so far everything looks ok. No signs of major stress or issues, those dwarf cories are cute. Folks at azgardens were easy to deal with on ordering, not sure I like the way livestock is shipped, but at least all mine arrived alive. Hope that helps anyone considering ordering livestock.

-Mike
 
#20 ·
That's very similar to the way my fish were shipped from Florida Driftwood (with the exception of the heatpack.) Both vendors' primary business appears to be plants rather than livestock, however, and I wonder if that might have something to do with their livestock shipping technique?
 
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