Frustration

So its venting time.

Ordering online SUCKS. Normally I do fine. But so far this month I've killed 3 fish. But sadly 2 weren't even ME doing it.
1) yellow rose goby-came in with what looked like either a bite mark, or a bacterial disease. QT'd and died within 10 minutes of the bag being open and dripping it
2) yellow rose #2 goby-went over the overflow into a filter sock, got caught and scraped up past saving. So I ordered something bigger:
3) Purple Spot Watchman Goby- drip acclimation. It started acting funny, not hiding, swimming at the top of the tank. Dead the next day.

GRRRRRR
And this is after a starfish ate my mated pair of yashas. I want to tear my hair out over it. And Fed-ex isn't helping. The first gobies (1 and 2) got lost for a day, I talked with 3 different people to get it delivered on a Saturday. I'm fairly certain that #1 would have lived, in qt, if not for that.
And then they left a package outside yesterday. Nick was inside watching TV. They didn't even KNOCK. Just left it at the door. Luckily he heard them pull up.

Not sure if this is how it went down, but I remember you having a delay in shipping. If so there could have been an ammonia spike in the bag they were shipped in which has little toxicity to the fish in a sealed bag filled with 2/3 water and 1/3 pure oxygen. The water becomes saturated with the O2 and makes the ammonia less toxic to the fish. Now the tricky part! When you open the bag the pure O2 excapes and the waters dissolved O2 drops back down to where it should be rather fast which in turn makes that ammonia level lethal again. So dripping takes to long. You should float the bag for 15 min to get the temp right in a bucket of water that has the same salinity and PH of the water in the bag. Then remove the fish to the pail and dispose of all of the shipping water. Then acclimate the fish to your systems water. Pulling a water sample from a sealed bag without unsealing it can be tricky. I'm thinking hypodermic needle with a valve or something? Thats the best way on a delayed shipment.

Well, the delayed ones were first (numbers 1 and 2) the last one was NOT delayed. I'm thinking that I'll just get no moar fishies for now. See how big the A. barberi get.

Poor Delivery People, I feel for these guys some times,this is why I try not buying stock in the winter month's, for one your shipping Live stock in a Styrofoam container with the out side temp of - what degree? across how many states? with who knows what kind of weather coming there way with No clue what there shipping.
I don't Know about you but I know many times I'm out of town on a job and wondering if I'll even get home because a snow storm came out of know where.
I just don't like taking a chance this time of the year because this time of the years the odds of having shipping problems with shipping live in my opinion is 60/40.

Sorry to hear of the losses...

Mr H has a point about the toxicity. You can rapidly lower salinity but not increase it, so if you mixed some water up at 1.020 you would be pretty good to just temp acclimate and dump the fish in. Most fish places keep the salinity around tha point. my mixong at least the same amount of new water with the older immediately the chances of the toxicity are drastically lowered. Also you can add an airstone to the acclimation too which will help airate and reduce toxicity.

That is one issue, but I have MORE issues with overheating in the summer than cooling in the winter. During the first shipment everything else lived. (the clowns are big, brassy, and in your face) which was the one lost. This second one, with the giant pink spot... I have no clue. ~none~ as to why it died over 24 hours later. I know it was an adult due to the size of it.

IF I get fish again (I may not, just such horrid bad luck. Maybe I can find a fish store that can special order me stuff) I'll have to look back at this post for the better tips.

Personally, and this is just personally, I have never ordered fish online for this reason. I have had coral shipments and reef cleaner shipments delayed on me with only one shipment was a total loss. The total loss only traveled from Minneapolis to Fargo as well so it wasn't even distance as a factor... I don't really want to know what would happen with a fish order as they are typically more fragile.

In this area we deal with one of the largest spreads of temperature in the country. We can go from over 100 degrees in the summer to -60 or lower in the winter. These temps and the weather are also highly unpredictable, especially if we are trying to plan a good day to have an order shipped. I tend to hesitate shipping anything in the dead of winter or mid-summer when the temps can be at their extremes. Fall and Sprint tend to be the best times, post flooding of course.

Actually, the main reason I shop online vs the one single local store-most online places will give you a 1 week guarantee on their livestock, and for fish I ~only~ shop at those places. Refunds or store credit are issued on doa's or odd deaths like this one. For the overflow fish I didn't ask for credit-I did learn to cover even my overflow box though. The other two I have made claims on. Dr Foster and Smith gave an immediate refund for the first goby. Still waiting on Blue Zoo but they've given refunds before (different business hours)

When shopping online I do check 2 things. Reviews on forums (like this one, or RC or Nanoreef) and their death/accident coverage. If they don't have one or only cover DOA's I don't shop through them.

With corals I haven't lost any from shipping for about 5 years. Cleaners I did lose some last year (it was spring and ups lost the box for 3 days!!!) and fish... meh. I hate losing fish. But I think I'll stick with my 4 now. 4 is pleeenty in my tank. (well, 5 if you include super-psycho angel in the sump)

Yeah it is more limited on local stuff up there, and there are many places online that are good. I'm not saying they are bad, just that we live in an area where shipping can be risky at times. BlueZoo and Live Aquaria are both awesome places to buy from and take care of their customers for sure.

There used to be another one back in the early 2000's that I would go through too. But they specialized in WYSIWYG before it was called that. I can't even remember the name of them anymore. But I would have bought from them before anywhere else, including BZ and LA

I have had similar issues when ordering koi. There are NO local koi, with any breeding or colors. The only problem I had was when they got to the Post Office. But they were awesome and opened the back door for me.
Rick, at Pet Zone can order for you, but he is more expensive than online, but then you're not paying shipping and your fish should arrive in better shape. He also offers a discount if he doesn't have to keep it in stock. When I get a larger tank, I may try him for some dwarf lions.
Maybe we should think about a group fishing trip to some big shops and pool expenses. My spinning group does that, but then we have very little problem with yarn dying on the trip.

I've ordered special things through Rick before. Problem is he recently changed (6 months or so) saltwater dealers, and his lists are smaller.

OOOOOOOH.