Coral from online vendor and pests

[Coralville]

If you get corals from an online vendor and they have pests, in your opinion what is an acceptable response from the vendor? In my case I dipped the corals with coral rx in batches of 2 and in each case red specks fell off the corals, so I am assuming they have red planaria. There were 4 batches total. I sent pics to the vendor. They recommended a series of weekly dips and said “oh sometimes a few pests get through the quarantine process“. That’s it. One of the corals is so badly bleached it is 75% white. I did get a refund for that one.

Needless to say I am pretty unhappy with the situation.

 

[Mical]

I dip EVERYTHING I purchase, but to be told to do weekly dips - I'd be shopping elsewhere...

 

[Coralville]

Agreed!

 

[Azedenkae]

If you get corals from an online vendor and they have pests, in your opinion what is an acceptable response from the vendor? In my case I dipped the corals with coral rx in batches of 2 and in each case red specks fell off the corals, so I am assuming they have red planaria. There were 4 batches total. I sent pics to the vendor. They recommended a series of weekly dips and said “oh sometimes a few pests get through the quarantine process“. That’s it. One of the corals is so badly bleached it is 75% white. I did get a refund for that one.

Needless to say I am pretty unhappy with the situation.

Depends on the 'pest'. Algae is normal, aiptasia (from the get go) is not. If the aiptasia is super well hidden or only appear after a while then sure, but yeah if the coral came with aiptasia clearly attached and visible for example, I'd be unhappy.

 

[mdb_talon]

Well what I consider "acceptable" is far from industry standard, but if I get sent a coral with pests I expect to be refunded for those coral(s). Having said that if you are buying from anyplace that relies on frequent import of coral and chopping it up then there is a good chance for pests at some point. The reality is dips are moderately effective, but QT and observation is really what is required and the vendors doing a live sale every three weeks selling 3k pieces of coral each time...... I really doubt there is much real quarantining going on. You can bet a lot/most/all? of these vendors keep their chop shop coral they sell you in completely different systems than their grow out tanks because last thing they want to do is get pests on their own stuff.

I QT everything longterm. If I was unable to do that though for some reason I would only buy from very specific vendors I trust (generally not the mass market sellers). Going to possibly pay a bit more, but it cheaper than most pests in the DT.

Also I would say I consider things like algae/ bubble algae annoying, but not a pest. I consider things like aefw, redbugs, spiders, pyramid snails, monti nudis, zoa nudis, etc all pests that should be unacceptable. Aiptasia I kind of think as in between annoying and a pest. I go to great lengths to keep it out of my DT, but not the same concern as with pests that actively prey on coral.

 

[Coralville]

Thanks for the responses. I think a refund is in order too. I thought this was a reputable vendor, but apparently they aren’t any longer. Recommendation for vendors?

I don’t have a quarantine tank unfortunately. Opinions on what to do now? About half the corals look unhealthy (not a surprise). Weekly dips for a few weeks? Get a melanarus wrasse? Both?

 

[REEFTIDE]

Thanks for the responses. I think a refund is in order too. I thought this was a reputable vendor, but apparently they aren’t any longer. Recommendation for vendors?

I don’t have a quarantine tank unfortunately. Opinions on what to do now? About half the corals look unhealthy (not a surprise). Weekly dips for a few weeks? Get a melanarus wrasse? Both?

Did they send you planaria? Like little photosynthetic flatworms?
For most vendors thats not a real pest. For me... I utterly despise them. And its nuts because all they had to do is inspect the coral at ship out. At that point is kind of gross negligence if you ask me.
I don't think telling you to run repeated dips is fair or honestly, even a response I would find okay from any of my staff if I had an issue like this. It's going to be hard getting a refund for something like that though honestly because again, to most people its more of a pain than a pest. Additionally if they don't advertise any sort of QT process or offer some type of "pest free guarantee" the argument could be that they never mentioned the coral they were selling was free of pests.
Honestly, I think you may be able to snag a partial refund(like say, 50%?) without too much of a battle but a full refund you may have to call the bank for.
It really sucks when stuff like this happens because it puts people off from ordering from online vendors that actually do care. I'm sorry you're facing this frustrating situation. Yellow coris wrasses have always been my favorite little work horses, maybe give those a try? Alternatively the real planaria killing machines are target mandarins

 

[Coralville]

Yes, that’s right

 

[Azedenkae]

Thanks for the responses. I think a refund is in order too. I thought this was a reputable vendor, but apparently they aren’t any longer. Recommendation for vendors?

I don’t have a quarantine tank unfortunately. Opinions on what to do now? About half the corals look unhealthy (not a surprise). Weekly dips for a few weeks? Get a melanarus wrasse? Both?

Cultivated Reef is good, I just got six new corals from them and they all look great.

 

[REEFTIDE]

Yes, that’s right

Edited with the rest of my post, I accidentally clicked post reply too early

 

[Coralville]

Did they send you planaria? Like little photosynthetic flatworms?
For most vendors thats not a real pest. For me... I utterly despise them. And its nuts because all they had to do is inspect the coral at ship out. At that point is kind of gross negligence if you ask me.
I don't think telling you to run repeated dips is fair or honestly, even a response I would find okay from any of my staff if I had an issue like this. It's going to be hard getting a refund for something like that though honestly because again, to most people its more of a pain than a pest. Additionally if they don't advertise any sort of QT process or offer some type of "pest free guarantee" the argument could be that they never mentioned the coral they were selling was free of pests.
Honestly, I think you may be able to snag a partial refund(like say, 50%?) without too much of a battle but a full refund you may have to call the bank for.
It really sucks when stuff like this happens because it puts people off from ordering from online vendors that actually do care. I'm sorry you're facing this frustrating situation. Yellow coris wrasses have always been my favorite little work horses, maybe give those a try? Alternatively the real planaria killing machines are target mandarin

 

[Coralville]

Sorry, hit reply too quickly. Thanks for the info and I appreciate your input! I will try the yellow coris wrasse I think. Not sure if I have enough pods for a mandarin, although I do love them

 

[PeterB113]

If you get corals from an online vendor and they have pests, in your opinion what is an acceptable response from the vendor? In my case I dipped the corals with coral rx in batches of 2 and in each case red specks fell off the corals, so I am assuming they have red planaria. There were 4 batches total. I sent pics to the vendor. They recommended a series of weekly dips and said “oh sometimes a few pests get through the quarantine process“. That’s it. One of the corals is so badly bleached it is 75% white. I did get a refund for that one.

Needless to say I am pretty unhappy with the situation.

Id be ticked about recieving the bleached one lol. But the others, theres nothing you can really do other than pick a different vendor that you feel has "cleaner" frags. Theres a few vendors i WILL NEVER buy from again because the pests they came with infested my entire tank even with rigorous dips. All these zoa spiders came from that one frag.......ts been real fun trying to get rid of them lol. Also be very weary about putting "FREEBIE" zoas in your tank. Most likey its a "FREEBIE" beacuse it has a pest of somekind.

 

[PeterB113]

Thanks for the responses. I think a refund is in order too. I thought this was a reputable vendor, but apparently they aren’t any longer. Recommendation for vendors?

I don’t have a quarantine tank unfortunately. Opinions on what to do now? About half the corals look unhealthy (not a surprise). Weekly dips for a few weeks? Get a melanarus wrasse? Both?

Cherrycorals.com
Aquasd.com
Harrysmarinelife.com
Topshelfaquatics.com
Corals.com

Ive been happy with corals ive ordered from these vendors.

 

[mdb_talon]

Aquasd.com
Harrysmarinelife.com
Topshelfaquatics.com
Corals.com

Ive been happy with corals ive ordered from these vendors.

Thats what makes it hard. 95% of the time the coral is going to arrive pest free even from the vendors who dont even bother to notice (or care) that what they are sending is infested with xyz pest (spiders for example). At least one of those on your list has had a lot of problems recently with zoa spider infested frags being sent out. I still go with the thought that if you buy from a chop shop (even if they also growout some high end stuff) you are taking a big risk if you dont QT.

At least if you are buying from a vendor that is growing out the majority of their stuff the risk should be pretty small. They have a financial incentive to keep pests out of their growout systems.

 

[Coralville]

Id be ticked about recieving the bleached one lol. But the others, theres nothing you can really do other than pick a different vendor that you feel has "cleaner" frags. Theres a few vendors i WILL NEVER buy from again because the pests they came with infested my entire tank even with rigorous dips. All these zoa spiders came from that one frag.......ts been real fun trying to get rid of them lol. Also be very weary about putting "FREEBIE" zoas in your tank. Most likey its a "FREEBIE" beacuse it has a pest of somekind.

Oh wow, that’s really bad!

 

[Coralville]

Cherrycorals.com
Aquasd.com
Harrysmarinelife.com
Topshelfaquatics.com
Corals.com

Ive been happy with corals ive ordered from these vendors.

Thanks for the info, will check them out!

 

[FishyFishFish]

Cherrycorals.com
Aquasd.com
Harrysmarinelife.com
Topshelfaquatics.com
Corals.com

Ive been happy with corals ive ordered from these vendors.

Check out the recent posts on AquaSD. I will never buy anything from them ever again.

I did just receive an order from TopShelfAquatics and they were great. Very clean corals and well priced in the R2R sale.


I think the vendors should just be more transparent; if you know a coral hasn't been quarantined, dipped or gone through a quality control process then it might be still worth buying if the price is right and you have the resources to do that yourself. I would still trade with other reefer's, with unknown systems, if the trades/sales were cheap or free. At the prices that some of these corals are being commercially sold for, I'm not sure there is any excuse for any pests. This transparency from the vendors also refers to the unrealistic photos that are being used to exaggerate the colours.

I have learned a lot in the past 3 coral orders I have placed - mainly that some of the big vendors are nothing more than fast fragging and shipping shops with minimal apparent attempts to provide pest-free corals. Refunding the coral is a cheap way for them to ignore the costly quarantine or aquaculture process. They know that in a batch of corals they will likely have some without pests, some people who dip/QT and don't complain, some people who don't realize they have pests until much later, some who receive pests and just dispose of the coral without complaining and a handful that notice what has happened and complain. This last group of people will often have bought several corals and maybe only 1 or 2 are affected, and only those 1 or 2 will be refunded (with no liability for the affect that might have had on the reefer's tank).

If it's something that cannot be simply removed with a dip, or can infest a whole tank, then that is a no no in my opinion. If it is something that can be removed with a dip, then I would be dubious as to how sure the vendor could be that it doesn't have something else that is dip-resistant.

 

[PeterB113]

Check out the recent posts on AquaSD. I will never buy anything from them ever again.

I did just receive an order from TopShelfAquatics and they were great. Very clean corals and well priced in the R2R sale.


I think the vendors should just be more transparent; if you know a coral hasn't been quarantined, dipped or gone through a quality control process then it might be still worth buying if the price is right and you have the resources to do that yourself. I would still trade with other reefer's, with unknown systems, if the trades/sales were cheap or free. At the prices that some of these corals are being commercially sold for, I'm not sure there is any excuse for any pests. This transparency from the vendors also refers to the unrealistic photos that are being used to exaggerate the colours.

I have learned a lot in the past 3 coral orders I have placed - mainly that some of the big vendors are nothing more than fast fragging and shipping shops with minimal apparent attempts to provide pest-free corals. Refunding the coral is a cheap way for them to ignore the costly quarantine or aquaculture process. They know that in a batch of corals they will likely have some without pests, some people who dip/QT and don't complain, some people who don't realize they have pests until much later, some who receive pests and just dispose of the coral without complaining and a handful that notice what has happened and complain. This last group of people will often have bought several corals and maybe only 1 or 2 are affected, and only those 1 or 2 will be refunded (with no liability for the affect that might have had on the reefer's tank).

If it's something that cannot be simply removed with a dip, or can infest a whole tank, then that is a no no in my opinion. If it is something that can be removed with a dip, then I would be dubious as to how sure the vendor could be that it doesn't have something else that is dip-resistant.

Couldnt agree more

 

[OneSockERock]

Like others have said, dip everything and considering setting up a coral QT if you're really trying to keep pests out. I kind of expect a farming level operation to have some level of pests so it doesn't upset me too much when I find a worm or such in dips. Granted, I've never received an entire order of infested pieces like yourself. That would probably make me send a ??? email too, especially if you paid good money for the pleasure.

I just got a certified captive grown blasto last week that had a small dark colored worm crawl out during the RX dip. Never seen a bristle worm look like that. Realistically probably harmless, but I'm not trying to find out - into the waste bucket he went. Realized the next day the same blasto skeleton also had an aiptasia, so it ended up getting booted to my old tank anyway. From a major online supplier, although not a coral specific shop. Even captive grown pieces aren't safe.

I will say my recent order from Tidal Gardens came in pest free from the dip and was packaged/labeled nicely. Thumbs up to them in my book.