Fish delayed in transit :(

saltwaterswiftie · Jul 18, 2023

I have a 2 mo old 55g tank. I ordered a tricolor fairy wrasse, yellow coris wrasse, carpendar wrasse, 5 peppermint shrimp, and a zoa (my first coral) from Blue Zoo Aquatics. Unfortunately, the UPS lost my package and it is now delayed. They think I will get my package within 36-48hrs after it was shipped. Do you think my fish have any chance? If they are alive on arrival, should I still drip acclimate?

CO2TLEY · Jul 18, 2023

I had a mappa puffer that was delayed 4 or 5 days due to weather and he made it. I would say it definitely depends on the fish/the current weather they are in. To acclimate I floated for temp. Then did half of my tanks water and some brand new fresh salt water in a bucket (needs to be temp matched with tank). That bag water can get very toxic with a delay like that, especially if not prepped correctly so i completely disposed of it. Not an expert just my experience

Uncle99 · Jul 18, 2023

saltwaterswiftie said:
I have a 2 mo old 55g tank. I ordered a tricolor fairy wrasse, yellow coris wrasse, carpendar wrasse, 5 peppermint shrimp, and a zoa (my first coral) from Blue Zoo Aquatics. Unfortunately, the UPS lost my package and it is now delayed. They think I will get my package within 36-48hrs after it was shipped. Do you think my fish have any chance? If they are alive on arrival, should I still drip acclimate?

I’d float for 20 minutes in the bag, then once open, into QT or DT. The concern is if the bag salinity is low and the DT high.
If they were close, say 0.002 difference, I’d go straight in.
I hope they arrive soon.

kevgib67 · Jul 18, 2023

Fingers crossed! Good luck, I will be looking forward to your post stating they arrived safe and sound.

JaaxReef · Jul 18, 2023

Had a delay today too. Was it related to Kentucky weather at the hub? Should arrive around 12pm tomorrow.

Hoping we both have success stories even with a one day delay!

saltwaterswiftie · Jul 20, 2023

My arrived yesterday. The three wrasses did not look great at first but two of them ate this morning and the third is hiding in the sand bed. Sadly, 3/4 of my peppermint shrimp died.

My zoas are still closed and I placed them in an area with high flow. I think they are okay but they are my first coral so I am not sure. I attached a picture.

jda · Jul 20, 2023

Even if the zoas die, leave that rock in the tank. It likely has more microfauna and bacteria on it than you could ever buy in a bottle. It is either from the ocean or a well-established system.

Unfortunately, Peppermints are extremely sensitive to salinity changes and need to be acclimated very slowly, which can be hard when they have been in a bag for too long.

saltwaterswiftie · Jul 20, 2023

jda said:
Even if the zoas die, leave that rock in the tank. It likely has more microfauna and bacteria on it than you could ever buy in a bottle. It is either from the ocean or a well-established system.

Unfortunately, Peppermints are extremely sensitive to salinity changes and need to be acclimated very slowly, which can be hard when they have been in a bag for too long.

I have had some bad experiences in the past and am a little paranoid about introducing disease into my tank. I used CoralRX to dip the zoas and they are currently in a QT by themselves. My plan was to leave it in the QT for 30 days then add to my DT. This wouldn't effect the microfauna and bacteria right?

jda · Jul 20, 2023

IMO, there is more chance of the microfauna coming back after a dip that you can ever get from bottled supplements.

QT is a wonderful thing if you are going to do it correctly. The next best thing that you can do is to have a tank with a diverse ecosystem with many critters and creatures that will consume disease tomonts/whatever as they fall off of the fish. New, sterile tanks with dry rock and sand are petri dishes for fish diseases to grow with nothing to consume them. The great thing is that you can do both good QT, but also have a diverse ecosystem just in case something gets through. I know that this is not a thread on QT or disease, but the best thing that most folks can do is to order a few hundred dollars worth of real live rock and let the good stuff spread to the rest of their tank.

JaaxReef · Jul 21, 2023

My fish also arrived around 40 hours after shipping. My malaegris leopard was DOA (was not surprised and devestated), but my orange back and long fin fairy wrasses as well as my dragon goby are all looking well now and eating in QT. Hoping for the best for them and really bummed about the leopard. They don’t ship well, and the extra day probably put her over the edge.

Townes_Van_Camp · Jul 21, 2023

JaaxReef said:
Had a delay today too. Was it related to Kentucky weather at the hub? Should arrive around 12pm tomorrow.

Hoping we both have success stories even with a one day delay!

Why do all the coral shipments get lost and or delayed in Kentucky? I had a couple of nice pieces fry in the mail a month ago.

Sorry about your wrasse. It always sucks no matter how it happens.

JaaxReef · Jul 21, 2023

Townes_Van_Camp said:
Why do all the coral shipments get lost and or delayed in Kentucky? I had a couple of nice pieces fry in the mail a month ago.

Sorry about your wrasse. It always sucks no matter how it happens.

UPS hub is in Kentucky. FedEx hub is in Memphis I believe, so also another common spot where things get stuck if there are weather delays.

zoomonster · Jul 21, 2023

I have gotten a number of fish lately from reefs4less via a drop shipper who I am pretty sure is Blue Zoo in Hawthorne CA. The fish have been excellent quality, but the salinity is extraordinarily low. Earlier this week I got 5 fish and the salinity was 23.5. It takes a long time to acclimate up to tank salinity. I use a little Seachem Prime to immediately neutralize any ammonia in the bags and start acclimating in a container.

And yeah KY/TN is the weather hell corridor this time of year. Had a coral delayed by UPS from lightning storms this week. Fortunately still got it next day just 8 hours late and it was fine.

JaaxReef · Jul 21, 2023

zoomonster said:
I have gotten a number of fish lately from reefs4less via a drop shipper who I am pretty sure is Blue Zoo in Hawthorne CA. The fish have been excellent quality, but the salinity is extraordinarily low. Earlier this week I got 5 fish and the salinity was 23.5. It takes a long time to acclimate up to tank salinity. I use a little Seachem Prime to immediately neutralize any ammonia in the bags and start acclimating in a container.

And yeah KY/TN is the weather hell corridor this time of year. Had a coral delayed by UPS from lightning storms this week. Fortunately still got it next day just 8 hours late and it was fine.

I would say best practice would be to either match salinity from shipper in QT or a new bucket of heated saltwater to move fish to immediately and dump bag water right away. No osmotic shock and allows to either just dump in QT or drip acclimate using a fresh batch of water to much more slowly bring up salinity without worrying about ammonia.