Livestockusa.org or not

[Thespammailaccount]

Up in WA... Was wondering how you TX reefers were doing down there, have a few friends in Portland that got hit with a ice storm last week.. without power for 3-4 days. hand mixing and warming tank water, no fun.

Definitely would have to do a few Fancy Mushroom add on's... I'm really curious where the nicer strains of mushrooms are coming.

Almost everyone I know had been without power and/or water but luckily I was not affected was odd everything around me except my apartment complex the car dealer next door and the gas station was not affected

 

[BantyRooster97]

I was luckier than many, I have a generator for the hurricanes... I've seen a ton of people here that lost everything due to no power for days. Many, not just the reefers but families in general, lost everything.

 

[BantyRooster97]

Wish you guys were closer! I'd totally go in on a box of coral or shrooms.

 

[gwainrig]

I ordered a couple of boxes from them in 12/19. My shipment were softies (zoas and yumas) from Viet Nam. The cost that was quoted included the reox and customs clearance. You just pay for the shipping from LA to your local airport. I was pleased with the items received and have been looking at another shipment but due to international flight shortages I am waiting till it gets back to near normal. I feel that you will get some extra nice pieces and all will be larger than you see locally.. Just my two cents..

 

[MERKEY]

@ReeferBlaine @MERKEY @Mrmiles - Something to think about... I was digging on their site yesterday contemplating a box of just mushrooms +some add on's, I'm on the hunt for a kryptonite eclectus (they have them), and won't stop still I have one in the tank. LOL

@LRT brotha wish you lived closer but we can arrange a shipping deal down to AZ or if you ever make it up here for family, you're going home with a box

I'd be down

 

[BighohoReef]

I ordered a couple of boxes from them in 12/19. My shipment were softies (zoas and yumas) from Viet Nam. The cost that was quoted included the reox and customs clearance. You just pay for the shipping from LA to your local airport. I was pleased with the items received and have been looking at another shipment but due to international flight shortages I am waiting till it gets back to near normal. I feel that you will get some extra nice pieces and all will be larger than you see locally.. Just my two cents..

The more I hear the more I'm tempted. Considering what I've paid in the last three months for corals a box sounds like a discount.

@BantyRooster97 Let's keep talking if there is something in the fancy mushroom section I'm sure we can figure shipping out down to TX. What part of the state are you in?

 

[BantyRooster97]

I'm in the Houston area.

 

[jda]

They are legit. Whether you can handle it or want what they are offering is different, but you get what you pay for and we never had any surprises. I have gotten wild acros from the before and lots of live rock back when they had tons of it. We got Aussie and Marshall Island (I think) acropora - a few were amazing, most were good and a few were just OK. This happens with every shipment. We paid more not to get any pseudo acros like cyphasterea or leptos and no montis. We asked for a good amount of smooth skins, millepora and spaths and they did a good job of getting us a good amount. You also have to be able to land and host these things. I do not dip them right away and wait for them to heal and recover, but I have a spare tank just for them so pests are no issue.

The only thing that you don't know up front is the freight shipping from LAX to your local airport, but you can get a close estimate. I cannot remember if it was Southwest or American, but it could have been both. You also don't know for sure when your shipment is coming and we got one in 3-4 days and another in 3-4 weeks - this is where it helps to have more than one hobbyist in case your kid has a birthday when the flight is landing (ask me how I know).

They will sell to you. They were always honest and upfront with me.

If you want to have an idea of what you might get, go to Divers Den and look at the wild acropora colony section. Keep in mind that this is what is left over after the high dollar players, employees, etc. have picked over the great stuff... so this is kinda your floor.

You can also get mari boxes. These usually have higher success rate and are selected to be more adaptable for aquarium life.

If you order, millepora, plana, shortcakes (microclados), tables (hycanithcus) do not let people down that often. Plana usually come in multiple colors and are undervalued right now, IMO. True Torts and Austera also have high floors for coloring. People love the super awesome tenuis right now, but you can bet that for every one of those, about 9 other dull ones were imported... so these are risky to select blind.

I cannot stress enough that trans shipping and wild colony boxes are not for everyone. You will have losses that you have to eat the cost of. You also will have to deal with usually having a separate system to host them at first. Then, you have to deal with getting rid of the ones that you don't want later - don' t expect to get retail for them since you are not a store. If you can handle it, it is really great. If not, then it can suck.

 

[MERKEY]

They are legit. Whether you can handle it or want what they are offering is different, but you get what you pay for and we never had any surprises. I have gotten wild acros from the before and lots of live rock back when they had tons of it. We got Aussie and Marshall Island (I think) acropora - a few were amazing, most were good and a few were just OK. This happens with every shipment. We paid more not to get any pseudo acros like cyphasterea or leptos and no montis. We asked for a good amount of smooth skins, millepora and spaths and they did a good job of getting us a good amount. You also have to be able to land and host these things. I do not dip them right away and wait for them to heal and recover, but I have a spare tank just for them so pests are no issue.

The only thing that you don't know up front is the freight shipping from LAX to your local airport, but you can get a close estimate. I cannot remember if it was Southwest or American, but it could have been both. You also don't know for sure when your shipment is coming and we got one in 3-4 days and another in 3-4 weeks - this is where it helps to have more than one hobbyist in case your kid has a birthday when the flight is landing (ask me how I know).

They will sell to you. They were always honest and upfront with me.

If you want to have an idea of what you might get, go to Divers Den and look at the wild acropora colony section. Keep in mind that this is what is left over after the high dollar players, employees, etc. have picked over the great stuff... so this is kinda your floor.

You can also get mari boxes. These usually have higher success rate and are selected to be more adaptable for aquarium life.

If you order, millepora, plana, shortcakes (microclados), tables (hycanithcus) do not let people down that often. Plana usually come in multiple colors and are undervalued right now, IMO. True Torts and Austera also have high floors for coloring. People love the super awesome tenuis right now, but you can bet that for every one of those, about 9 other dull ones were imported... so these are risky to select blind.

I cannot stress enough that trans shipping and wild colony boxes are not for everyone. You will have losses that you have to eat the cost of. You also will have to deal with usually having a separate system to host them at first. Then, you have to deal with getting rid of the ones that you don't want later - don' t expect to get retail for them since you are not a store. If you can handle it, it is really great. If not, then it can suck.

Great review, thank you!

 

[BantyRooster97]

Thx @jda Great info!

 

[jaganshi066]

Hi all,

I am starting to stock my new tank and found livestockusa.org. I have bought 10 frags from AquaSD to see how they do, are in quarantine and soon to be in the new tank.

Anyone have experience on getting an Acro box from Australia from these folks vs. buying frags from the various folks like WWC, TSA and AquaSD? Would you buy the box again?

Build coming soon .

Is livestockusa.org legit? The prices are suspiciously low.

 

[LRT]

Is livestockusa.org legit? The prices are suspiciously low.

Check out @jda review a cpl posts ago. Totally what to expect.

Id be more leaning towards the maricultured pieces and shrooms they import and house onsite at facility. Yes higher than wholesale but lower than retail and some sure stunners not named or released yet, especially in shrooms dept.

 

[jda]

If you do trans ship, my advice is to land stuff in a separate, but established system (not a fresh set up) with strong bio filtration and the ability to add in some GAC in canisters/reactors if you need it. Surface skimming and lots of protein skimmers are a good idea. Scrub the stuff to remove debris, but be quick and don't dip. Acclimate in daylight (we used 6500k halides, but 6500k T5s would be fine and a Hydro light with some 6500k bulbs is cheap). Egg crate up off of the bottom is a good idea - make two setups so that you can swap if they start to get full of algae. After a week, take some frags in case you lose the colony, if things look well. If something looks like it is dying, then don't let it pollute the tank - crash can snowball like they always do. After you see some growth and they are healthy, then a dip is fine as long as there is not a ton of live rock attached. Some "picky" fish like some damsels, arrow crabs, hermits, peppermint shrimp can help clean critters off the stuff if there is a lot of rock or "non-coral" area. You cannot add these if they ammonia is going to spike a bit, so see the first few sentences about strong filtration. When we got acropora, they were bare, so no scrubbing and no fish/critters to help clean - softies/LPS might have some good rock and so will mari bases. Acclimate to bluer light over the weeks to come - remember that nearly all of these were in the ocean in less than 3m of water with 2000+ PAR of daylight (wading or on one breath with a mask and snorkel), so lower PAR and bluer light will take some time. Don't expect all of them to adapt well to bluer light, but most will.

The rocks can have some awesome colored coralline and stuff, but it will die unless you keep up the high level of daylight. Yellow, blue, black, pink (not just dull purple) and others beyond the green, purple and the dark red come from this area.

If you get your pieces on a LOT of rock, then a bottle trap with a meaty treat can let you know if you have any more serious pests, but this is usually not an issue.

Keep in mind that your LFS, some wholesaler or basement hobby-seller already did all of this when you see coral or sale in their shop.

When anybody gets done, let me know if you now understand why retail prices are what they are... and you don't even have the costs of a shop, employees, taxes and stuff. If you do all of this right then you can end up with some great pieces at good prices, but it is going to seem like risk and work since it is. If you get stuff landed in the USA already, then some of this work is done, so just ask questions to see what you need to do still. I only really got acropora, so this is mostly what I know. The less work done, the less expensive the stuff is.

 

[malacoda]

+1 to what jda said, they are legit. (Great posts @jda! Can't tell you how much more I just learned in the past 15 minutes from them.)

I order Walt Smith live rock from them in spring 2019. And a box of aussie acros in Aug 2019.

As jda said, the results you get won't be a matter of what they send you. Mitch is great to work with. Rather, it's how you're set up for dealing with wild or mariculture straight from the ocean.

In my case, it was my first time trying wild ... so I KNEW going in that I was very likely than to lose a fair amount. But I still wanted the experience, so I tried it.

Due to a shipping delay mid-route during very high summer temps, about 3 of the 12 colonies arrived DOA. (Mitch actually became aware of the delay before I did and proactively got on the phone and told the airline to get their act in gear. Also offered a bit of compensation for the DOAs.)

Then, due to my inexperience, I lost 3 or 4 more in the two months that followed. The remainder did well and colored back up quite nicely.

Since then I lost one or two more due to a tank move and minor dino outbreak as the tank settled back in post-move. But survivors are growing nicely.

 

[LRT]

Would love to see some pictures of LUSA gear

 

[jaganshi066]

Check out @jda review a cpl posts ago. Totally what to expect.

Id be more leaning towards the maricultured pieces and shrooms they import and house onsite at facility. Yes higher than wholesale but lower than retail and some sure stunners not named or released yet, especially in shrooms dept.

I’m looking at the fish and they are like 10 times less or more like 20 times less than normal prices???

 

[LRT]

I’m looking at the fish and they are like 10 times less or more like 20 times less than normal prices???

Would probably be prudenf to email and make sure you get updated price list. Been awhile since I checked out the site but may be on there

 

[jaganshi066]

They are legit. Whether you can handle it or want what they are offering is different, but you get what you pay for and we never had any surprises. I have gotten wild acros from the before and lots of live rock back when they had tons of it. We got Aussie and Marshall Island (I think) acropora - a few were amazing, most were good and a few were just OK. This happens with every shipment. We paid more not to get any pseudo acros like cyphasterea or leptos and no montis. We asked for a good amount of smooth skins, millepora and spaths and they did a good job of getting us a good amount. You also have to be able to land and host these things. I do not dip them right away and wait for them to heal and recover, but I have a spare tank just for them so pests are no issue.

The only thing that you don't know up front is the freight shipping from LAX to your local airport, but you can get a close estimate. I cannot remember if it was Southwest or American, but it could have been both. You also don't know for sure when your shipment is coming and we got one in 3-4 days and another in 3-4 weeks - this is where it helps to have more than one hobbyist in case your kid has a birthday when the flight is landing (ask me how I know).

They will sell to you. They were always honest and upfront with me.

If you want to have an idea of what you might get, go to Divers Den and look at the wild acropora colony section. Keep in mind that this is what is left over after the high dollar players, employees, etc. have picked over the great stuff... so this is kinda your floor.

You can also get mari boxes. These usually have higher success rate and are selected to be more adaptable for aquarium life.

If you order, millepora, plana, shortcakes (microclados), tables (hycanithcus) do not let people down that often. Plana usually come in multiple colors and are undervalued right now, IMO. True Torts and Austera also have high floors for coloring. People love the super awesome tenuis right now, but you can bet that for every one of those, about 9 other dull ones were imported... so these are risky to select blind.

I cannot stress enough that trans shipping and wild colony boxes are not for everyone. You will have losses that you have to eat the cost of. You also will have to deal with usually having a separate system to host them at first. Then, you have to deal with getting rid of the ones that you don't want later - don' t expect to get retail for them since you are not a store. If you can handle it, it is really great. If not, then it can suck.

Have you ever bought fish from them?

 

[jaganshi066]

Would probably be prudenf to email and make sure you get updated price list. Been awhile since I checked out the site but may be on there

Looking at the site and I think copperbands are $3,regal angels $23-$42, yellow coris wrasse $1, Anthias $1-$5, moorish idol $3, salicin tang $6???

 

[BantyRooster97]

Looking at the site and I think copperbands are $3,regal angels $23-$42, yellow coris wrasse $1, Anthias $1-$5, moorish idol $3, salicin tang $6???

I've been looking into a fish shipment as well... must take into consideration the box fee & shipping. Take the 12-15 fish you want and add $500 to it. The fish are inexpensive, but the shipping & handling makes up for that. Plus, consider you will have losses.

Doesn't make a lot of sense to buy fish you can find locally for $30ish.... I've been looking at bringing in some higher end fish, and trying to sell a couple to recoup some of the costs... but its very risky, keep that in mind. No 10 day guarantee etc. LOL