Mimic Filefish Poor Shipper?

[Majolica15]

I love filefish. All of them. I want a 1000 gallon tank, just to fill with every species of filefish (and a second for butterflies!). I have other filefish, even orange spotted filefish. This isn't my first rodeo. I've purchased mimic filefish THREE times now. Twice from Divers Den, and they both died before LA could ship them. I FINALLY found another one, from Upscale Aquatics. They got the little guy shipped, he arrived today, perfectly on time, basically minutes from death. I thought he was dead when I opened the box. I acclimated him as I typically would once I realized he wasn't QUITE dead (slowly for sensitive filefish, but with ammonia neutralizer), and he died about an hour or so later. No shock there, I knew he would from the second I realized he was even still alive. He was breathing slowly, very labored, and barely moving his anal fin, but otherwise, just laying on his side.

I guess this post is mostly frustration and sadness. I think these little guys are beautiful. But do these fish really ship that poorly? I've seen numerous posts regarding them in the past, with no one mentioning these types of issues. It's tough to remember that this isn't my fault, as soon as I paid for them, I became responsible for their lives. :'(

 

[blaxsun]

You don't have a LFS that can bring one in for you?

 

[Majolica15]

You don't have a LFS that can bring one in for you?

I gave them my name, and that I was looking for this fish. That was at least a couple months ago. I haven't been able to find them ANYWHERE other than these two places. I'm not sure why, but it seems like they must be hard to come by lately?

 

[blaxsun]

I gave them my name, and that I was looking for this fish. That was at least a couple months ago. I haven't been able to find them ANYWHERE other than these two places. I'm not sure why, but it seems like they must be hard to come by lately?

I know my LFS can pretty much get anything up to and including sharks - so I guess it just depends on their suppliers.

 

[Majolica15]

I know my LFS can pretty much get anything up to and including sharks - so I guess it just depends on their suppliers.

I live in a pretty rural area, in the midwest. So that may be why. I mean, these local fish stores are in the largest city in our state, which, believe it or not, is a REAL city! But I've had to explain to MANY people that my state abbreviation (NE) does NOT stand for Northeast.

 

[blaxsun]

I live in a pretty rural area, in the midwest. So that may be why. I mean, these local fish stores are in the largest city in our state, which, believe it or not, is a REAL city! But I've had to explain to MANY people that my state abbreviation (NE) does NOT stand for Northeast.

If you're talking about Omaha - it's still about twice as large as where I live! If you think "NE" is bad, try being asking to spell out Saskatoon, Saskatchewan over the phone...

It really depends on the individual LFS. Mine is awesome and can pretty much get anything I want (even in a relatively short amount of time).

 

[Majolica15]

If you're talking about Omaha - it's still about twice as large as where I live! If you think "NE" is bad, try being asking to spell out Saskatoon, Saskatchewan over the phone...

It really depends on the individual LFS. Mine is awesome and can pretty much get anything I want (even in a relatively short amount of time).

I might try another one. One is bigger and might be able to, but... I don't know. I've definitely seen disease in their tanks. But I quarantine everything anyway.

And yes, Omaha. I have no doubt you get frustrated trying to spell your address! Our issue is (I actually live a little over an hour and a half from Omaha), our road names are weird. First of all, we have "1/2" roads. So like [house number] 829 1/2 Road... Luckily, I've never lived on one of them. But my street name is 567 Avenue. And if you add the "th" after 567, it screws EVERYTHING up! For some reason, systems don't recognize that as an actual address. So, I always leave that out when people ask my address, and then they try to correct me because they probably think I'm stupid. But, then I have to explain the whole thing to them, and how it will screw up the program or shipping label if they try to add that "th"! Well, all that, and many companies don't ship here at all, for some unknown reason. But they ship everywhere around us.