Dadekster
03/23/2010, 07:47 PM
Just wanted to drop a line and say thank you to Kris (I hope that's right, seems that's how people spell it in here) and thanks for sending me some very nice selections. However, not everything came out like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbox today. Anyways, my selections were as follows-
Lobophyllia Brain Coral-Red Stripe, Lobophyllia hemprichii, Small: over 2.5-3", Solomon
Maze Brain Coral, Platygyra spp., Medium: over 1.5-3.5", Tonga
Cup Coral-Lettuce, Turbinaria reniformis, Small: over 2.5-3", Tonga
Acropora Staghorn-Brown, Acropora spp., Tiny: up to 2.5", Fiji
Metallic Pink Zoanthids, Zoanthus spp., Small: over 2.5-3", Tonga
WYSIWYG Fragtastic Item! Infected Green Stitches Acan., Acanthastrea lordhowensis-B3-B, 1.5-2 INCHES
On Monday evening (21st), Kris called me to let me know the metallic pink Zoa's weren't looking very healthy and offered to do a sub for it. I basically told him what colors were predominant in my tank (red and green) and for him to surprise me with whatever he felt like sending. Well today I received my order and while having some mixed feelings about it, in general I feel I can't complain, but I can share my experience with others.
First the good things about my order. I don't know who does the measuring over there, but get them some glasses...my maze brain which was listed for 1.5 to 3 inches came in at close to 6 inches. I can literally take it out of my tank and if I throw it hard enough I can probably knock someone out with it. The thing is heavy and really dense. Very nice! The same thing for the cup coral. Listed at 2.5 to 3 inches, it measures closer to 7 inches long and 5 inches wide. A nice yellow color as well. As of this moment I am still waiting to see when the polyps will come out. The maze coral seems healthy as well although they are a bit harder to judge since they just sort of sit there and glow green. The rest of the order came in as measured, nothing undersized or skimpy which I have to say thank you for.
Now for some of the mixed moments. The acans are not as green as I thought they would be from what I saw on the site. Possibly my lights, not sure. There is a streak of green in there but it is very small and very light. Either way, the acans puffed up nicely and even have some tentacles out already letting me know they are happy. The 'brown' acro is actually about an inch bigger than advertised and actually has hints of green to it along with being a bit brown. Very interesting and I look forward to seeing what happens with it. It threw out polyps within 30 minutes of being placed into the tank so it appears happy as well. On another note, I did notice that is had been sniped in two spots? Not sure what is up with that? Dead spots...fragged, who knows. The Lobo coral came in as advertised size wise and color wise. Nice streaks of red and pink in it and it is slowly but surely inflating itself. A very nice shape to it with nice curves and groves.
Now the last two are my disapointing moments. The good thing is one of them at the moment is not much of a factor but I feel it should be brought to Blue Zoo's attention. My box came in wet. As in the whole botton of the cardboard box was soaked. Seeing how it was cardboard box sealing a stryofoam container I am going to guess it was FedEx. The package would have to be upside down for that amount of water to soak the box. When I opened the stryofoam box I was a bit shocked. There was a good 1 to 2 inches of standing water in the bottom. The care package was half wet as well as the newpaper. Two of the shipping bags had gotten shredded. The Lobo coral with its skeleton and the maze coral with its attached base rock had demolished their shipping bags. A majority of their water had leaked out. Luckily they appear alright as I have stated above. I will keep a close eye on the Lobo as it is more prone to cuts to its tissue and brown jelly infections etc afterwards. But score a big negative on the packaging. To be fair all of my previous orders have been top notch in regards to shipping. I have a feeling this order was a bit rushed and in combination with the large lps's it went a bit south.
The last thing I wanted to address is the zoa's. At this time I am really not to happy with what I got in exchange for the pink zoa's that were replaced. I may have been mistaken, but at the time I was called I was told that they had just gotten a nice shipment in with some 'Limited Edition' type stuff. What I got was not anything near as nice as the pink zoa's or anything I would label LE. Now, I honestly don't care about LE, glow in the dark, serial numbered, funky named stuff. But I received a freshly fragged zoa rock with about ten zoa's (which is nice as far as numbers go) with a brown outer ring, pea colored inner ring and an off orange eye. Maybe when the daylights go out and I am running just my actnics these things will explode...but I doubt it. :hmm3: At this point I would have just rather kept the 30 bucks or whatnot and been happy. But I wouldn't pay more than 5 bucks at the LFS for these to be honest. :thumbdown Maybe they looked much nicer under your lights?
In conclusion, I am for the most part happy with my order as the large sizes of some of the selections make up for the ugly zoa's I got as well as a wet box. Now I received free shipping with this and I was able to use a 40 something dollar credit as well (got a bad off acro and lost 2 threadfins/not great shippers from what I understand). At this point I feel like a used my 40 dollar credit on some ugly zoa's, but who knows I guess. I will leave the ball in your court. I wish I could post nothing but good stuff in here, but I honestly feel a bit cheated in regards to the cost I paid for those zoa's. :hmm2:
Lobophyllia Brain Coral-Red Stripe, Lobophyllia hemprichii, Small: over 2.5-3", Solomon
Maze Brain Coral, Platygyra spp., Medium: over 1.5-3.5", Tonga
Cup Coral-Lettuce, Turbinaria reniformis, Small: over 2.5-3", Tonga
Acropora Staghorn-Brown, Acropora spp., Tiny: up to 2.5", Fiji
Metallic Pink Zoanthids, Zoanthus spp., Small: over 2.5-3", Tonga
WYSIWYG Fragtastic Item! Infected Green Stitches Acan., Acanthastrea lordhowensis-B3-B, 1.5-2 INCHES
On Monday evening (21st), Kris called me to let me know the metallic pink Zoa's weren't looking very healthy and offered to do a sub for it. I basically told him what colors were predominant in my tank (red and green) and for him to surprise me with whatever he felt like sending. Well today I received my order and while having some mixed feelings about it, in general I feel I can't complain, but I can share my experience with others.
First the good things about my order. I don't know who does the measuring over there, but get them some glasses...my maze brain which was listed for 1.5 to 3 inches came in at close to 6 inches. I can literally take it out of my tank and if I throw it hard enough I can probably knock someone out with it. The thing is heavy and really dense. Very nice! The same thing for the cup coral. Listed at 2.5 to 3 inches, it measures closer to 7 inches long and 5 inches wide. A nice yellow color as well. As of this moment I am still waiting to see when the polyps will come out. The maze coral seems healthy as well although they are a bit harder to judge since they just sort of sit there and glow green. The rest of the order came in as measured, nothing undersized or skimpy which I have to say thank you for.
Now for some of the mixed moments. The acans are not as green as I thought they would be from what I saw on the site. Possibly my lights, not sure. There is a streak of green in there but it is very small and very light. Either way, the acans puffed up nicely and even have some tentacles out already letting me know they are happy. The 'brown' acro is actually about an inch bigger than advertised and actually has hints of green to it along with being a bit brown. Very interesting and I look forward to seeing what happens with it. It threw out polyps within 30 minutes of being placed into the tank so it appears happy as well. On another note, I did notice that is had been sniped in two spots? Not sure what is up with that? Dead spots...fragged, who knows. The Lobo coral came in as advertised size wise and color wise. Nice streaks of red and pink in it and it is slowly but surely inflating itself. A very nice shape to it with nice curves and groves.
Now the last two are my disapointing moments. The good thing is one of them at the moment is not much of a factor but I feel it should be brought to Blue Zoo's attention. My box came in wet. As in the whole botton of the cardboard box was soaked. Seeing how it was cardboard box sealing a stryofoam container I am going to guess it was FedEx. The package would have to be upside down for that amount of water to soak the box. When I opened the stryofoam box I was a bit shocked. There was a good 1 to 2 inches of standing water in the bottom. The care package was half wet as well as the newpaper. Two of the shipping bags had gotten shredded. The Lobo coral with its skeleton and the maze coral with its attached base rock had demolished their shipping bags. A majority of their water had leaked out. Luckily they appear alright as I have stated above. I will keep a close eye on the Lobo as it is more prone to cuts to its tissue and brown jelly infections etc afterwards. But score a big negative on the packaging. To be fair all of my previous orders have been top notch in regards to shipping. I have a feeling this order was a bit rushed and in combination with the large lps's it went a bit south.
The last thing I wanted to address is the zoa's. At this time I am really not to happy with what I got in exchange for the pink zoa's that were replaced. I may have been mistaken, but at the time I was called I was told that they had just gotten a nice shipment in with some 'Limited Edition' type stuff. What I got was not anything near as nice as the pink zoa's or anything I would label LE. Now, I honestly don't care about LE, glow in the dark, serial numbered, funky named stuff. But I received a freshly fragged zoa rock with about ten zoa's (which is nice as far as numbers go) with a brown outer ring, pea colored inner ring and an off orange eye. Maybe when the daylights go out and I am running just my actnics these things will explode...but I doubt it. :hmm3: At this point I would have just rather kept the 30 bucks or whatnot and been happy. But I wouldn't pay more than 5 bucks at the LFS for these to be honest. :thumbdown Maybe they looked much nicer under your lights?
In conclusion, I am for the most part happy with my order as the large sizes of some of the selections make up for the ugly zoa's I got as well as a wet box. Now I received free shipping with this and I was able to use a 40 something dollar credit as well (got a bad off acro and lost 2 threadfins/not great shippers from what I understand). At this point I feel like a used my 40 dollar credit on some ugly zoa's, but who knows I guess. I will leave the ball in your court. I wish I could post nothing but good stuff in here, but I honestly feel a bit cheated in regards to the cost I paid for those zoa's. :hmm2: