My experience with Blue Zoo Aquatics

[travis32]

I just wanted to post my experience, I have mentioned some info in the New to RC forum, but, was probably misplaced and should have been here.

2 to 3 weeks ago I decided to look for someone that had Marine Betas in stock as the first fish for my tank.. (a pair to see about getting them to become a mated pair hopefully).

Well, Blue zoo came from a reccomendation of someone on here as having them in stock. No one else did, not the LFS, not Live Aquaria, not Saltwaterfish.com. I checked anyone reputable and not a one in stock and no one could tell me if they'd have any and when.

I took the reccomendation and bluezoo had them in stock and even offered to hold them for me before I even placed my order!!!

I placed my order for the two marine betas, signal goby, my first candy cane coral, and one other coral for Saturday delivery on a Monday or Tuesday. Friday rolled around and I get an email from Mark indicating dire news.

One of the two betas they had reserved for me died in their holding tanks and the second one looked very sick and was covered in slime. He thankfully refused to ship me the sick one. We had a mis communication because he didn't indicate no others were in stock just that they weren't shipping those. I called Friday late afternoon only to get the message on their phone system that they were closed.

At this point I didn't know if an order was coming or not, but I assumed nothing was coming. Saturday rolled around and nothing came. :)

I called Monday asked them to change my ship date to arive on Good friday since I had the day off and save myself money. In the meantime I got impatient and purchased a blenny and royal grama locally. Well I checked all my parameters on Wednesday night to get ready for the Friday arivals.. Errg.. I had detectable ammonia in my tank.

Thursday I emailed Mark first thing Thursday morning and asked if he could hold my order one more week while I figure out what's wrong. He was fine with it. Which I greatly appreciated..

Well, over this past weekend, I figured out that my salinity was at 1.030. When I had detectable amonia my lightfoot crab had died. (most likely due to the amonia or the salinity...)

Got the crab out, reduced my feeding, and checked again 24 hours later. No detectable amonia. I have my salinity from 1.030 down to 1.027. My fish I still have and are doing fine. I let Mark know yesterday that we are on for Shipping this Friday pending no disasters!!


I asked him about food for the betas and he offered to send some live brine with the betas!!! Which is awesome as I was worried about getting them to transition to frozen food right from the start. Better to get them acclimated with live food for a few days then transition to frozen mysis (thawed).

So, I don't have my order yet, going on 3 weeks since I order, half my fault, and I'm glad I couldn't get them right away because I didn't realize how off my salinity was!!!

In the end I'm very excited to have my Betas incoming this weekend, the Goby hopefully will be friends with my blenny, and I can't want to see the 2 new corals!

All this and I ordered during their free shipping period, which they are still honoring. I just have to pay saturday delivery charge.. So, way awesome!!


I'll post more on the fish and corals once I receive, but, just wanted to get this story out there!!

[TheSurgeon]

Wow, seems like they are taking care of you. Ive ordered with them in various group orders and had great success. Only problem we ever had was when one box got dented in shipment but that wasn't their fault.

Best of luck with the marine bettas. I have one and he is by far the coolest fish I own. Has great personality, and recognizes me as the provider of shrimp.

[travis32]

Awesome Surgeon! "provider of shrimp". I'm hoping for a young enough pair for them to become mated.. I guess we'll see! I think they look to be the coolest and biggest fish one can have safely in a 55g. So, after these, I won't be adding a lot more. 1 or 2 clowns and that's about it for a while. Unless I give in to temptation to get a coral beauty. We'll see a few months or more from now. The betas should satisfy for a while. ;)

I'm glad to hear your beta is doing well. You got him eating mysis?

And I agree, so far Blue zoo has been great to order from. The best thing of all, they haven't charged me for a thing yet.. Then again I haven't received anything yet. Most places would charge at the time of order. Maybe livestock places don't.

[travis32]

Just a quick update:

Received notification from Blue Zoo today, as it was to be my ship date for my betas, and some corals.

Mark saw to my betas personally and fed them last night and this morning to make sure they were feeding and looked healthy. They refused to feed (live food) both times, and bellies were starting to sink in according to Mark.

He believes these two may have a pathogen and wants to quarantine these two and try to find me another pair.

Poor fish. I hope they get better and really appreciate Bluezoo for being up front with me and trying to get me healthy livestock to give me the best chance at succeeding. It may take longer than I like, but, I also realize this hobby requires patience!

So, thanks to Bluezoo for taking care of me. I hope I can return the favor sometime and I know that my livestock will be the best it can be when I get it!

Many kudos and thanks!

[TheSurgeon]

Yeah mine eats mysid and grass shrimp. I swear he also eats pods because there are a lot of times he will flair up and curl around something then eat something off the rock. Or maybe he is just crazy. I also keep a small stock of glass shrimp for showing off to crowds.

If I were you Id put some sort of divider in your tank when they arrive. Let them each claim a territory and let them be able to see each other but not fight(cause some will). Then just let them get used to each other slowly and see how it goes.

[travis32]

I have received them finally! :)

I agree Surgeon I should have put a divider in, they definately seem territorial. I am unable to divide my tank though because I have a rock wall going down the entier length and width of it. I'd have to do some pretty funky division. I may have to trade one of the fish off if they remain to agressive. Might trade him for some tank sitting and dog sitting while I'm on camping vacations. Which, would be well worth it!