Do Not Buy From The Cichlidstore.com

So we all had issues before with fish dying and what not when we started in the hobby and when we bought fish from chain stores when we didn't know better. Here is my recent experience. Before someone says anything about ammonia and shipping I do this as a side job so I know how to do it to the point that I sent some whiptails cats express mail in Sep 21st and the person never picked them up. So exactly on Oct 21st my doorbell rings and found the box I sent to the person a month earlier. I said well I re-use the box and packing materials but when I opened the box 5 out of 12 whiptail catfish were still alive and I still have them. So you tell me if my fish are well taking care of and I know how to ship. Anyways below the story that took place this week.

So took advantage of Black Friday sale 50% off in all fish. I ordered 33 fish. Took priority shipping because I'm in state. Shipping was $47.60 I said that is average for the amount of fish. that's Ok. Order placed on Friday. So I emailed and called several times with no response until Monday with a tracking number that never worked. Got the fish and first I noticed the box is small for the amount of fish. Ok. I opened and found no heat pack and all fish bagged individually in bags the size of pool table balls with the exception of 2 bags normal ones. The fish are bleeding all over the fins, one is laying on it's side and none are labeled. At 1" peacocks, haps females all looked almost alike. Strike 1. Then fish started dying on me within an hour I lost 3 fish. Contacted the guy and helps a bit with the sorting and tells me to check my water. I got more fish using the same water and they are in breeding mode so is not that. I took readings anyways and mine are great the bag water is like 3 to 4ppm ammonia and no nitrates. Strike 2. Then wake up and checked the fish and I lost 10 overnight. Then I checked the box and the label from the post office says $15.45 shipping cost. WHAT? Oh yes charged 3 times the cost. I messaged him and tells me that he don't live in the Post office and his time is valuable. That he will give me a credit if I pay shipping, for what to get sick fish and overcharge for S/H NO WAY. Strike 3. I have a few connections and before I buy anything I call and check the business ratings to my surprise the cichlidstore was still under the old owners name not the person that owns it now for more than 2 years now. When I mention this to the guy he stopped completely messaging me or calling because at this point he was harassing me with calls saying that I didn't know nothing about the business and that I didn't know fish.

Totally disappointed with this buy and not recommending it to nobody. Do yourself a favor and don't waste your money there. His reviews on other forums are great but these are people that don't know better. Extreme hobbyist like us here know what is best. So I checked one of my phones and I have a voicemail from someone in my area interested in getting some fish food and interested in getting some ruby reds so I called her and the conversation took us to that also got fish from Cichlidstore.com and that She paid airport to airport fee which was over $100 according to her package that said it was over 45lbs(according to the website cichlidstore.com) so She got her fish and the box is small and the label said 19lbs. So She got charged probably 4 to 5 times the rate for her shipping.
Now do you guys think this is fair?

 

That's all wrong!!! They making big time money and getting away with it.

 

Rip off!

 

wow, that is horrible!

 

Big rip off.Thanks for the info.Thought about ordering from there,not no more.

 

Those poor poor fish! I hope your able to keep the rest alive...they desurve a good home been through way too much

 

That's terrible! Its so disappointing to have an experience like that. I'm sorry for your fish losses and that you had to waste you money. I will definitely never order from them. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

Hello Navy,

Thanks for the heads up!

Ken

 

Well this is what is still alive:
Rhino Pleco
Synodontis Eurptus
X. Kyoga Flamebacks x 3 but they have tail rot
Bolivian Rams x 4 but look like with Septicemia
P. Phenochilus x 6 ok so far
O. Lithobates x 6 ok so far
N. BrichardI x 2 ok so far
H. Dayglow x 3 but looked way too stress.
All fish had being dosed with clout, tetracycline and will be using Pimafix next week.
I have put reviews of this incident in various forums to spread the word and Facebook and Tweeter by one of the admin members from a forum. The seller is fighting back my review on Cichlid forum but we'll see.

 

I just want to be the devils adcovate here but do you really think over charging for shipping is really that bad. So if shipping was really only $20 what about handling, this is also something that goes into selling online. Someone had to be paid to take care of your order catch all the fish, package the fish, drop them off at the post office. So depending on the states min wage they probably had to pay $8 an hour or so for the labor then the gas to drive to the post office was probably another $5 or so. So there is $13 more to be added onto the s/h cost. So now you're at about $23. What about the cost of bags and styros? Sounds just about like they charged you what IMO is fair to cover their costs. Shipping and handling costs isn't just actual shipping costs.

Okay then onto the water. You should keep in mind that ANY fish being in a bag for more than idk 20 min or so will show ammonia. So shipping fish yes you should expect ammonia, fish do poop in the bag and there is nothing to filter it out, no bacteria, or anything. So I don't see what the complaint is about the water. I can go buy a fish from the store I work at and test the actual tank I got the fish from's water and it be perfect and by the time I get the fish home the water in the bag will have some sort of reading.

Oh and I just looked it up and the company is also from florida so I can see why they wouldn't use heatpacks.

Then I'm not exactly sure what the first complaint is about I don't really know cichlids that well. I wasn't trying to stand up for them but sometimes things happen, adding 33 fish to any tank at once is WAY too many IMO. Especially since I'm assuming this is the 100 gallon tank which means that you added about half the total stock this tank could handle probably more which should cause your tank water to have something other than a perfect reading I could be wrong but I doubt it so blaming the store and slamming their name and reputation doesn't seem right when you really can't be 100% sure of what happened. I really don't think you can blame the store and slander their name over an incedent that you really can't prove the everything. If they had been bleeding from their gills a photo of each fish should have been taken and the owner should have refunded your money. It shouldn't be this long drawn out he said she said over forums.

But again just my opinion.

 

E_watson I also ship fish. There are products that remove ammonia that many shippers use, such as Prime.

Bags the size of pool balls? Possibly the fish died of oxygen deprivation? That seems like way too small of an amount of water\air.

This method of shipping seems very unsafe. Maybe they could get away with it for overnight shipping, but 2-3 day Priority mail?!

$47 is outrageous. Businesses do tend to be a lot more expensive though. I can't really argue with the paying an employee part, but it could be that this guy does everything himself.. ( I don't know how big this organization is..). The costs of styro and bags is very minimal. Bags are a few cents and styro is maybe $1 or less for a small box..

 

I just want to be the devils adcovate here but do you really think over charging for shipping is really that bad. So if shipping was really only $20 what about handling, this is also something that goes into selling online. Someone had to be paid to take care of your order catch all the fish, package the fish, drop them off at the post office. So depending on the states min wage they probably had to pay $8 an hour or so for the labor then the gas to drive to the post office was probably another $5 or so. So there is $13 more to be added onto the s/h cost. So now you're at about $23. What about the cost of bags and styros? Sounds just about like they charged you what IMO is fair to cover their costs. Shipping and handling costs isn't just actual shipping costs.

Okay then onto the water. You should keep in mind that ANY fish being in a bag for more than idk 20 min or so will show ammonia. So shipping fish yes you should expect ammonia, fish do poop in the bag and there is nothing to filter it out, no bacteria, or anything. So I don't see what the complaint is about the water. I can go buy a fish from the store I work at and test the actual tank I got the fish from's water and it be perfect and by the time I get the fish home the water in the bag will have some sort of reading.

Oh and I just looked it up and the company is also from florida so I can see why they wouldn't use heatpacks.

Then I'm not exactly sure what the first complaint is about I don't really know cichlids that well. I wasn't trying to stand up for them but sometimes things happen, adding 33 fish to any tank at once is WAY too many IMO. Especially since I'm assuming this is the 100 gallon tank which means that you added about half the total stock this tank could handle probably more which should cause your tank water to have something other than a perfect reading I could be wrong but I doubt it so blaming the store and slamming their name and reputation doesn't seem right when you really can't be 100% sure of what happened. I really don't think you can blame the store and slander their name over an incedent that you really can't prove the everything. If they had been bleeding from their gills a photo of each fish should have been taken and the owner should have refunded your money. It shouldn't be this long drawn out he said she said over forums.

But again just my opinion.

Okay. In response from the beginning. Edwin doesn't pay anyone. He bought someones business and works alone in his spare time outside of being a firefighter. (We have had numerous communications with him) He paid $15 to ship them to us. I could see him charging us $25 or even $30 to cover his time and supplies. However, $47 is more than 3 times what he paid and that is ridiculous.

We ship fish all the time and it is routine (and was requested in our order) for fish to be quarantined and not fed for at least two days to minimize or eliminate ammonia output. Anyone who knows anything about bagging fish knows that you have to do this if you are going to have fish survive more than a few hours for transport. In two days, if they are properly prepared to be shipped, and shipped in bags with the appropriate amount of water/air/oxygen there will be a small reading of ammonia but not 4ppm. That is very close to lethal levels for many fish.

As for the tank... you may "doubt" you are wrong, but you are. I breed fish and have large breeding set-ups ready for fish that I order. They went into a total of 200 + gallons of already cycled tanks. Photos were taken of each sick fish, which were most of them. His policy is to offer a credit towards next purchase. WHY would I pay him shipping again to ship me more sick fish? No thank you. They arrived unlabeled, many affected with hemorrhagic septicemia and tail rot. I really don't care if you work in a fish store but you might want to question before you say something. If I were not knowledgeable I would not be "slamming his reputation" but rather questioning what I had done wrong.

His website GUARANTEES healthy, high quality fish... he even uses the word partnership... but then he sends out fish that arrive sick and dying.

As for being in FL and therefore not shipping with a heat pack, during that time we had multiple nights around 40 degrees, with forecasts of 37. If temperatures are below 60 degrees most respectable breeders will not ship their fish without at LEAST a 48 hr heat pack if not 72 hr in case of delivery delay.

I believe that you are the one making it long and drawn out... I merely shared my experience to help my friends and acquaintances save their money and time. You can take it for what it is.

E_watson I also ship fish. There are products that remove ammonia that many shippers use, such as Prime.

Bags the size of pool balls? Possibly the fish died of oxygen deprivation? That seems like way too small of an amount of water\air.

This method of shipping seems very unsafe. Maybe they could get away with it for overnight shipping, but 2-3 day Priority mail?!

$47 is outrageous. Businesses do tend to be a lot more expensive though. I can't really argue with the paying an employee part, but it could be that this guy does everything himself.. ( I don't know how big this organization is..). The costs of styro and bags is very minimal. Bags are a few cents and styro is maybe $1 or less for a small box..

Exactly fbn. I charge people the exact cost of shipping. I charge enough for the fish themselves to cover shipping supplies, etc. while keeping costs as low as possible. I QT fish for 3 days without feeding for anything not going out overnight, 1 day for anything going out overnight. I bag them with enough water, enough air, bag buddies, and Prime (50% of the water is tank, 50% is R/O) that they should be able to survive easily for 3 to 4 days, but have had fish live for a full month to be returned to the door alive. I would NEVER send someone a fish that there was any question as to their health. When you live off of your reputation you have to care about your customers as more than a profit.

 

There really is no need to be rude, I understand you are upset with him but just because I give someone the benefit of the doubt does not really mean you should be slamming me over it. Yes I'm sure things could have been handled differently on both ends. His shipping may not have been perfect but then on the contrary you are also being pretty immature going around slamming him and anyone who questions anything.

Also to the prime point. Prime takes ammonia out of water at that point in time I do not believe it still works a day after. If I'm not mistaken it takes chlorine and such out at one time, if not you wouldn't have to redose it each time you add water to the tank since some would already be in there.

Just for the heck of it and since I happened to buy fish today from the store I work at I now have them home and floating. Alright so I have 9 rasbora hets and 2 guppies in a large fish bag. I live 5 min from the store. So I now have them floating and I filled one of the little test tubes from my kit measuring everything just right. Added the ammonia solutions and it is testing in between 0.25 and 0.50ppm.....craziest thing. The fish have only been in the bag maybe 30 min at most, now imagine if they were in there for longer. Oh and keep in mind I tested the tank I got the fish from earlier today and it had a reading of 0ppm ammonia.

Just because you may do something one way doesn't mean everyone is going to do it that way or does it mean your way is the right way. If he really did give that little water and such yes I could see your concern but I think you're throwing everything out of proportion to be honest.

And your comment saying "If I were not knowledgeable I would not be "slamming his reputation" but rather questioning what I had done wrong." Knowledgeable people generally are calm and think about ALL of the possibilities and try to work with the company to work something out versus making threads on multiple forums and anywhere you can think of trying to show everyone how terrible this guy is. Do you know if things like this happen to everyone? Now if you weren't completely slamming every little think when sometimes some things may not be his fault or like shipping for instance YOU agreed to it and if you are so knowledgeable about shipping fish then you probably should know about how much shipping would run.

 

I have ordered fish from many members and a few online places. Riv Is one of them, I can tell you from personal experience he is one of the best packaging jobs I've dealt with. My fish was very active in the bag, which is somthings always worth noting.

Bottom line is the owner doesn't care to do what he said and should be punished for it, whether its slamming them online or boycotts. In my line of buisness if I don't stand by my companies policies and deliver the value in the service not only do I lose my job bit the company could potentially loose hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. So I totally am with Riv on this one.

 

Good morning,

Navy, thank you for sharing your experience and your review. I wish it could have been a better one for you and the fish.

Thread closed.

Ken