First Impressions: First BlueZoo order

[Arc Katana]

So I just got my order in (Fish in Acclimation now). Very impressed with the shipping/packing. Crossing fingers everyone makes it.

Five of the six seem to be OK - the last one is struggling a bit. Haven't looked to closely at them as they are in acclimation. I'll update thread tonight when I get home from work and the next couple of days.

 

[Arc Katana]

So update tonight at 10:15pm Central time.

Two of the six are dead, the other four are discolored, but swimming around.

Hoping they pull through the night. Damsels are pretty tough customers, so crossing fingers. Email sent with dead fish to customerservice@bluezooaquatics.com, hoping to hear back from them tomorrow.

Edit:

I'm on a couple other boards as well, and have threads there documenting it. I've wanted these fish for years and never found groups before. Hoping it wasn't all in vain.

Marine Breeding Initiative: http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/tm.aspx?high=&m=96065&mpage=1#96073
Twin Cities Marine Aquarium Society: http://www.tcmas.org/v4/forums/showthread.php?60199-The-Starki-s-have-landed

 

[Arc Katana]

2:45pm Central Time Update

Home for lunch and the other four are still swimming. Picking at some food (Rod's Food fish eggs) so that's good. Looks like all four have bacterial infections (discolored yellow, starting to see some red spotching on fins). Ordered Maracyn 1/2 from Amazon last night, getting here tomorrow.

No response to email, but it's been 12ish hours, and guessing I won't hear anything until Monday as most fish places are closed on Friday.

 

[Arc Katana]

Got two emails from BlueZoo last night, so looking like I'll be getting credit back from them for the two that didn't make it. Very nice to get it, considering the late time (Saturday evening).

Other four seem to be hanging in there, I'll be treating to day with Maracyn 1 and 2 once it comes in from Amazon.

I QT everything, and a this is good refresher on keeping meds on hand while getting fish in. I'll update Monday the 31st with any new info.

Have a good weekend.

 

[shifty51008]

Beautiful fish, hope the other 4 pull through.

How would you rate these guys for aggression?

 

[Arc Katana]

Not terrible - but then again they are in a 50G QT tank. There is certainly a picking order, but I've yet to see the biggest one constantly chase another one. Usually they tend to be on the more peaceful side (as much as damsels can be peaceful).

Still have meds in the water, and I'll do a couple series of 10% water changes over the next two days before dosing again. Everyone is swimming and eating, so that's good.

 

[BlueZooAquatics]

Thanks for the updates. Just so you know, we do keep them segregated here in the warehouse because they will be very aggressive towards each other if kept together. You are correct that there needs to be a hierarchy established and the ones on the bottom of the pecking order tend to get damaged very quickly. After the pecking order is established, aggression usually subsides. Hope that helps.

 

[Arc Katana]

Everyone is getting along and eating pretty well. Going to be running through some big water changes to get the meds out, then another dose of Maracyn just to be sure. Crossing fingers, but it is looking like the last four are through the hard part now. Coloration is getting much better.

Pic of them eating, water is greenish/blue from meds (Fourth one is down to the left, just out of shot):

 

[BlueZooAquatics]

Lookin good.

Thanks for the picture. We love to see our animals thriving. Take care.

 

[Arc Katana]

So the fourth one (out of the picture above) wasn't as bold as the others, found him this morning bobbing at the surface.

So the final tally is three out of six made it. Damsels should have a better survival rate than this, but small sample size doesn't prove anything.

Other three should make it - they are almost eating out of my fingers at this point.

Sending another email to BlueZoo to see if credit has been applied to my account yet, as I'm tempted to get a few more before seeing if it was a fluke or not. In my favor is the seven day guarantee ends today, so I should be getting credit for them all.

 

[Arc Katana]

Tomorrow is a full week. Haven't heard back from email I sent with third dead one. Still haven't seen a credit.

 

[Arc Katana]

Got an email the other day from Bluezoo with the credit code. All said and done about a week from when I got the fish in. Placing an order with the credit, depending on how it comes in will be my review. So far email communication has been decent, so no real complaints there.

 

[reefaluva]

I ordered 8 damsels, a leopard wrasse, royal gramma and 2 anthias. 2 anthias and 2 damsels made it alive that was it. Got refund but mortality rate seems really high with blue zoo nowadays.

 

[maddhugan]

water/oxygen ratio

water/oxygen ratio

I ordered 8 damsels, a leopard wrasse, royal gramma and 2 anthias. 2 anthias and 2 damsels made it alive that was it. Got refund but mortality rate seems really high with blue zoo nowadays.

In General I noticed that the fish were packed with very less amount of water and remaining volume of the bag is filled with oxygen. The solubility of O2 in saltwater is less than 20mg/l and if they have very less water, then very low amount of oxygen availability is inevitable. Even if you assume very good diffusion of gaseous oxygen into liquid water(this is a two phase diffusion, i.e., from gas to liquid), the amount of water in the bag becomes the limiting factor. Also, one has to take into account of the ammonia release in the shipping bag by fish during the shipping, and its effect on the oxygen diffusion into the water.

Here is what I saw, I ordered 4 Pajama Cardinals, for some reason 2 of them were shipped in two very small bags with very little water and they came DOA while in the same shipment 2 other pajama cardinals were in two medium sized bag that had a bit more water than the small bags and they lived through the shipment (they are still happy in my tank).
Does the Bluezooaquatics USE a software program that calculates the amount of water for specific species in a size class? If so that program is not doing a good job. These sort of programs may be used in an effort to save shipping expenses but one should make sure that the program is written based on empirical data rather than a guesstimate. Even after my several requests to add more water in the next shipment, the next shipment also came with very less amount of water and inevitably DOA.

In essence, Bluezooaquatics weakness is the amount of water they use during the shipment, and that's why we all see so much DOA with them. For some reason they are not paying attention to the customer input.

They should do a study by shipping the same species in bags that has incremental increase in water, for example they should ship pajama cardinals in the same shipping box but individual bags inside containing incremental increase in water, i.e., first bag should have 175ml, second one should have 200ml and so on until let's say the last bag should have 700 ml and each bag should have a pajama cardinal(approximately same sized fish in all bags). The receiver should measure the water parameters such as ORP, ammonia etc.........
Aslo record the bags that have the DOA's
Then you will know what the customers like me are talking about.

I understand sick fish coming DOA, but some healthy looking fish also comes DOA and some healthy looking ones die within a week after arrival and several ppl had already complained about this in several forums. DOA due to low amount of water is preventable and paying attention to customers' input is very important. BZ should do a study before blindly shipping fish with very low amount of water. Let me be the receiver of the fish and you be the shipper for this study...................