I believe the way MDL works is that they don't actually keep a lot of livestock on their premises - they compile a list of what people want, and every morning they go out to their wholesalers by LAX to cherry-pick the best examples. For the more common items, it's almost a sure thing that one of the distributors will have it. For less common items that have short shelf lives at the wholesalers, it can be a little less straightforward. When I ordered the Goldflake, I had to call the day before it would be shipped to tell them what I wanted, and then I had to check back with them the following morning to see if they had snagged one, so I would know whether to expect a fish the next day. I had to try a few times before we got one. For those unusual specimens, they never know until they see what you're looking for, and then they have to ship it that day or you risk having the wholesaler sell it to someone else.
MDL normally uses UPS, and they have a $16 surcharge for Saturday delivery to a residence or business. I usually prefer to have my live shipments held at the shipping station, to avoid having them bounced around in the back of a truck all morning, but I believe the UPS stations around here are closed for pickup on Saturday. So we could eat the $16 surcharge to have the shipment dropped at my house, or if we switch to a weekday delivery I could pick it up at the station. The former makes me nervous with the cold temperatures we've been having, but the latter might simply not be an option if we can't find a weekday morning when everyone can come by my house.
Unfortunately, I don't have the tank space to hold everyone's items - all I have for quarantine is a single 20-gallon tank. I'm pretty sure I don't like the idea of putting Yellowboyviet's undulate trigger and fishboy42's neon goby in the same tank for holding! So everyone would need to come pick up their shipments within a relative narrow time window. If we did this on a weekday, we could even meet at the UPS station at TYS, just to avoid them having to take an extra car ride.
MDL does have a stay-alive guarantee - I think it's three days. Check their website for the details. Of course, if the shipment is in my name, I'll be the one who has to make any claims with them if something dies. I don't mind doing this if need be. Obviously, if for some reason MDL turns down the claim, I would not want to be liable for the loss - that's between you and MDL, with me just acting as spokesperson for our group. They might ask you to send them a water sample.
I can't do a delivery on the 3rd Saturday of March, unfortunately, because I'll be on travel then. I'll also be gone the 2nd Saturday of March. I could do Saturday, March 4th if we have our act together in time, although my request to pick up the livestock as soon as it gets delivered would be doubly important that day because we're having company and I can't be tied down to the house all day (your fish won't want to sit in their bags all day anyway!). Right now it looks like I could do a UPS station pick-up on the morning of Friday the 3rd, but everyone would have to be available on that weekday for that to work. The fourth Saturday of March (3/25) also works for me right now.
How does all this sound to everyone? Is a weekday morning pickup even an option for everyone?
Jeff (vol_reefer)
I would like to have a smallish tang to float around picking at tiny bits of green hair algae that is overgrowing my glass. And, of course, to fill the water space with some motion other than at feeding time.
