Purchasing from Diver's Den

[SteveMSE]

I'm curious if anyone has purchased from Diver's Den recently and what their experience was like. We purchased a fish from Diver's Den a few weeks back and were confident after reading reviews, their processes of quarantining fish and getting them to eat in an aquarium before shipping. I had also read several reviews where they reimbursed not only the price of the fish/inverts that was purchased if they died, but also the cost of shipping if the entire order was lost.

Unfortunately, our experience was not as great as I had hoped. The fish arrived in a comatose and near dead state but came around slowly. I somewhat expected similar but was surprised to see it floating on it's side at the top of the bag. After following their acclimation process to a literal 'T,' I was surprised to see the fish was very skinny. Over the next few days I tried to feed it every type of food I could get my hands on ranging from LRS Reef Frenzy, to pellets, flakes, whole mysis, live pods, and even bloodworms to no avail. The fish never showed any hint of a feeding response. I really wonder if the fish had ever actually been quarantined and fed at the store as it is guaranteed. Needless to say, we lost the fish from starvation after about 7 days and they refunded us only the price of the fish.

I was expecting to do more business through them but I don't know if I can really expect better results in the future.

 

[snorvich]

They do not quarantine and urge users to do so,.

 

[SteveMSE]

Directly from Diver's Den on their acclimation process:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=425

 

[snorvich]

Proper quarantine would increase the price by about double. And what is worse, they run a non-therapeutic level of copper.

 

[GimpyFin]

I've had really good results overall from DD. Although, oddly enough, I have had an instance or two with fish that would not eat (Easy to keep fish.) Their customer service is great and they are pretty good about giving you credit back.

 

[snorvich]

From their website.

 

[SteveMSE]

From their website.

I'm not arguing that it's a good idea to quarantine at home, and the fish was introduced into a quarantine tank. My point is that they tote the Diver's Den fish as quarantined and feeding. They even provide a list of foods that the fish you purchased has been being fed. Which was clearly not the case.

 

[snorvich]

I'm not arguing that it's a good idea to quarantine at home, and the fish was introduced into a quarantine tank. My point is that they tote the Diver's Den fish as quarantined and feeding. They even provide a list of foods that the fish you purchased has been being fed. Which was clearly not the case.

Trust no one but your self to quarantine. There have been lots of examples of fish coming in from them with velvet, ich, uronema. Five weeks minimum.

 

[snorvich]

Don't get me wrong, they are the only place I purchase from.

 

[oflaherty21]

I've had pretty good success with DD. I ordered my original clean up crew and a few fish from them. Everything was healthy except a shrimp that died and they gave me credit no questions asked.

 

[Bent]

I do agree that the description on these animals is false. They say "fully quarantined and eating a mix of _____ and ____."

That's an all out lie. They even had that same thing in the description of a blue ribbon eel a while back.

 

[Dmorty217]

I don't understand what the issue is here... They give you your money back if something dies within 2 weeks. Yes what you got came in poorly and like Steve mentioned you still need to QT what you get from them. It's only smart to anyway since you more than likely have significantly more money in your DT livestock than you do in the fish you're purchasing. DD fish are conditioned, not QTed. They are however treated for things that's show themselves when in their care. Copper is run though, and that will only mask disease if the fish has been in the system for less than 30 days. Depending on the dose of copper it may not effectively treat disease anyway

 

[moatdaddy]

Lol here comes the reef central law firm. This thread will be swept into the sponsor review section shortly.

 

[CStrickland]

What kind of fish was it?

 

[MondoBongo]

I do agree that the description on these animals is false. They say "fully quarantined and eating a mix of _____ and ____."

That's an all out lie. They even had that same thing in the description of a blue ribbon eel a while back.

i've had two orders from DD in the past few years, one was a clam, the other was my pair of OSFF. the clam sadly didn't make it, but they reimbursed me the cost of the animal (minus shipping which makes sense) with no hassle.

the OSFF pair came in looking incredibly healthy, well fed, and ate what they told me they ate (hikari myses in this case).

so for my part, i've had good experiences with them.

i can understand the OPs confusion and frustration though. they can seem to have some conflicting information on their site in regards to what really constitutes "quarantine".

Lol here comes the reef central law firm. This thread will be swept into the sponsor review section shortly.

i'm confused, wouldn't that be the correct place for it? is that a bad thing?

 

[hkgar]

Bad acclimation!

Here is S8tr's thread on bag death and proper acclimation.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1959576&highlight=acclimation

 

[Dmorty217]

Lol here comes the reef central law firm. This thread will be swept into the sponsor review section shortly.

I think I maybe take offense to this comment. I have as much to do with reef central as you or anyone else that's commented here besides Steve. This is the second thread in a couple months that the OP claims something is a miss with DD, when in fact it's due to end user error in acclimation of fish. Even with all that, they received a refund...

 

[hkgar]

I have 19 fish in my tank and they all came from LA or DD.

Yes I have had a couple that I lost - wrasses, but always got credits or refunds no questions asked.

No more problems with Wrasses not making it after I read the thread I posted above about acclimation.

I also do TTM with Prazi Pro, and then QT for another 3-4 weeks

 

[water is wet]

And just because it won't eat anything now does NOT mean it wasn't eating in their care. Seems silly to think otherwise.

 

[Ou8me2]

No matter how long a place claims to QT fish or corals. You should always do your own QT. I have a QT for Fish and QT for Corals. I QT for 6-8 weeks. You don't need some extravagant tank,lights or filtration for a QT tank.
Yes, it's a added expense, but what happens if you add 1 fish to say your 5-6+ fish DT and it has an illness and kills all the fish? How much have you just lost $$ wise?