KaitieG Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 Hello, I placed my first online fish shipment from AquaHuna a few weeks ago. They delayed shipping because of the weather/post office issues, but they did ship out my order on Sunday night 2/28, per post office recommendations. The package has been sitting un-scanned in the Seattle warehouse since then. It was finally scanned at midnight last night, is still in Seattle, and is not expected to arrive until Monday the 8th. What should I expect? What can I do as I open the packages to cover myself for DOAs? It's not AquaHuna's fault that the post office delayed everything...what's the ethical thing to do in this case? I don't really want to eat $130 I paid for fish, but I hate to pass that on to them when probably a bunch of their shipments were delayed in the same way. I'd love insight from people who have dealt with similar situations before! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 I use my smartphone to photograph everything when it comes and document everything as I open it. I'll be doing that sometime next week when the eight snails I have coming finally get here, assuming Fed-Ex decides to deliver them. My order is from an e-Bay seller and was bagged and readied for shipment on Sunday with a 72 hour heat pack and insulated shipping container. It was sent Fed-Ex two day delivery and was expected to arrive on Tuesday. It sat in Fed-Ex's Boise facility Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before finally being moved on to Memphis later in the day Wednesday which is where the snails are still as I type this. Fed-Ex insists bad weather slowed the shipment. I looked up the weather in Boise and also Memphis and it's been fine. No precip, moderate temps, and no real weather issues of any kind. The snails should be spending their third day in my tank as I type this, instead they're somewhere in Memphis. I'm not optimistic that they'll be alive when they finally do get here. They still have to go to either to the Philly or Delaware Fed-Ex hubs before they end up on a truck to me. They likely won't be delivered on Saturday or Sunday so that makes Monday the most likely day they'll finally get here. That'll be eight days from the time they were bagged. Suffice to say I'm not happy with Fed-Ex right now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben_RF Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 Not sure if it helps or not, but Aqua Huna has excellent customer support. Just make sure to film/photo your opening of the box and going through it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 I agree, Document and video everything. If nothing else you could have a great product review on how great the fish are even after all they had to deal with..... good Luck 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaitieG Posted March 5, 2021 Author Share Posted March 5, 2021 (edited) Ok...so there's probably not a nice way to ask this, but again--never been in this situation before, so just going to ask...how nasty is it likely to be when I open the package? Any idea what to be prepared for there? If anyone is still alive, I assume ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels will be through the roof, so straight into QT tank or follow their acclimating instructions? Anything I should have on hand for helping any surviving fish to recover if any make it? It's an order of hillstream and dwarf chain loaches in case that matters. Edited March 5, 2021 by KaitieG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 (edited) Don't give up hope. I bought some fish from an ebay seller that were lost in transit for 10+days. They were skinny and stressed, but alive--not one DOA. Aqua Huna has an excellent reputation, and knows what they are doing. Hopefully the fish are packaged in such a way that you will be similarly lucky. Edit to add: Have high value frozen food on hand--something they will have trouble resisting. It was hard to get mine to eat at first. I would probably plop and drop, but don't assume they are in high ammonia--if they were fasted before hand, they may be ok. Edited March 5, 2021 by Brandy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaitieG Posted March 5, 2021 Author Share Posted March 5, 2021 3 minutes ago, Brandy said: Don't give up hope. I bought some fish from an ebay seller that were lost in transit for 10+days. They were skinny and stressed, but alive--not one DOA. Aqua Huna has an excellent reputation, and knows what they are doing. Hopefully the fish are packaged in such a way that you will be similarly lucky. Thanks! That's hopeful! When I googled about how long fish could survive in transit I got 2-4 days, which had me feeling pretty hopeless! I'll cross my fingers and send them positive vibes if there's a chance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaitieG Posted March 5, 2021 Author Share Posted March 5, 2021 11 minutes ago, Brandy said: Have high value frozen food on hand--something they will have trouble resisting. It was hard to get mine to eat at first. I would probably plop and drop, but don't assume they are in high ammonia--if they were fasted before hand, they may be ok. Thanks for this too--I always appreciate the helpfulness of your posts! I do have frozen BBS and Daphnia and I've been keeping live BBS hatching every couple of days. I'll start them off with those foods! That's a great suggestion and one I may not have come up with as I've only just started adding frozen and live foods into my food rotation! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 Good luck with your order, and I believe Aqua Huna will take care of you if there are any losses. Also, if it makes you feel better I mailed a pearl gourami to someone last year that was probably 2-1/2" long. It also got delayed in the mail. I don't remember the exact timeline, but it took 6-7 days to arrive, and was fine when it got there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaitieG Posted March 5, 2021 Author Share Posted March 5, 2021 1 minute ago, JettsPapa said: Good luck with your order, and I believe Aqua Huna will take care of you if there are any losses. Also, if it makes you feel better I mailed a pearl gourami to someone last year that was probably 2-1/2" long. It also got delayed in the mail. I don't remember the exact timeline, but it took 6-7 days to arrive, and was fine when it got there. Thanks! I'm so glad I went ahead and asked! I realize there are no guarantees, but at least now I can HOPE they'll be okay when they get here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben_RF Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Any updates? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaitieG Posted March 9, 2021 Author Share Posted March 9, 2021 Yeah--I started another thread sort of. They came yesterday after almost 9 days in mail. All but 1 bag (3 dwarf chain loaches) was alive! The bag that was dead was REEAAAALLLLLYYYYY dead. I posted on here in a different thread about acclimating--the ammonia in the bags was very high and ph very low. My ph is high, and normally I would acclimate more slowly, but I went ahead and netted them and put them in the QT tank. So far everyone's alive and squirming all over. I had a scare this morning. I came down and there were NO dwarf chain loaches! NOT 1! After I turned on the lights, 5 of them popped out from under a rock. I watched for over an hour for the rest (there were about 7 missing). No one showed up. Apparently, they CAN burrow in gravel because they weren't hiding in any of the sparse decorations in the QT tank (I moved them all to look). And they're all there now this afternoon after I got home from work. Now it's just waiting to see if they can stand the stress of moving from 6.4 ph water to 8.2 ph water and making sure they all eat (I haven't seen the hillstream loaches eat yet--I've done Repashy, frozen daphnia, and live BBS). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben_RF Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 Did you reach out to AquaHuna? How did that go? I am really glad things turned out mostly on the positive side Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaitieG Posted March 11, 2021 Author Share Posted March 11, 2021 (edited) Whoops--I should have quoted! Sorry. Edited March 11, 2021 by KaitieG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaitieG Posted March 11, 2021 Author Share Posted March 11, 2021 21 hours ago, Ben_RF said: Did you reach out to AquaHuna? How did that go? I am really glad things turned out mostly on the positive side Sorry it took me so long to respond--I wanted to be able to give you a complete answer! I did reach out to AquaHuna with pictures of the dead fish (2 full fish, 1 piece of a head). They refunded me for 1 order of 4 loaches, so apparently there were 4 in the bag and 1 turned to gunk. It took them less than 12 hours to respond with the refund. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaitieG Posted March 11, 2021 Author Share Posted March 11, 2021 Also, after reviewing the order, now I'm feeling super bad for even contacting them about the dead fish. I originally ordered 3 packs of 4. If I can count right (I do struggle to count fish sometimes! They're so squirmy) there are 11 that are alive. 2 are super skinny, but I have very nearly the number I ordered, so they must have included extras in the shipment. I wasn't trying to cause issues--I honestly didn't remember if I'd ordered 12 or 16 to start with until I just went back and checked now. Anyway, AquaHuna was AWESOME...5 stars! I would definitely order from them again. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben_RF Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 Definnitely right them a great review 🙂 I have had great experiences with them too plus its always good to hear stories of how a company does customer service right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaitieG Posted April 7, 2021 Author Share Posted April 7, 2021 Thought I'd do a quick update while I'm thinking about it--I was just watching one of the hillstreams come out for repashy time and it made me think of the waiting! I ended up losing 1 Hillstream and the skinniest Dwarf Chain loach during quarantine. Everyone else went through great--no issues and they've been in the big display tank now for a couple weeks and seem to be really enjoying themselves. So all told, I ended up with 3 Hillstreams and 10 chain loaches out of my order of 4 Hillstreams and 12 Dwarf Chains. I'm super impressed how well they actually made it through after SO LONG in the VERY COLD mail! I'm really liking the dwarf chain loaches--I used to have ramshorn and bladder snails all over, and now I still have a fair number of ramshorns, but almost all the bladder snails are gone (in this tank...still plenty left in other ones), and the ramshorns stay off the glass--I think they know they're easy pickings for the pack of chain loaches if they venture out too much. I think it's a win-win! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheChosenOne Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 I've noticed that the better condition the fish are in before shipping the longer they can last in the bag. I've had fish arrive in just two days and had several dead from less trustyworthy sellers but I'm always happy with how Aquahuna's fish arrive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now