Pepper Reefer
Community Member
Hi everyone,
After reading a lot of different reviews, posts, discussions over the years about Dr. Reef, I wanted to share my own experiences as a customer.
Tldr; I think that Dr. Reef is a very good vendor, one that you should highly consider buying from. His customer service is superb, and I’m very happy with all of my fish and snails that I’ve purchased from him.
[Unnecessarily Long] Background:
At the very beginning, I planned on quarantining and proactively treating (with copper power, prazipro, metro, tank transfer in-between etc) all of the fish that I would be adding to my tank. I purchased all the supplies needed to QT, all the medications, all the tanks/airstones/HOBs, weeks and weeks of research learning all the diseases and parasites, reading guides, watching videos, identification, best treatment, procuring all the supplies.
However after doing several fish myself, doing 1 per month and seeing all the work/stress that went into it, in my impatience (and stupidity) I bought fish from my LFS and didn’t QT. My tank got prazi resistant flukes, which required me to remove all my inverts and liverock, and run hyposalinity.
It really, really sucked, to say the least. Lol.
My impatience and lack of discipline ended up costing me hundreds and hundreds of dollars and countless hours fixing the problem I myself created.
It is from this mindset that I am coming from talking about buying pre-QT’d fish
It truly is NOT worth it, for the immediate pleasure of getting a fish right away, to have to go through what I went through to get rid of prazi resistant gill flukes. It is no fun.
Only buy QT’d fish (or QT yourself)! Seriously. I will never make this mistake ever again.
It was on reef2reef that I saw an advertisement for Dr. Reef in one of the banners. At the beginning, when I had looked to buy my livestock I had heard of QT vendors, but after seeing the prices they were charging and their lack of guarantees, I had put the idea completely out of my mind - there was no way I could be paying $100+ for a plain vanilla occelaris clownfish or a red firefish goby that might arrive dead. I thought that buying QT’d fish was something that was ‘out of my league’ - something that I wouldn’t be able to afford.
However, after clicking the banner ad on reef2reef, I saw Dr. Reef’s low prices and live guarantee and realized
I have purchased from Dr. Reef:
Red firefish goby, diamond goby, yellow eye kole tang, yellow watchman goby, lawnmower blenny, royal gramma, QT’d tiger conch, and a variety of QT’d snails.
I’m really happy with all of them; it has been really, really nice being able to add them directly to my display with confidence.
I have only been impressed and truly appreciate the hardworking that Dr. Reef and his team do.
I felt obligated to make this post, as I feel like Dr. Reef sometimes gets or has gotten a bad rap here / elsewhere, undeservedly so. When I had been deciding to purchase from Dr. Reef, I did a lot of research on his service beforehand, to make sure he was the guy I wanted to be going to. During that deep dive, I saw some of the drama that had unfolded. I wanted to address some of the things that I have seen written previously, and my own personal experiences to the contrary
Complaint: Dr. Reef had slow response times in emails
My experience: I have NOT experienced this whatsoever, sometimes I’m shocked by how quick his team responds to me lol. I completely understand that if years ago, only one man is handling everything, all the fish, all the emails, all the orders, all the shipping, it would be extremely difficult to handle it all solo - I have ran my own business before, I know how it can be when things are very busy. Dr. Reef hired several people to help him with the different tasks some time back - I have always received fantastic customer service, talking with members of his team, extremely fast and prompt (and friendly!) emails.
Complaint: Dr. Reef unreliable
My experience: I have NOT experienced this whatsoever. Dr. Reef is 100x more reliable than my LFS, than my cable company, than my GP doctor even (lol). I have always received my fish in great condition OR if the fish arrived dead, Dr. Reef has always been extremely generous (and kind) both in promptly talking to me about the loss and sending a replacement, completely for free (including shipping). I have been blown away by the customer service he has shown, where he has covered the costs of a replacement. Any other fish store, vendor, they do NOT act like this - they try and nickel and dime you and squeeze their way out of covering the cost any way that you can. I have heard from friends where they buy from a LFS, the LFS has a “bring your water in to test” guarantee, the fish dies, they bring their water in, and the LFS tests says “Oh your parameters are great - but tough luck!”
Not Dr. Reef - and this is something that I really value, that you can trust who you are buying your fish from. It’s stressful as a buyer to purchase an expensive new fish, and worry that something could happen to it, and that the vendor will give you a hard time in an already stressful and sad situation. I have never had to worry with Dr. Reef, and this gives me great peace of mind. I think that Dr. Reef is extremely reliable, and the vendor that you would want batting for you.
I think that it is a tough business to be in - I think it’s important to ask yourself
>If I were responsible for quarantining SW fish and shipping them nationwide, would I be doing anything different?
I really don’t think there is - there is nothing that I would change. Sometimes fish do not survive overnight shipping - it happens. I don’t blame a vendor for this - there is so much out of their control (especially the hot or cold weather)
You condition the fish the best you can, you pack the boxes the best you can with the best supplies available, and you hope for the best. I think that if you order live animals online through overnight shipping, you should be prepared for some of them not making it. With all this said, this is why I think it’s so important to buy from a vendor that won’t try and nickel and dime you when this inevitably occurs. You want a vendor that you can trust, who will back up what they say with their actions, and make right what has gone wrong. Dr. Reef is this vendor.
I have only ever had positive experiences with Dr. Reef, and I will continue to buy my fish and snails from him, and will continue to recommend my friends to do the same.
If you take nothing else, getting prazi resistant gill flukes in your display is NOT worth it!! Trust me, lol. Only buy QT'd (or QT yourself) fish!!
Thank you Dr. Reef for providing this service of quarantining fish and inverts - it is truly appreciated
After reading a lot of different reviews, posts, discussions over the years about Dr. Reef, I wanted to share my own experiences as a customer.
Tldr; I think that Dr. Reef is a very good vendor, one that you should highly consider buying from. His customer service is superb, and I’m very happy with all of my fish and snails that I’ve purchased from him.
[Unnecessarily Long] Background:
At the very beginning, I planned on quarantining and proactively treating (with copper power, prazipro, metro, tank transfer in-between etc) all of the fish that I would be adding to my tank. I purchased all the supplies needed to QT, all the medications, all the tanks/airstones/HOBs, weeks and weeks of research learning all the diseases and parasites, reading guides, watching videos, identification, best treatment, procuring all the supplies.
However after doing several fish myself, doing 1 per month and seeing all the work/stress that went into it, in my impatience (and stupidity) I bought fish from my LFS and didn’t QT. My tank got prazi resistant flukes, which required me to remove all my inverts and liverock, and run hyposalinity.
It really, really sucked, to say the least. Lol.
My impatience and lack of discipline ended up costing me hundreds and hundreds of dollars and countless hours fixing the problem I myself created.
It is from this mindset that I am coming from talking about buying pre-QT’d fish
It truly is NOT worth it, for the immediate pleasure of getting a fish right away, to have to go through what I went through to get rid of prazi resistant gill flukes. It is no fun.
Only buy QT’d fish (or QT yourself)! Seriously. I will never make this mistake ever again.
It was on reef2reef that I saw an advertisement for Dr. Reef in one of the banners. At the beginning, when I had looked to buy my livestock I had heard of QT vendors, but after seeing the prices they were charging and their lack of guarantees, I had put the idea completely out of my mind - there was no way I could be paying $100+ for a plain vanilla occelaris clownfish or a red firefish goby that might arrive dead. I thought that buying QT’d fish was something that was ‘out of my league’ - something that I wouldn’t be able to afford.
However, after clicking the banner ad on reef2reef, I saw Dr. Reef’s low prices and live guarantee and realized
- I was even more dumb than I thought for not QT’ing the fish from my LFS, when this option existed
- I “wasted” so much time, money, resources, to learn and execute QTs
(I put “wasted” in quotes as the knowledge and experience gained is very helpful, and will be for my whole ‘reef career’!) - That I should be willing to pay more for QT’d fish, after going through my own experiences doing QT myself, and my LFS prazi resistant flukes experience. That it is 100% worth it to buy pre-QT’d
I have purchased from Dr. Reef:
Red firefish goby, diamond goby, yellow eye kole tang, yellow watchman goby, lawnmower blenny, royal gramma, QT’d tiger conch, and a variety of QT’d snails.
I’m really happy with all of them; it has been really, really nice being able to add them directly to my display with confidence.
I have only been impressed and truly appreciate the hardworking that Dr. Reef and his team do.
I felt obligated to make this post, as I feel like Dr. Reef sometimes gets or has gotten a bad rap here / elsewhere, undeservedly so. When I had been deciding to purchase from Dr. Reef, I did a lot of research on his service beforehand, to make sure he was the guy I wanted to be going to. During that deep dive, I saw some of the drama that had unfolded. I wanted to address some of the things that I have seen written previously, and my own personal experiences to the contrary
Complaint: Dr. Reef had slow response times in emails
My experience: I have NOT experienced this whatsoever, sometimes I’m shocked by how quick his team responds to me lol. I completely understand that if years ago, only one man is handling everything, all the fish, all the emails, all the orders, all the shipping, it would be extremely difficult to handle it all solo - I have ran my own business before, I know how it can be when things are very busy. Dr. Reef hired several people to help him with the different tasks some time back - I have always received fantastic customer service, talking with members of his team, extremely fast and prompt (and friendly!) emails.
Complaint: Dr. Reef unreliable
My experience: I have NOT experienced this whatsoever. Dr. Reef is 100x more reliable than my LFS, than my cable company, than my GP doctor even (lol). I have always received my fish in great condition OR if the fish arrived dead, Dr. Reef has always been extremely generous (and kind) both in promptly talking to me about the loss and sending a replacement, completely for free (including shipping). I have been blown away by the customer service he has shown, where he has covered the costs of a replacement. Any other fish store, vendor, they do NOT act like this - they try and nickel and dime you and squeeze their way out of covering the cost any way that you can. I have heard from friends where they buy from a LFS, the LFS has a “bring your water in to test” guarantee, the fish dies, they bring their water in, and the LFS tests says “Oh your parameters are great - but tough luck!”
Not Dr. Reef - and this is something that I really value, that you can trust who you are buying your fish from. It’s stressful as a buyer to purchase an expensive new fish, and worry that something could happen to it, and that the vendor will give you a hard time in an already stressful and sad situation. I have never had to worry with Dr. Reef, and this gives me great peace of mind. I think that Dr. Reef is extremely reliable, and the vendor that you would want batting for you.
I think that it is a tough business to be in - I think it’s important to ask yourself
>If I were responsible for quarantining SW fish and shipping them nationwide, would I be doing anything different?
I really don’t think there is - there is nothing that I would change. Sometimes fish do not survive overnight shipping - it happens. I don’t blame a vendor for this - there is so much out of their control (especially the hot or cold weather)
You condition the fish the best you can, you pack the boxes the best you can with the best supplies available, and you hope for the best. I think that if you order live animals online through overnight shipping, you should be prepared for some of them not making it. With all this said, this is why I think it’s so important to buy from a vendor that won’t try and nickel and dime you when this inevitably occurs. You want a vendor that you can trust, who will back up what they say with their actions, and make right what has gone wrong. Dr. Reef is this vendor.
I have only ever had positive experiences with Dr. Reef, and I will continue to buy my fish and snails from him, and will continue to recommend my friends to do the same.
If you take nothing else, getting prazi resistant gill flukes in your display is NOT worth it!! Trust me, lol. Only buy QT'd (or QT yourself) fish!!
Thank you Dr. Reef for providing this service of quarantining fish and inverts - it is truly appreciated
