Dr. Reef
www.drreefsquarantinedfish.com
Hello fellow reefers
My name is Mike (dr. reef), I am located in Tulsa Oklahoma.
I started keeping fish at very early age, starting with freshwater then moving on to saltwater. Soon after i got into saltwater i realized diseases and problems that existed in them. As a medical school student i got more interested in knowing what all these diseases were and how i could cure them.
Google was not even born then and internet was still in dialup and dsl stages. So i read a lot of books and somewhat material that was available online. Most of my medication practices came from general knowledge that i learned in medical school. I started trying everything i had heard of and known to help. Some medicines were just heard of and no experiments had been conducted. After many trials and error i came up with the protocol i use on my QT fish now.
I do this for fun, I have my own business that keep me busy and food on the table, This is a hobby that turned into a small garage business. At first i was selling cured fish to local hobbyist in Tulsa area. Then a couple of store owners, where i frequented, started to send me their sick fish to help cure and revive. That turned into more people knowing about me and thus i started getting requests and fish from all over Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Texas. People from all these neighboring states started bringing or shipping their fish to me. I did that for about 15 yrs and then i ran into a person that was doing as well on larger scale than me and helped me setup few accounts at different wholesalers. He semi retired leaving all his clients and followers to me. That gave me a lot of new clients and expanded my services from local to US wide.
Now i am shipping fish to all 50 states, Hawaii included (just waiting on my permit to come back), Canada and few other international countries.
With R2R giving me an exposure to all off you, I am sure it will bring a lot more people to me and help promote healthy livestock.
As i mentioned i sell out of my house for now. I converted my garage into a full qt setup.
I get my qt tanks custom made from Concept Aquariums in Calgary Canada. These tanks have removable dividers for me to accommodate small to large fish.
Excuse my mess in some of the pics. Sometimes time runs short and i wish there were more than 24 hrs in a day. Following are a few pics of the setup as it was growing up in time, From few small qt tanks to many and scattered all over the place.
There are few more tanks that i had to setup away from my normal med tanks. There are mostly invert tanks or high risk for airborne diseases. To keep them separate, I setup some tanks inside the house, Removing my gym and placing tanks all over in that area.
A few pics of the box that I use. This is my most common size, 11x11x11. It holds about 4-6 small to medium size fish. I have done very extensive testing on these boxes.
During winter, I put a 72 hr heat pack which keeps the temp inside the box/water at 78F - 80F for the whole duration of shipment.
I normally pack my boxes late in the evening, I have a special arrangement with FEDEX and UPS both, here at Tulsa Airport, to drop my boxes off as late as 10pm. I can start packing order about 7pm or so and by 10pm i can have 6-10 orders packed and ready to go.
I use heavy duty bags for shipping fish, These bags are filled with new saltwater then fish and then pump pure oxygen and hog tie them with a aluminum ring. I double to triple the bags so they dont burst or leak. Final bag is heat sealed so in case hog tie aluminum rings fails, water and fish still remain sealed in the final layer.
In summer I like to ship them to a hub instead so they are not sitting in the back of the truck riding around all over your city. Heat packs work well and stay warm pretty consistently and for long duration of time. While in summer i have to use cold packs and so far gel cold packs are the ones i have tested to be the best.
They stay cold and drop temp inside the box for upto 14 hours with ambient temp not to hot.
Following chart shows when i packed the fish temp inside the box was 76F on all boxes. I used 3 boxes. 1 with no cold pack, 2 with 1 cold pack and 3rd with 2 cold packs.
Ambient temp was 89F which dropped to 67F and back upto 88F over the course of 24 hrs.
Note: i bag and ship fish at night when heat is not a factor even in the most hot times of the year. With 89F ambient temp, these boxes were left out in the sun exposed on my back patio. Even the box with no cold pack remained within temp for 14 hrs before increasing slightly and took almost 24 hrs to catch up with ambient temp.
My shipping time is only 12 to 16 hours from packing to delivery and in most normal cases 14 hrs door to door.
Also this test is on the harsh side as boxes are not left out in the sun all day, they are in warehouses and vans/trucks and planes where temp is 15-20 degree less than ambient.
I dont want to bore you with all these testing data, So lets talk about medicine and my qt protocol and where an how i buy the fish.
I have access to 8 wholesalers in USA and 3 importers (Bali, Indonesia, Philippines) and 1 diver in Hawaii. I can pretty much get any fish you may request. Although the times are not normal and we live in some crazy times i never thought i would see. Due to covit19 there are many problems and issues. First there was a ban on livestock completely which now is reduced down to few countries. Some wholesalers were closed during the pandemic. Supplies are getting better but still not upto the level where all livestock is available. Also due to these uncertain times the prices seem to be fluctuating. Some fish cost double to triple the amount they used to.
Once i get my shipments in, I physically inspect all fish for any visual sign of stress or disease. Almost 99% of the time i do not find any problems or issues. Most wholesalers are pretty good at keeping their livestock safe from major diseases making my work even easier. I start seeing issues and problems at retail level and most likely never on wholesale side.
After inspection, i immediately do a freshwater bath followed by a formalin bath (for some species that carry uronema) followed by a prazipro and metrozidole bath.
Them they go into teir respective tanks. These holding tanks are already at 1ppm cooper or 20mg Choloroquine phosphate depending on which fish is tolerant to either or. Over the next day or 2 i slow drip bringing the medicine to therapeutic levels. They stay in these levels for 14 days. Then i do a massive water change and using carbon, rid cp or copper altogether.
For next 14 days they stay in observation tanks with prazipro and metrozidole to take care of internal and external parasite. During all the time they are in my care, all fish are fed frozen mysis and brine 50/50 mixture along with metro,fenbendazole and focus mixed in food.
After their treatments i move them to retail tanks from where they ship out as soon as they are sold.
Some FAQs;
How do i place an order?
Please email me your wish list at [email protected] or use contact form on my website.
How do i pay?
I send you an invoice after i have located your fish, Invoice has a total amount and a minimum amount. That min. amount is your deposit required to hold that fish in your name. Remaining balance can be paid in payments or in full as per your choice as long as balance is 0 before shipping.
Deposit! what if fish dies in qt?
No worries, your deposit guarantees you your fish. If fish dies in my care, i start over again. Normally i order double to triple the fish one requests as a back up and assurance policy. If all make it through qt, back up fish goto sale on my website.
How long before i get my fish?
If i already have your fish in stock then not so long but if i have to find it and qt it then 30-45 days. I am redoing my setup and adding more tanks to where i will carry most common fast moving fish qt;ed all the time in stock so when order comes i should be able to ship it out next day or at least withing a few days.
Guarantee?
I guarantee live arrival only, In some cases i do cover fish for longer period of time.
I cant guarantee my qt protocol as no procedure is 100% safe. Also we treat for very major common diseases. There could be many variables that are at play which can effect health of your livestock. Prime example i have seen, clients added chaeto or frags or rocks from a non qted/cured source and brought some nasty into their tank.
DOA?
In case of DOA, We can do one of the following:
1. Issue refund for the DOA.
or
2. Send free replacement on next order.
or
3. Send free replacement alone if you pay shipping.
What do you feed your fish?
I feed frozen mysis and brine mix 50/50
What salinity do you ship at?
Unfortunately thats an odd one, When i receive my fish they normally are at 1.018. So i keep my incoming tanks at 1.018, For the first 14 days in cp or copper they remain at 1.018. then when i move them to observation tank, i do not use ato so with evaporation salinity start to increase. At the time near shipping they can be in 1.023-1.025 range. I ship in brand new freshly mixed saltwater aged 24 hrs.
Difference between Qt'ed Fish vs Conditioned?
Fully qt;ed fish have gone through all the procedures and treatments mentioned above and are safe to go into clients tanks. While conditioned fish are for people that dont want fully qt'ed fish or they have their own qt or simply dont qt at all and they can take advantage of cheaper cost livestock. On conditioned fish i can beat any online retailers price pretty much.
How do i qt my inverts?
I apply tank transfer method on inverts. For first 15 days they go through TTM every 3 days, Then i place them in sterile tanks for observation for next 15 days. these invert tanks are completely fishless and only carry snails and shrimp.
When do you ship?
I ship on Tuesdays 99% of the time. Its my day off from my other businesses, Plus Fedex and Ups only cover my shipments if shipped on Tues or Wed and shipped to hub due to covit delays.
What is shipping cost?
For most common size box which can carry 4-6 small to medium sized fish, rates are $65-70, step up would be medium box that can carry 6-9 medium size fish $70-75 and then a large box which can fit 12-14 fish can run about $80-100
Is shipping free at certain amount?
Unfortunately not at this point. I am not a big retailer and only a small time garage vendor so i do not have the good low rates from fedex or ups. Once i do show them high volume they do promise to reduce rates, at that point i will be more than happy to offer something.
Best way to contact?
Please contact me via contact form on my website www.drreesquarantinedfish.com or direct email to [email protected] or call/text at 918-964-3333
My name is Mike (dr. reef), I am located in Tulsa Oklahoma.
I started keeping fish at very early age, starting with freshwater then moving on to saltwater. Soon after i got into saltwater i realized diseases and problems that existed in them. As a medical school student i got more interested in knowing what all these diseases were and how i could cure them.
Google was not even born then and internet was still in dialup and dsl stages. So i read a lot of books and somewhat material that was available online. Most of my medication practices came from general knowledge that i learned in medical school. I started trying everything i had heard of and known to help. Some medicines were just heard of and no experiments had been conducted. After many trials and error i came up with the protocol i use on my QT fish now.
I do this for fun, I have my own business that keep me busy and food on the table, This is a hobby that turned into a small garage business. At first i was selling cured fish to local hobbyist in Tulsa area. Then a couple of store owners, where i frequented, started to send me their sick fish to help cure and revive. That turned into more people knowing about me and thus i started getting requests and fish from all over Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Texas. People from all these neighboring states started bringing or shipping their fish to me. I did that for about 15 yrs and then i ran into a person that was doing as well on larger scale than me and helped me setup few accounts at different wholesalers. He semi retired leaving all his clients and followers to me. That gave me a lot of new clients and expanded my services from local to US wide.
Now i am shipping fish to all 50 states, Hawaii included (just waiting on my permit to come back), Canada and few other international countries.
With R2R giving me an exposure to all off you, I am sure it will bring a lot more people to me and help promote healthy livestock.
As i mentioned i sell out of my house for now. I converted my garage into a full qt setup.
I get my qt tanks custom made from Concept Aquariums in Calgary Canada. These tanks have removable dividers for me to accommodate small to large fish.
Excuse my mess in some of the pics. Sometimes time runs short and i wish there were more than 24 hrs in a day. Following are a few pics of the setup as it was growing up in time, From few small qt tanks to many and scattered all over the place.
There are few more tanks that i had to setup away from my normal med tanks. There are mostly invert tanks or high risk for airborne diseases. To keep them separate, I setup some tanks inside the house, Removing my gym and placing tanks all over in that area.
A few pics of the box that I use. This is my most common size, 11x11x11. It holds about 4-6 small to medium size fish. I have done very extensive testing on these boxes.
During winter, I put a 72 hr heat pack which keeps the temp inside the box/water at 78F - 80F for the whole duration of shipment.
I normally pack my boxes late in the evening, I have a special arrangement with FEDEX and UPS both, here at Tulsa Airport, to drop my boxes off as late as 10pm. I can start packing order about 7pm or so and by 10pm i can have 6-10 orders packed and ready to go.
I use heavy duty bags for shipping fish, These bags are filled with new saltwater then fish and then pump pure oxygen and hog tie them with a aluminum ring. I double to triple the bags so they dont burst or leak. Final bag is heat sealed so in case hog tie aluminum rings fails, water and fish still remain sealed in the final layer.
In summer I like to ship them to a hub instead so they are not sitting in the back of the truck riding around all over your city. Heat packs work well and stay warm pretty consistently and for long duration of time. While in summer i have to use cold packs and so far gel cold packs are the ones i have tested to be the best.
They stay cold and drop temp inside the box for upto 14 hours with ambient temp not to hot.
Following chart shows when i packed the fish temp inside the box was 76F on all boxes. I used 3 boxes. 1 with no cold pack, 2 with 1 cold pack and 3rd with 2 cold packs.
Ambient temp was 89F which dropped to 67F and back upto 88F over the course of 24 hrs.
Note: i bag and ship fish at night when heat is not a factor even in the most hot times of the year. With 89F ambient temp, these boxes were left out in the sun exposed on my back patio. Even the box with no cold pack remained within temp for 14 hrs before increasing slightly and took almost 24 hrs to catch up with ambient temp.
My shipping time is only 12 to 16 hours from packing to delivery and in most normal cases 14 hrs door to door.
Also this test is on the harsh side as boxes are not left out in the sun all day, they are in warehouses and vans/trucks and planes where temp is 15-20 degree less than ambient.
I dont want to bore you with all these testing data, So lets talk about medicine and my qt protocol and where an how i buy the fish.
I have access to 8 wholesalers in USA and 3 importers (Bali, Indonesia, Philippines) and 1 diver in Hawaii. I can pretty much get any fish you may request. Although the times are not normal and we live in some crazy times i never thought i would see. Due to covit19 there are many problems and issues. First there was a ban on livestock completely which now is reduced down to few countries. Some wholesalers were closed during the pandemic. Supplies are getting better but still not upto the level where all livestock is available. Also due to these uncertain times the prices seem to be fluctuating. Some fish cost double to triple the amount they used to.
Once i get my shipments in, I physically inspect all fish for any visual sign of stress or disease. Almost 99% of the time i do not find any problems or issues. Most wholesalers are pretty good at keeping their livestock safe from major diseases making my work even easier. I start seeing issues and problems at retail level and most likely never on wholesale side.
After inspection, i immediately do a freshwater bath followed by a formalin bath (for some species that carry uronema) followed by a prazipro and metrozidole bath.
Them they go into teir respective tanks. These holding tanks are already at 1ppm cooper or 20mg Choloroquine phosphate depending on which fish is tolerant to either or. Over the next day or 2 i slow drip bringing the medicine to therapeutic levels. They stay in these levels for 14 days. Then i do a massive water change and using carbon, rid cp or copper altogether.
For next 14 days they stay in observation tanks with prazipro and metrozidole to take care of internal and external parasite. During all the time they are in my care, all fish are fed frozen mysis and brine 50/50 mixture along with metro,fenbendazole and focus mixed in food.
After their treatments i move them to retail tanks from where they ship out as soon as they are sold.
Some FAQs;
How do i place an order?
Please email me your wish list at [email protected] or use contact form on my website.
How do i pay?
I send you an invoice after i have located your fish, Invoice has a total amount and a minimum amount. That min. amount is your deposit required to hold that fish in your name. Remaining balance can be paid in payments or in full as per your choice as long as balance is 0 before shipping.
Deposit! what if fish dies in qt?
No worries, your deposit guarantees you your fish. If fish dies in my care, i start over again. Normally i order double to triple the fish one requests as a back up and assurance policy. If all make it through qt, back up fish goto sale on my website.
How long before i get my fish?
If i already have your fish in stock then not so long but if i have to find it and qt it then 30-45 days. I am redoing my setup and adding more tanks to where i will carry most common fast moving fish qt;ed all the time in stock so when order comes i should be able to ship it out next day or at least withing a few days.
Guarantee?
I guarantee live arrival only, In some cases i do cover fish for longer period of time.
I cant guarantee my qt protocol as no procedure is 100% safe. Also we treat for very major common diseases. There could be many variables that are at play which can effect health of your livestock. Prime example i have seen, clients added chaeto or frags or rocks from a non qted/cured source and brought some nasty into their tank.
DOA?
In case of DOA, We can do one of the following:
1. Issue refund for the DOA.
or
2. Send free replacement on next order.
or
3. Send free replacement alone if you pay shipping.
What do you feed your fish?
I feed frozen mysis and brine mix 50/50
What salinity do you ship at?
Unfortunately thats an odd one, When i receive my fish they normally are at 1.018. So i keep my incoming tanks at 1.018, For the first 14 days in cp or copper they remain at 1.018. then when i move them to observation tank, i do not use ato so with evaporation salinity start to increase. At the time near shipping they can be in 1.023-1.025 range. I ship in brand new freshly mixed saltwater aged 24 hrs.
Difference between Qt'ed Fish vs Conditioned?
Fully qt;ed fish have gone through all the procedures and treatments mentioned above and are safe to go into clients tanks. While conditioned fish are for people that dont want fully qt'ed fish or they have their own qt or simply dont qt at all and they can take advantage of cheaper cost livestock. On conditioned fish i can beat any online retailers price pretty much.
How do i qt my inverts?
I apply tank transfer method on inverts. For first 15 days they go through TTM every 3 days, Then i place them in sterile tanks for observation for next 15 days. these invert tanks are completely fishless and only carry snails and shrimp.
When do you ship?
I ship on Tuesdays 99% of the time. Its my day off from my other businesses, Plus Fedex and Ups only cover my shipments if shipped on Tues or Wed and shipped to hub due to covit delays.
What is shipping cost?
For most common size box which can carry 4-6 small to medium sized fish, rates are $65-70, step up would be medium box that can carry 6-9 medium size fish $70-75 and then a large box which can fit 12-14 fish can run about $80-100
Is shipping free at certain amount?
Unfortunately not at this point. I am not a big retailer and only a small time garage vendor so i do not have the good low rates from fedex or ups. Once i do show them high volume they do promise to reduce rates, at that point i will be more than happy to offer something.
Best way to contact?
Please contact me via contact form on my website www.drreesquarantinedfish.com or direct email to [email protected] or call/text at 918-964-3333
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