A bit about why I quarantine anything that goes into my fishtank and my history in the hobby:
This is that fluff at the beginning of a recipe you find online. Feel free to skip down to the actual review.
The first fish tank I owned was a 75-gallon bow front tank that I got for having good grades back in 2000. It was fresh water, and after a year my dad did the inevitable and upgraded to a 150-gallon saltwater tank he got previously owned. Within the two years, we purchased an unfortunate fish from Petco and lost much of the tank to an outbreak of ich. I recall the makeshift hospital tanks, the attempts to treat the fish and just the headache this created. As a kid I didn’t do much of the work, I just made water, so much water, but the whole process stands out even 20 years later.
After that, we were extremely careful with what fish we bought. We’d look at every fish in the store, if even one had any signs of disease we wouldn’t be going back there for at least a month. It was a hassle and time-consuming, but we never had a disease outbreak after that. I would say this may be because we subconsciously practised ich management, or we were just very lucky. What I can say is before the tank sprung a leak and had to be taken down in 2014 we had a beautiful powder blue tang for multiple years with no signs of disease or ich.
Fast forward to this past March. After over a month of watching youtube videos, refreshing myself with proper husbandry, and how the hobby had changed, my wife and I decided to get back into the hobby.
I knew all about quarantining, mentally I vowed to do it eventually, especially when it came to ich prone fish like tangs, or when the tank had a large population of fish and I didn’t want to risk it. Not to mention I never did that ‘back in the day' and my observations were plenty enough. Well, wouldn’t you have it the very first fish we got, one of a pair of clownfish came down with marine velvet about a day after they were introduced into the tank. That fish unfortunately didn’t make it. Luckily the two fish were from separate systems and I was able to save the other before the disease set in.
During the fallow period, I experienced a bacterial bloom, my phosphates tanked,I had a nightmare bringing them up, and ultimately led to a dinoflagellate outbreak that nuked my snail population, and killed two corals. I’m not saying that one fish led to all this headache, but it certainly didn’t help.
My undergrad degree was in Biochemistry, which is part of why I enjoy the chemistry side of the hobby. I feel very comfortable administering accurate treatment to fish, observing them for disease and testing the water to maintain proper dosing levels. However, just because I feel comfortable doing, and can run a full medicated quarantine for every fish, that doesn’t mean I want to each time. Part of this stems from only having so many hobby slots in my day and preferring to spend those slots on activities more directly related to the tank, like scrapping algae from rocks, or measuring Ca, Mg, and Alk. This is where I began looking into online options for quarantined fish. Now I order online and practice observational quarantine for two weeks along with a black molly as a canary for disease.
TLDR: After a bad experience with my first fish having velvet I now quarantine everything that goes into the tank. I like online vendors that quarantine and treat for you because my free time is limited, I’d rather spend it doing other tests, and maintenance for my tank than treating a fish. The cost may be more, but time is money and only observing with a temporary tank is worth it to me. As an added benefit the fish just seem far healthier.
Actual Review:
The fish themselves:
Two cooper’s anthias and one carpenter’s wrasse.
Packaging:
Cardboard box with styrofoam box inside, newspaper, cold pack and ample water for each fish. It was mid-80s out, and the fish arrived in near-optimal temperature, about 77.
Communication:
Eric got in contact with me via cell, and we arranged a shipping/arrival date. I had a question about feeding and what food they were using, this was answered quickly via text. When the fish were shipped he ensured that I had the tracking information sent to my email.
Acclimation Process:
The room in which the shipping box was opened had minimal lighting, and fishtank lights were set to acclimation mode, starting at 10% intensity and ending at the normal 50% intensity after three days. The fish were temperature acclimated for 30 minutes in the sump. After 30 minutes salinity readings were taken from the bags, they were about the same, and a fresh batch of salt water was adjusted for temperature and salinity so it matched. There was a quick acclimation to the matching salinity, over 5 minutes and a timer was set to ensure no more than 15 minutes had passed since the first bag was opened. From there the fish were acclimated to tank water for 30 minutes. Introduction to the tank involved a 1-gallon plastic tarantula tank with drilled holes to act as an acclimation box, and a divider to split the anthias from the wrasse. No quick movements were made near the tank.
Feeding:
The two anthias were active, curious and very alert. After about an hour a feeding was attempted with frozen Mysis shrimp soaked in selcon. The anthias greedily ate. The wrasse did not and was ‘playing dead’ by curling slightly and hiding. The anthias were released into the tank, the divider was removed and the wrasse was left alone. About 3 hours later the wrasse was swimming around the acclimation box and accepted frozen adult brine shrimp soaked in selcon. The acclimation box lid was removed and lowered enough that the wrasse could swim out. Later in the day a second feeding was done consisting of a mixture of chopped frozen bloodworms, Mysis shrimp and Thera a regular pellets all soaked in selcon, all three fish ate. The next day the wrasse had left the acclimation box, and was swimming around the tank. General food consisting of a mixture of flake and pellet from an auto feeder was attempted. The anthias ate both flake and pellet. The wrasse was interested, but only touched frozen brine shrimp soaked in selcon. No observed aggression or issues.
Candid Thoughts:
I think the best place to start when it comes to my opinion can be seen in feeding and acclimation after shipping. Anthias are known to be difficult fish to get eating, flasher wrasse are known to be difficult shippers and have difficulty getting to eat. All three fish arrived in what I would say is very good health, they were ‘fat’, had good colouration, even for a wrasse ‘playing dead’ and were alert. I saw no signs of disease, bruising, nipped fins, or other damage. I feel this is backed up by the fact the fish are all swimming around, eating food from frozen to flake, and are showing no signs of distress a day after arriving. The fish are beautiful, their colouration is deep and they look happy. Obviously, this is only after a few days and I’ll update if something unexpected occurs, but from my observations, I would absolutely order from Among the Reef again. These are finicky sensitive fish that require extra care to acclimate to aquarium life, and I had fewer issues with them than a clownfish I ordered elsewhere.
Disclosure:
I was one of the people who participated in https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/free-quarantined-coopers-anthias-give-away.926672/ and paid only shipping for the fish. There was no prompting, suggestion or even mention of leaving any kind of review. I chose to do this because I personally feel it is reasonable to leave a review and when I googled ‘Among the reef review’ I did not see many.
This is that fluff at the beginning of a recipe you find online. Feel free to skip down to the actual review.
The first fish tank I owned was a 75-gallon bow front tank that I got for having good grades back in 2000. It was fresh water, and after a year my dad did the inevitable and upgraded to a 150-gallon saltwater tank he got previously owned. Within the two years, we purchased an unfortunate fish from Petco and lost much of the tank to an outbreak of ich. I recall the makeshift hospital tanks, the attempts to treat the fish and just the headache this created. As a kid I didn’t do much of the work, I just made water, so much water, but the whole process stands out even 20 years later.
After that, we were extremely careful with what fish we bought. We’d look at every fish in the store, if even one had any signs of disease we wouldn’t be going back there for at least a month. It was a hassle and time-consuming, but we never had a disease outbreak after that. I would say this may be because we subconsciously practised ich management, or we were just very lucky. What I can say is before the tank sprung a leak and had to be taken down in 2014 we had a beautiful powder blue tang for multiple years with no signs of disease or ich.
Fast forward to this past March. After over a month of watching youtube videos, refreshing myself with proper husbandry, and how the hobby had changed, my wife and I decided to get back into the hobby.
I knew all about quarantining, mentally I vowed to do it eventually, especially when it came to ich prone fish like tangs, or when the tank had a large population of fish and I didn’t want to risk it. Not to mention I never did that ‘back in the day' and my observations were plenty enough. Well, wouldn’t you have it the very first fish we got, one of a pair of clownfish came down with marine velvet about a day after they were introduced into the tank. That fish unfortunately didn’t make it. Luckily the two fish were from separate systems and I was able to save the other before the disease set in.
During the fallow period, I experienced a bacterial bloom, my phosphates tanked,I had a nightmare bringing them up, and ultimately led to a dinoflagellate outbreak that nuked my snail population, and killed two corals. I’m not saying that one fish led to all this headache, but it certainly didn’t help.
My undergrad degree was in Biochemistry, which is part of why I enjoy the chemistry side of the hobby. I feel very comfortable administering accurate treatment to fish, observing them for disease and testing the water to maintain proper dosing levels. However, just because I feel comfortable doing, and can run a full medicated quarantine for every fish, that doesn’t mean I want to each time. Part of this stems from only having so many hobby slots in my day and preferring to spend those slots on activities more directly related to the tank, like scrapping algae from rocks, or measuring Ca, Mg, and Alk. This is where I began looking into online options for quarantined fish. Now I order online and practice observational quarantine for two weeks along with a black molly as a canary for disease.
TLDR: After a bad experience with my first fish having velvet I now quarantine everything that goes into the tank. I like online vendors that quarantine and treat for you because my free time is limited, I’d rather spend it doing other tests, and maintenance for my tank than treating a fish. The cost may be more, but time is money and only observing with a temporary tank is worth it to me. As an added benefit the fish just seem far healthier.
Actual Review:
The fish themselves:
Two cooper’s anthias and one carpenter’s wrasse.
Packaging:
Cardboard box with styrofoam box inside, newspaper, cold pack and ample water for each fish. It was mid-80s out, and the fish arrived in near-optimal temperature, about 77.
Communication:
Eric got in contact with me via cell, and we arranged a shipping/arrival date. I had a question about feeding and what food they were using, this was answered quickly via text. When the fish were shipped he ensured that I had the tracking information sent to my email.
Acclimation Process:
The room in which the shipping box was opened had minimal lighting, and fishtank lights were set to acclimation mode, starting at 10% intensity and ending at the normal 50% intensity after three days. The fish were temperature acclimated for 30 minutes in the sump. After 30 minutes salinity readings were taken from the bags, they were about the same, and a fresh batch of salt water was adjusted for temperature and salinity so it matched. There was a quick acclimation to the matching salinity, over 5 minutes and a timer was set to ensure no more than 15 minutes had passed since the first bag was opened. From there the fish were acclimated to tank water for 30 minutes. Introduction to the tank involved a 1-gallon plastic tarantula tank with drilled holes to act as an acclimation box, and a divider to split the anthias from the wrasse. No quick movements were made near the tank.
Feeding:
The two anthias were active, curious and very alert. After about an hour a feeding was attempted with frozen Mysis shrimp soaked in selcon. The anthias greedily ate. The wrasse did not and was ‘playing dead’ by curling slightly and hiding. The anthias were released into the tank, the divider was removed and the wrasse was left alone. About 3 hours later the wrasse was swimming around the acclimation box and accepted frozen adult brine shrimp soaked in selcon. The acclimation box lid was removed and lowered enough that the wrasse could swim out. Later in the day a second feeding was done consisting of a mixture of chopped frozen bloodworms, Mysis shrimp and Thera a regular pellets all soaked in selcon, all three fish ate. The next day the wrasse had left the acclimation box, and was swimming around the tank. General food consisting of a mixture of flake and pellet from an auto feeder was attempted. The anthias ate both flake and pellet. The wrasse was interested, but only touched frozen brine shrimp soaked in selcon. No observed aggression or issues.
Candid Thoughts:
I think the best place to start when it comes to my opinion can be seen in feeding and acclimation after shipping. Anthias are known to be difficult fish to get eating, flasher wrasse are known to be difficult shippers and have difficulty getting to eat. All three fish arrived in what I would say is very good health, they were ‘fat’, had good colouration, even for a wrasse ‘playing dead’ and were alert. I saw no signs of disease, bruising, nipped fins, or other damage. I feel this is backed up by the fact the fish are all swimming around, eating food from frozen to flake, and are showing no signs of distress a day after arriving. The fish are beautiful, their colouration is deep and they look happy. Obviously, this is only after a few days and I’ll update if something unexpected occurs, but from my observations, I would absolutely order from Among the Reef again. These are finicky sensitive fish that require extra care to acclimate to aquarium life, and I had fewer issues with them than a clownfish I ordered elsewhere.
Disclosure:
I was one of the people who participated in https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/free-quarantined-coopers-anthias-give-away.926672/ and paid only shipping for the fish. There was no prompting, suggestion or even mention of leaving any kind of review. I chose to do this because I personally feel it is reasonable to leave a review and when I googled ‘Among the reef review’ I did not see many.
