SWF.com Order

[monsinour]

So I went ahead and placed an order without telling wife. We agreed to get the stuff from the free ship store so we only had to spend $30. Cashing in some reward points we are going to get:
Mushroom Polyp - Ricordea Blue 1 Polyp
Trochus Snail x2
Zoos - Red 5+
Zoos - Pink 5+
Mexican Turbo Snail x2
Turbo/Astrea Snail
Peppermint Shrimp
Scarlet Hermit Crab
Scarlet Hermit Crab
Copepods - ReefPods
Little Bear Conch
all for only $32. It should arrive wednesday. Heres to hoping the ricordea is blue!

 

[gemmy]

Want a pic of mine that I ordered from here??

 

[monsinour]

It doesnt matter to me. It may be blue in everyone elses tank, but it will be some odd ball color in mine. I forgot to order the lights tonight. Gotta remember to do that tomorrow.

 

[monsinour]

Order has been shipped, will be eagerly waiting for it tomorrow. The one thing that concerns me is that fedex says estimated delivery is "by 3:00 pm" Shouldnt it get here at 10:30 or so?

 

[gemmy]

It depends on the Fed Ex route for the day. Usually when it says by 3 pm, I get my order after 1:30. I'll post some pics of my "blue" (AKA gray) ricordia in a couple of minutes.

 

[gemmy]

 

[monsinour]

thats a grey/blue. Probably not the color you were hoping for though right?
The order came in at 12:22 and I started the aclimation process right away. It doesnt appear that everything survived.

These pepps are sooooooooo tiny. There is no way they can go in my DT. They would get eaten so fast. I am thinking about placing the one that is alive into the sump where the only preditors will be the bristle worms. I am hoping that it will live long enough and survive to grow to a decent size so that I can add it to the DT

I have no clue as to what all is alive in there. I can say that the bear and one hermit are alive as they moved to the top of the container. The one turbo is alive as it is now on the side wall of the container. The bigger and smallest hermits dont appear to be moving at all. Some of the snails are stuck to others so I have to assume they are alive. I just dont know right now.
So I would assume I need to make a phone call to start the customer service part and see what can be done about the DOA stuff, right?
edit: I am thinking about feeding the dead shrimp to the DT to see the carnage. My daughter isnt home so there would be no trama to the kids. Just waiting on SWF.com to give me a heads up on this. I submitted the request but have not made a phone call.

 

[monsinour]

After 3 hours of acclimation, I added things into the tank. The one hermit that moved all along the container is doing just fine in the tank and picking things out of the sand bed and eating it. One of the snails was placed on a rock and it moved so I think its still alive. The bear conch hasnt moved since being placed into the tank. The 2 other hermits havent moved since being placed into the tank. There are a few other snails that havent moved since being placed into the tank. The ricordia has 2 mouths and looks more green than anything. It was worth a shot in the dark. The zoos havent opened but I did FW dip them and nothing came off. Heres to hoping all goes well from here on out.

 

[monsinour]

Just got back from picking up my daughter from school and saw this.

Probably not a good thing to have a nassi eating a trouchus right? So thats another DOA.
Here is the larger scarlet hermit. This is exactly how he has been in the tank for the past hour. No real movement. How long should I wait before I declare him deceased?

And finally, here is a pic of the ricordea that I got. The one on the left is the 'blue' one I picked out at the LFS not too long ago about 3 months. The wife doesnt think it is blue. Makes no difference to me, but I like it. The one on the right is from swf.com. Its cool because of the 2 mouths, but its certainly not blue. I think its going to turn out to be yellow like the other one.

 

[monsinour]

I took this shot a little bit ago thinking that it didnt look quite right for a hermit to be coming out of the shell so slowly.

And I hate being right.

But, it is good to know that the CuC is doing their job. They are doing their job rather well.

So, the one hermit that was moving well in the container made its way across the tank and up the rocks and now out of view. I am not so worried about it being dead. I have seen movement from most of the snails and the important snail, the conch, was seen eating. One set of zoos opened and they look like eagle eyes, the other set hasnt opened yet. I have a mixed bag of results with this order.

 

[gemmy]

That's ashame that you got such mixed results with your order. I have ordered many things from here and have never had many issues. Actually, I have only had one issue and that was resolved very quickly.

 

[littlec984]

Yeah, i am sorry too dude. I had only one problem of some the coral arriving dead, but it was mainly becuase FED EX made a mistake and they got delivered two days later. SWF was real good and they gave me credit for the cost of everthing that died

 

[monsinour]

Time to remove the things that didnt move overnight.
I am giving the small hermit a stay of execution. It wasnt eaten overnight, but he also hasnt moved a millimeter either. Odds are that its dead and nothing can get to where it is in the shell to eat it.

 

[aquaman]

My scarlets always sem to take a few days to move. I have bee sure a number of times they were dead, then they would start to move. Maybe give it some time.

 

[2quills]

Yep, I'd give it a couple of days. If your specific gravity is a little higher than the water in what they were shipped than it may just take them a little time to adjust before they do anything. I've had new hermits not move for days before and then all of a sudden they were crawling all over the place.

 

[monsinour]

Small hermit still hasnt moved. the 2 mexican turbos do not look good either. All the other snails have moved and appear to be ok. Death Toll:
2x Scarlet Hermits*
1x Trouchus Snail
1x Peppermint Shrimp
Possible Deaths forthcoming
2x Mexican Turbos
1x Ricordea
The ricordea is listed as it has not changed in appearance since I received it. I thought for sure that it would 'puff up' once the lights came on this morning. It hasnt done so. While I am not an expert, this goes against the other ricordeas I have in the tank. The other ricordea that I had shipped to me 'puffed up' later in the day when I received it.
I think the reason behind all of these deaths is that there was only 1 heat pack in the box and it was cold when I opened it. When I had other stuff shipped to me, there were 2 heat packs in it and when I opened the box, the heat packs were still warm. Maybe SWF.com underestimated the cold that still happens overnight here in the northeast.
* - the small scarlet has until lights out, 8pm, to move or show some sign of life.
As far as the good news goes, the 2 zoos colonies are doing just fine and the pink ones, now that they have opened, look fantastic. The bear conch has made a neat little brother to Larry. Beary, my wife's naming, has a neat shell and has done a lap around the bottom of the tank. The lone surviving scarlet hermit has made his way into the middle of my xenia. He was eating carp out of the sand bed yesterday and appears to be doing ok right now. I sure hope he lives. The 2 asterna snails have moved on and started cleaning the glass. The surviving peppermint shrimp took up residnece in the baffels between the intake and the refugium. I found it last night. It was doing its dance and appeared to be full color, so I have to assume he is ok. There should be plenty of food down there for him to eat. If I can manage to keep one mysis when I feed at night, I will drop that into the fuge for him. But I am sure he will have to move fast to beat all the bristle worms down there to get it. All in all, I am not upset with the events that have transpired here. I really cant complain since I got it all for $32. Sure I am ticked that things havent lived. But if it was cold in the box, and the heat pack didnt last long, what can you expect?

 

[monsinour]

The other scarlet hermit hasnt moved in 48 hours. Time to call it dead.

 

[monsinour]

SWF.com and I have come to an agreement on how to resolve this issue. I wont be ordering in the winter time again. I wont report what else has died when it dies. Well, the last scarlet climbed out of its shell and is sitting on the bottom. It wont be long before something eats it.

 

[khowst]

huh? Now I know this is the SWF.com forum, but not post what has died? Sounds a little like a gag order or something. Granted this is about a business matter between you and them, but with a tank cycling and a soon future customer with money in my pocket I am very interested in how business is being conducted, and how if problems arise that they are being resolved.

 

[monsinour]

Quote:
Originally Posted by khowst http:///forum/thread/384541/swf-com-order#post_3369906
huh? Now I know this is the SWF.com forum, but not post what has died? Sounds a little like a gag order or something. Granted this is about a business matter between you and them, but with a tank cycling and a soon future customer with money in my pocket I am very interested in how business is being conducted, and how if problems arise that they are being resolved.
your obviously new here and have not come across all of the supportive and very happily satisifed customers posts on these boards.
I dont think it is needed to continue the sadness and posting what perrishes.
It was requested of me to make a phone call to them and I did. I worked it out with their staff and I am completely satisfied with the results of the service I received. I am more than satisfied really. While this order/shipment didnt go as planned, the service I received combined with all of the positive posts I have read from other satisfied customers, will make me purchase from SWF.com again. I will just wait until it is warmer overnight here in the northeast so that there is less risk to the livestock in the box.
BTW, i have no idea what you mean by gag order. If swf.com didnt want me to be talking, dont you think they would have banned my account? Besides, its not like that would work, my wife or my daughter would post what I would have to say anyways.