Mail order clean up crew.

[glenns]

I just received my snail CUC from an online vendor. The bags have very little water and some paper towels. Some of the snails aren't even in the water. This is my first livestock ordered online. Is this normal for a snail CUC?

[bearpeidog]

Yes, that is normal for snails. I've ordered a few times - always arrive in wet paper towel.

[glenns]

Thanks bearpeidog.

[Alysiak00]

sounds like someone ordered from reefcleaners.org.....anyhoos, yes this is normal and the snails should come around after a day. I get orders all the time and it may take a day or two for all of the snails to move

[glenns]

Well, I didn't want to name names or complain without first learning how they are usually shipped. I just wasn't expecting so little water and paper towels.

[jsehlms]

Ha, just had an order from them also, came same way. Unfortunately for me they were to be delivered on friday to work after we closed, and we werent open on saturday. They sat in no water until Monday. Ended up having 50% loss. You'd think you'd make sure the bags had plenty of water/air to last a few extra days.

[bsrkjordan]

If you read there shipping policy it will explain why they do it that way. :-)

[glenns]

Well, they're all in the DT. That was a lot of snails. Already I see a lot of movement. Hopefully 90% survived, because they have their work cut out for them.

[Alysiak00]

if it is reefcleaners.org i know that they replace the stock if they die due to weather constraints ect. also, ive had nothing but wonderful results from them. especially the custom lists they build for you

[phasezero]

I just got my order from them yesterday. If were ever to order another CUC, i would probably only order some Florida ceriths, Nerites, and a few nessarius. Overall i am very satisfied with my order from reefcleaners. I'm just having second thoughts on the million dwarf ceriths i have now that litter the sandbed. Looks like WWIII in my tank.

[olemiss reb]

Originally Posted by jsehlms

Ha, just had an order from them also, came same way. Unfortunately for me they were to be delivered on friday to work after we closed, and we werent open on saturday. They sat in no water until Monday. Ended up having 50% loss. You'd think you'd make sure the bags had plenty of water/air to last a few extra days.

Online stores should expect the recipient to not receive/accept the package on the day it is scheduled to arrive AND package live animals well enough to live "a few extra days"??? The 50% loss falls on you.


Bluezoo also ships hermits,snails this way.

[NatalieD]

Originally Posted by olemiss reb

Online stores should expect the recipient to not receive/accept the package on the day it is scheduled to arrive AND package live animals well enough to live "a few extra days"??? The 50% loss falls on you.


Bluezoo also ships hermits,snails this way.

Agreed.

[jsehlms]

Originally Posted by olemiss reb

Online stores should expect the recipient to not receive/accept the package on the day it is scheduled to arrive AND package live animals well enough to live "a few extra days"??? The 50% loss falls on you.


Bluezoo also ships hermits,snails this way.

Before you make even more of a fool of yourself for not having a clue. The packages are sent USPS priority with no definitive date of delivery. I along with everyone else knows the mist unreliable delivery service available is USPS. If you didn't know that now you do. When shipping a package on a Wednesday night to a location where it is below 30*; take the extra 2 mintues to add some extra water in case the package is being delivered to say a business. You know since why would I have live animals shipped to a house address when no one will be there?

In the shipping container was barely any packaging. No styrofoam, no heat packs, no peanuts. A little bit of brown paper.

On the box, no 'live animals' sticker.

Did I mention the packages are shipped out via USPS and you don't have any idea when the package will be out for delivery until the package has already been delivered? If I would have known the package was going to be delivered on that day yes I would have stayed late to receive the package, but again USPS is terrible and I didn't know it was out to be delivered until 8pm Friday night. Too late to contact the post office.

Saturday I drive 30 mins to the post office to pick up this package and guess what. They can't find it. After waiting around for an hour they say a supervisor will contact me regarding the package. And guess what. It's the USPS so of course that didn't happen.

So yes, online vendors which ship on a wed night with poor/improper shipping using the worst carrier available should add a little extra water in the off chance the package sits at the post office for an extra day or two.

[Brwestern]

I wouldn't say they use improper shipping. You know mail can be delivered late, even on saturday.. But you didn't have access to where it was being delivered? Sounds like you should have livestock shipped to a better place that you can get to every day. That's on you...if not, why not leave a comment when making an order that you need some extra days worth if water "just in case"

I don't know your situation, but it's unfair to say that they should send it with the ability to stay a few days and that their shipping is improper.

[highhopes592003]

I ordered snails from ebay. Its been quite awile ago. I cant exactly remember what kind I ordered that time but when I recieved them they had just a drop of water on them thierselves and no paper towels or anything. Needless to say maybe 15 where alive out of 100. I waited 2 days for movement and did all the tricks the instructions said. The ones that lived didnt for very long after I acclimated them to the tank. So I just wrote it off that I wouldnt be ordering from thier agian. Has anyone else had this happen from ordering off of ebay. Thanks for the previous posts cause now I know where I can order from and do it early in the week like on a monday wouldnt you say.

[glenns]

So far it is looking good. It looks like most if not all the Nerite and Nassarius snails made it. A bunch of Cerinth snails are active, but I still see a bunch that are not active. But their site does say they may go dormant for 3 days. So I'll give it 3 days.

So do I remove those that don't make it or let them help increase the bio load of my tank's bacteria?

[MItank]

I've never ordered from that site, but I have gotten CUCs from others. Overall I don't like buying CUCs online because they have shipped 50 hermits, none of which were bigger than half my pinky nail.

[BigGimp77]

I ordered from Reefcleaners once since they had very good prices.

I placed my order on Wednesday. I asked for my order to be shipped on a Monday. I even emailed them to confirm they would ship on Monday. They ended up shipping them that Wednesday to arrive on my Porch Friday where they sat in 30 Degrees for many many hours lol.

Oddly enough all my Nerites made it, 5-8 of my Nass made it, A couple dwarf Ceriths and no Florida ceirths. The bag with the Florida Ceriths smelled so terrible, I thought my wife was gonna puke. I didn't really like the Nerites though. They were very inactive in my tank even though there was plenty of algea to eat. They all huddled in one corner on the tank and just stayed there.

John was very good about the refund though. The order was also missing some Cheato I had bought. Due to the missing items and deceased snails, he refunded the entire order.