I received my critters from IPSF, but unfortunately did not take any great pictures. My daughter always insists on helping me
acclimate all new additions - which is fun, but my hands were full watching her while unpacking and preparing.
Here is an initial review:
Everything came really well packed in one Styrofoam container. Inside were the various bags with the livestock, and Coral food, and a few heat packs. Everything was double bagged (even the receipt). There was a very small bit of water that appeared to have leaked from one bag, but no bags appeared to be missing any water. Overall the packing was very good. It was neat to get a box from one of my favorite vacation destinations (The Big Island of Hawaii), and IPSF must be really close to where we usually stay in Kailua-Kona. I'll have inquire about a tour the next time we are there...
IPSF was kind enough to send 5 bonus Micro Hermits and 5 extra Mini Brittle Stars with my order.
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| Coral Heaven - IPSF proprietary Coral Food. They are guarded about its contents, but I am taking a leap of faith based on their reputation.
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This is a dry, powder type food, but they recommend keeping it sealed in the refrigerator or freezer to extend shelf life. The powder is about as fine as nutmeg, with some larger (firm) pieces here and there. It smells very fishy, so it must be good.
To use the powder, you simply mix it into a slurry with some tank water, and then target feed. The instructions are very careful to mention not to leave uneaten food, but suggest that your corals should be left to feed for 45 minutes.
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| Live Sand Activator - Live Sand including micro-Hermits and grazing snails
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The micro hermits are VERY active, and move pretty quickly compared to my other red-legged hermits. They always seem to be climbing on stuff, checking things out, but I cannot say exactly what they are eating yet. I have not seen clear signs that they are eating any micro-algae, but the do climb through it from time to time. I would say they seem to be a good addition so far, but only because they are so small.
The grazing snails are also small, and not very smart. They will climb up out of the water and start descending your tank from the outside! Twelve times I have picked one off the outside and plopped it back into the tank. Fortunately, they seem to be very resilient to the outside world, and seal themselves up tightly when they run low on moisture. This morning I found one who made it all the way down the outside of my tank into the stand below. He was sealed up, and I put him back into the tank and he seemed to slowly come back to life - but not before a Nassarius snail spotted him and pinned him down and ate him. This also happened to a few when they were first acclimated, even though I made sure to feed the tank first. The Nassarius snails seem to love these guys... I would say they are not a very useful addition because of these vulnerabilities, and unless you have a ton of them, I cannot see such a small snail making a significant grazing impact, but if you can protect them from predators (and from killing themselves), then why not?
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| Wondermud - Slurry including Reef Amphipods, Mama Mia Worms, Baby Bristle Worms, baby shrimps, baby snails, phytoplankton and zooplankton.
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The Wondermud
was a bit of a wonder. What is in this silt-like stuff, and what to do with it? I added this to my
DT with trepidation and with a leap of faith. The fine particles dispersed and did not cloud up the water as much as I assumed it would. While pouring it in I saw several Micro-Hermits and brittle worms inside, but nothing else of note.
One could assume that the mud has beneficial bacteria and minute micro-fauna, but I cannot help but think that it will make little difference to the tank.
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6 additional bristle worms |
The bristle worms were reddish-brown in color, and larger (2.5") than I expected. They wriggled on the sandbed for an hour or so after
acclimation, and then disappeared. I assume that they will breed in the tank, but if not, I am fine with the dozen or so that are in there now.
These are very small (0.75") clams, very conventional looking. I added them to the tank, and one of the Nassarius snails glided over to it and jumped on top. I am not sure if the snail was trying to pry the clam open, but he wasn't very successful and then went on to torment the small Nerite snails. The clams, like the bristle worms - eventually disappeared not to be seen since.
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reefamphipods + podflakes + podmat - Complete "Amphipod Breeding kit"
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These Amphipods are huge compared to any pod I've ever seen in my tank, and are pretty active. The "podmat" consisted of some folded kelp-like algae combined with clumps of Gracillaria. The only place I had to contain & light this was the same small chamber my Chaeto was in. So I lifted the Chaeto and placed the matt underneath. Spare bits of Gracillaria started coming up from the bottom of the chamber and leaking into the rest of the
sump, and the matt was far looser in structure than I thought it would be. After a couple of weeks of having the matt down there I decided it wasn't growing too well (too cramped) and it was kind of a mess compared to my Chaeto. I made the executive decision to get rid of it after determining that the pods would be just as much at home in the Chaeto anyway. Too bad since someday I would like to have a full size
fuge with some Gracillaria.
I also had a hard time "feeding" my Amphipods, since I would hope that I did not have to increase nutrients to the tank for them to thrive. The low-flow chamber I have them in collects bits of debris that I assume includes some food particulate for them. I will feed them with the flakes occasionally, but I am hoping they can do well on their own. The flake food may double as fish food...and IPSF sends you a generous amount.
I did not have the facility to take advantage of this "Breeding Kit". Perhaps if you have a larger
refugium it is well worth the money.
The Mini-brittle stars were really cool to look at in the bag. Tiny Tiny Tiny. Of course, I haven't seen them since adding them to the tank. I hope they reproduce and I wish them luck.
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All told, the order included hits and misses. I really like the micro-hermits, the bristle worms and the micro-brittle stars. The clams were a close second. If I ordered again, I would skip past the wondermud and breeding kit - unless I upgrade my
refugium. The only thing I would advise against is the Nerite "grazing" snails, unless you are trying to feed a finicky Nass.
The only criticism I have for IPSF is that the pricing structure is tricky. You cannot order everything a la carte, and you pay a premium when you do. When you factor in the $30 shipping, it just makes sense to get the $99 Mix-n-Match Special that comes with free shipping. But not all items are available in the Mix-n-Match, including the mini-brittle stars, and the "Mama Mia" Spaghetti worms. For $20 each, you can add these items as part of the Super Mix-n-Match Special. The customer may end up ordering things that they may not want (as much) just to come up with nine items, and then have to pay extra to get the things they that are not covered. The saving grace is that, if you factor in the free shipping that comes with the Mix-n-Match, the deal is not all that bad. The ordering process is just a bit of a mind-bender. I would prefer it if you could just order everything a la carte and simply get quantity discounts based on how much you buy and free (or 50% off) shipping for any order over $100 (free shipping is offered at $200 or more). Nonetheless, IPSF was kind by throwing in a few extras - and the extras were the things I liked the most. Overall, I am very satisfied and would order from them again.
BTW: I did receive a prompt call from founder Gerald Heslinga when I inquired about a missing tracking number. He went over some questions I had and was very pleasant to talk to. I was impressed that he gets on the horn to talk to customers.
icon under their name to add to their reputation. 
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