Important Tips for Ordering

Here are a few important things to know about ordering from Reef Beauties that will greatly improve your experience and chances of getting the fish you want:

Getting the highest fill rate: If you want the highest possible fill rate (aka getting all of the fish you ordered), order right after our first daily inventory update at 10 AM PST. You can order at any time, but the closer you are to the store update, the more accurate the inventory you see will be.
New items/Inventory Updates: Generally, we will update our inventory daily, Monday-Thursday by 10 AM PST. We have a big inventory update every Saturday, usually by around 12 PM PST, and a mid-week inventory update every Wednesday, usually by 5 PM PST. So if you don’t find what you’re looking for today, check back another day and you might find something that might interest you, or something that was unavailable restocked. You can also email us if you’re looking for something specific.
Availability of Items: Please refer to the approximate inventory quantities listed on the product page for each item. As we are dealing with live animals, all items are subject to availability; while we may have an item in stock, it may not be healthy or meet our standards for shipment. If an item is "Plentiful," then you have a high chance of the item being fulfilled; if an item is "Limited," then quantities are low and there is a chance that it may not be available. Feel free to use the "Order Notes/Special Instructions" box before checkout to add some substitutions that you would be okay with. If the majority of your order is unavailable, and you do not provide substitutions, we will automatically cancel and refund your order.
Substitutions: If we don’t have a shippable specimen that you ordered, we will not send anything in its place unless you tell us to. However, you might still want to substitute a different species or be okay with different sizes. Or, you might no longer make the minimum for free shipping without that item. Generally, you have a better chance of receiving an item marked “Plentiful” in our inventory. If an item you ordered is marked “Limited,” please note an acceptable substitution (or if you’re okay with a different size) for that item in the “Substitutions/Special Instructions” box on checkout, and we will substitute the new item or size if we don’t have what you originally ordered. If you don’t want us to ship the order unless we have exactly what you ordered, please make note of this in the Substitutions box as well.
Order Changes: We will try our best to accommodate modifications to your order after it's been placed. However, we cannot guarantee this as we process orders as soon as we get them. If you need to make a change, please email us at sales@reefbeauties.com with your order number and modification requests, and we'll do what we can to accommodate the change.
Same-Day Shipping Cutoff Time: Our cutoff time to ship the same day is at 12:30 PM PST on business days unless otherwise announced on the Orange Announcement Bar. Any orders received after that will be shipped the next business day.
When do you want your fish to arrive? We ship using UPS Next Day Air, their fastest possible overnight service. This means that once your fish are shipped out, they will be delivered to your door by 10:30 AM the following day (as long as you are not in a rural area. If so, your fish will arrive before the evening).If you cannot receive your fish in the morning, consider having your order shipped to your work address or to a UPS Store/Acces Point to hold for your pickup. While it is most ideal to acclimate the fish as soon as possible, the fish should be fine to acclimate when you get home from work as long as they are indoors in a temperate environment. For now, we are no longer offering Saturday delivery as it has been inconsistent and requires a $55 flat surcharge.
Quarantine: We do not do a full 4-6 week quarantine protocol, but we never ship livestock immediately after receiving them. We do a mild quarantine, where fish must remain in our system for a minimum of 3 days. We run hyposalinity (1.018-1.019) and a small amount of copper throughout our fish system to keep things clean while they are onsite.
How we capture payment: Due to the nature of this industry dealing with live animals, there will often be changes to your order from what you originally had in your shopping cart. Fish might be unavailable, you might want to make substitutions, etc. As such, the original invoice might change after we ship your fish. So once you place your order, you will be charged for what you ordered. When we’ve packed your shipment, our system will immediately translate any of those changes to either a charge or a refund, depending on whether things were added or removed from your order.
Getting Free Shipping: As long as your invoice total is above $199, shipping will be free. However, we will have to automatically charge shipping if the invoice drops below $199 because an item isn’t available. To avoid this, please include substitutions for “Limited” items, or denote for us to cancel the order if the total drops below $189 and we have to charge shipping. Shipping for orders under $199 will be $34.98 to California and $48.98 to the rest of the U.S. There is a flat $9.98 packaging fee for all orders.
Photos and Fish Information: Please keep in mind that due to different lighting conditions, along with variations within fish species, fish colors and patterns that you see on our photos may vary from what you see with the naked eye. We're working on expanding the amount of information on each fish on our site with detailed written descriptions. In the meantime, we encourage you to find more photos and information about the fish you're looking at by looking up the fish name or scientific name online. You can also email us at sales@reefbeauties.com with any questions you might have, and we'll try our best to answer them in a timely manner.
About our pricing: You might notice that our prices are a good deal cheaper than other online fish stores. We simply don’t believe that the markup on fish should be so high. Our business model is set up to provide consistently low prices throughout the year, and thus we do not have room in our margins for many promotions and discounts. While other sites might regularly do discounts, promos, or lower shipping minimums, we encourage you to compare the bottom line prices on your order between sites. Our lower prices certainly do not indicate a lower level of quality; the quality and health of the fish that pass through our doors is our top priority, and you will see similar or better quality in our fish compared to other leading fish stores. In fact, we offer an industry-leading 15-day guarantee on most of our livestock. We MUST choose well in order to make a profit, given that our prices are even lower than most stores!
Order Notes: Send us an email at sales@reefbeauties.com, or leave us a note in the “Order Notes” box at checkout; we won’t miss it.
Communication is Key: It's crucial that you maintain an open line of communication with us when ordering! If anything arrives unwell, always let us know so we could provide support if necessary and give you the benefit of the doubt if it does not make it.

We highly encourage you to communicate with us about any questions or concerns you might have. Whether it may be questions about fish compatibility with other species in your tank to shipping questions, our experts will be happy to help. We will answer inquiries in the order in which they are received; if you haven’t received a response yet, we will get to you within the next 24-48 hours.