Livestock Guarantee

We understand that buying fish online, sight unseen can be daunting. At Reef Beauties, it is our responsibility to hand-pick healthy specimens, pack and ship them with care, and ensure that they arrive to you safely and ready to live long lives in their new home.

As long as your specimens are acclimated properly and promptly, arrive on time, and are compatible with your well-maintained system and other fish, your livestock will do very well in your tank.

*We cannot guarantee "expert" care level and other sensitive items. Please see below for what is NOT part of the 15-day guarantee.

15-Day Livestock Guarantee

We guarantee live arrival and survival for up to 15 days from the date of delivery on most livestock, provided the requirements below are met.

Your order must arrive on time, and be acclimated properly and promptly. You must purchase Delay Protection to maintain coverage on a delayed package.
Your tank must be cycled and well-maintained
New arrivals must be compatible with your existing fish.
Your tank must provide a suitable environment for your new arrivals to thrive (hiding places, adequate sand for burrowing fish, proper flow/oxygenation, correct water parameters).
You must provide a CLEAR photo of the deceased specimen OUTSIDE of water, on a white background, with your order number and the date written above.

To file a guarantee claim, simply fill out the form at the following link:
Guarantee Claim Form

Once approved, you will receive store credit for the value of your loss.

Claims submitted via email will NOT be accepted.

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For FULL 15-Day Coverage: Issues or concerns MUST be communicated to us via email within the first 7 days of delivery.

These issues may include:

Signs of illness or disease
Abnormal behavior days after arrival
Loss of appetite
Visible injuries or physical deterioration

Communicating issues to us early will also give our team of experts an opportunity to advise on treatment to hopefully save the fish.

If an inexplicable loss occurs beyond 7 days and no issues are communicated to us during that first week, your claim will be denied.

Any issues that the fish arrive with will present themselves within the first 7 days. If they arrive healthy, but develop issues after the first week, this is an indicator of an issue with the tank.

Our guarantee is designed to protect you against issues related to shipping and the health of the livestock we select, NOT losses caused by tank conditions or improper care.

We are continuing to offer the longest Livestock Guarantee online, but sadly abuse of this generous policy has led to this new requirement. We feel this is a fair requirement to continue offering 15 days of coverage to customers who properly care for their livestock and communicate any issues to us in a timely manner.

DOAs

If something was DOA (dead on arrival), the claim form can be used, but is not required. In this case, you may email us with photos of the deceased item within 2 hours of delivery, being sure to reference your order number.

Losing Multiple Specimens of the Same Species

If you lost multiple specimens of the same species (i.e. 5 Copperband Butterflies, 5 Grn Chromis, 3 Cleaner Shrimps), preserve ALL deceased bodies.
In order to receive credit for multiple specimens, we require ALL deceased specimens to be in the same picture.

High Value Items (Over $150)

If you lost an expensive item (over $150), you must take a 10 second video of the item outside of water. Sadly this is a requirement due to fraud we regularly deal with.

Requests for Additional Info

Please note that we require responses to any requests for additional information to be sent WITHIN 3 days of the request. After that point, we will NOT be able to process your guarantee claim, as that info will no longer be relevant to the conditions of the tank at the time of loss.

Providing Enough Information

We will not be finding excuses to not honor your claim, especially if you communicate issues with us early on, and show that your tank is well cared-for and fish are compatible.

Filing a claim with us is no different from filing an insurance claim during a car accident. We can only work with the information you give us. If you do not give us enough information to adequately investigate the claim, your claim will likely be denied.

This includes, but is not limited to:

Unclear photos of the deceased item
Refusal to provide water parameters and/or tank photos
Lost fish in the tank. If introducing straight to the main tank, this will always be a risk.
Unable to get to the deceased item

Applying Store Credit

Once your store credit is issued, you will receive a confirmation email with your code and you will be able to use it right away.

Your credit code works almost like a pre-paid debit card; for example, if you have $100 worth of credit, and only order $50 worth of items on your next order, you will still have a balance of $50 remaining to use on the next order after that.

To apply your credit, simply enter the code emailed to you in the "Credit/Discount Code" box when checking out on your next order, and it will discount your order by the credit value.

Please note, we CANNOT apply your credit for you retroactively after your order has been placed. Your credit MUST be applied to your order when placing it.

Shipping Delays and Delay Protection

Unfortunately, carriers do not issue refunds for delays in transit caused by weather or mechanical issues. Delays are rare, and we do pack with delays in mind; especially when the weather is not extremely cold, most of the time everything makes it alive and well despite a full day delay.

However, in some cases, something you ordered may not make it due to a shipping delay. These delays are outside of our control, and of course, yours as well, but they may occur in rare cases.

We still want you to be covered in these cases, so we are offering Delay Protection for $20, which can be selected when checking out.

Please note that if a delay occurs and Delay Protection is not purchased, your 15-day guarantee will be void.

Click here for more information on how Delay Protection works:

Livestock Guarantee Details and Exclusions

Please DO NOT file a guarantee claim demanding a refund or replacement, as this indicates that you did not read our policy.
We cannot retroactively process incomplete guarantee claims, or guarantee claims weeks after death.
By not following proper acclimation procedures or by failing to receive the package on arrival, your guarantee will be void.
Shipping costs and related packaging fees are NOT covered by any guarantee and are non-refundable.
As we are shipping live animals, someone must be available to receive the shipment on the first delivery attempt
If your order is delayed by the carrier, you are still required to be available to accept the shipment and acclimate all contents before contacting us.
If you are not present when your order is delivered, AKA "Delivery Attempted," your guarantee will be voided.
We will NOT guarantee items introduced into a bare tank with no saltwater fish already inhabiting the tank.
- Unfortunately there is no way for us to verify that the tank was properly cycled and ready to receive fish without visible proof that a fish can survive and thrive in there.
We will NOT guarantee items that die due to improper preparation, such as tank cycling, acclimation, and water parameters.

Using Acclimation Boxes Will Void Your Guarantee

Please do not place new arrivals in acclimation boxes. Your guarantee will be void for items that are placed in acclimation boxes upon arrival.
- Acclimation boxes are stressful places to be, as the fish will be able to see different directions in which to swim, but unable to swim there. They are instead suspended in the tank, visibly exposed on all sides, which may make it difficult or impossible for them to de-stress from shipping.
- Extended periods of stress can potentially kill a fish or bring out underlying illness.
- If you are utilizing the acclimation box to avoid aggression from established fish, we recommend placing your established fish in the acclimation box, as they are not recovering from shipping stress. This will allow your new arrivals to settle into their new home in peace.

EXPERT and Other Sensitive Items

We can only guarantee LIVE ARRIVAL for "EXPERT" care-level items. These species may have specific environmental or feeding requirements, or are simply difficult to care for and not suitable for some aquarists.

If an EXPERT item is DOA, we require a photo to be taken immediately after delivery (within up to a 1 hour grace period), and communication that the item arrived dead or unwell. The live arrival guarantee will expire after that one hour grace period. We would not be able to retroactively issue credit for it.

Guarantee Claims will be DENIED for livestock that has died as a result of TANK ENVIRONMENT, including the following scenarios:

Physical trauma and/or evidence of fighting with, aggression from, or getting eaten by tank mates.
Incompatible size with existing tank-mates (for example, ordering small Tangs to be kept together with established, larger Tangs)
Introducing livestock known to be aggressive towards each other (such as multiple Tangs of the same species) into a tank that is not mature and of adequate size.
You refused or were unable to follow recommended procedures to treat fish that developed illnesses or other issues during the guarantee period
Tank not of recommended size.
Animal jumped from tank or injured/died from getting sucked into pumps or swimming into rocks/glass.
You cannot find the animal or get it out of the tank to provide a video
Lack of a sand bed for a sand-burrowing fish
Introducing new arrivals to an acclimation box
Tank water chemistry MUST BE within the following parameters: Temp between 75-83 F and constant, Ammonia 0.0 ppm, Nitrite 0.0-30 ppm, pH 8.1-8.4, Specific Gravity 1.020-1.026.

We reserve the right to refuse guarantees in cases where numerous deaths keep occurring, indicating a possible environmental issue with the tank or a serious issue with delivery in your area.

We reserve the right to ask for additional photo, video or water samples in certain cases before issuing credit.

Ich and Marine Velvet

With nearly 30 years' experience in this hobby, we pride ourselves with maintaining an extremely clean system that benefits from industrial-level filtration and fresh saltwater deliveries every week. Fish are kept in our treated system running hyposalinity and copper for a minimum 3 full days (with current arrival schedules, most fish get 5+ days), and are inspected for illness/disease prior to shipment.

We guarantee that the fish that we ship out are clear of visible ich, velvet, and other illnesses when they leave our facility.

However, with wild-caught fish, illnesses like ich will always have potential to present itself if a stress event occurs, unless you complete a full 4-6 week quarantine period. "Invisible" ich may be underlying in the gills of some wild species, only to be brought out by stress events. In some rare cases, these stress events may occur DURING shipping, which we absolutely do cover under the guarantee policy.

In the rare case that something ARRIVES with ich or velvet, it's absolutely covered by our guarantee policy.

On the other hand, we cannot cover guarantee claims involving ich or velvet that developed on the fish while they are in your tank, likely due to environmental conditions such as improper water parameters, bullying/stress from other tank mates, or being spread from other tankmates.

It is your responsibility to maintain a proper and healthy environment for the fish, whether they are being quarantined or introduced directly into your main tank. It is also your responsibility to be prepared to quarantine fish, or have a small hospital tank handy to treat fish in the case of an outbreak.

It is up to you whether you quarantine the wild fish that you receive from us. While the precautions we take are a lot more than what other stores do, it is NOT a full 4-6 week quarantine. There are of course pros and cons to whether you choose to quarantine or not, but if you choose not to do so, you must understand the potential risks if your tank is not stable.

We would not recommend skipping quarantine if your tank is new, as more mature tanks tend to be significantly more stable.

It is crucial that you inspect your items upon delivery. Guarantee claims involving ich and velvet will ONLY be covered if you inform us and send photos of it within 4 hours of arrival, showing that the item ARRIVED with visible ich or velvet. Beyond that point, any claims stating the fish came with ich or velvet, or any tank crashes that occur as a result of it, will NOT be accepted.

Inexplicable Losses

With 30 years of experience in this industry and hobby, we know that this hobby can be complicated and tricky, and that there are innumerable variables that can potentially cause losses of livestock. With this level of experience, in many cases, with the right information we can figure out what might have gone wrong in processing guarantee claims.

However, there may be cases where losses are "inexplicable," meaning that there are no clear signs pointing to the cause of the loss, and the fish otherwise arrived fine with no issues from delivery.

We stand by our guarantee and will honor guarantee claims if this occurs. However, if there is a pattern of inexplicable loss, we will not be able to continue processing credit, as this pattern indicates that there may be an issue with your tank or acclimation protocols that we cannot figure out. We cannot continue blindly issuing credit hoping that the issue will correct itself.

We will define a pattern of inexplicable loss as the following:

You lost over 60% of the items in your order with no explanation of what caused the loss (reported issues on arrival or within the first 24 hours after delivery.)
You have a consistent pattern of loss on 2 or more consecutive orders

In these cases, we will not be able to issue credit for losses that occur beyond what is listed above.

This is one of the reasons why most online stores have been phasing out guarantee policies, or reducing their coverage periods. If we shipped a fish with an issue, or if an issue occurred due to to shipping, that is absolutely our responsibility and we stand by our guarantee. However, if a loss occurs due to an issue in your tank, whether it is explicable or not, we cannot blindly be approving credit for that.

It is very important to carefully observe your new arrivals, and immediately communicate any issues to us to ensure any potential losses do not fall under this category.