I'd like to take some time to share my experience with a stingray vendor I met in a Facebook group. He is also active in this group. Tom Maguire at USA Stingrays LLC.
I bought my first 2 stingrays almost a year ago from a different vendor because I fell in love with the species and wanted to get my hands wet, so to speak. Miguel Perez was amazing. Not only did the rays show up healthy and happy, but he constantly messaged me with tips and tricks, advice, and just to check up on how they were doing. He messaged me at 3 in the morning with advice on which meds to use, where to acquire them, and what to do when the rays I got from Tom infected my tank. I was blown away by the customer service I received, and I guess that lead me to believe all vendors were as professional as he was. Turns out I was wrong.
I did TONS of research before buying my first pair and made sure I was ready to go before I dropped all that money. This was my first time owning rays, but I've kept fish for about 20 years. I am not new to the nitrogen cycle at all, and I was aware of the extreme bio load that rays produce. About 2 weeks in, I ran into my first problem. My rays were fine, but I was getting an ammonia reading of about 0.5 to 1.0ppm after a fresh water change. This was concerning. I tested the water straight from my tap, and got the same reading. I made a post about it. I then called my city water company to express my concerns, and they told me they had just made the switch from chlorine to ammonium to purify the tap water, and that I should not be concerned. Ammonium apparently gives a false ammonia reading in the master test kit, and is not the same thing. STILL, I didn't want to chance it, so I installed a 2000 dollar RO filtration system in my house. Crisis averted.
Fast forward about 6 months. I saw a post from Tom selling some leftover BD hybrids in a hobby group. I reached out for pricing, and he sold me 3 of them for 500 bucks. I remember thinking that deal seemed too good to be true. I thought they looked great right out of the gate, but I was new to rays. They were eating, exploring, and seemed to be fine. After posting, I received messages from 3 other people (one of them an admin of another group) that said they looked thin and unhealthy. One even said "you got those from Tom, didn't you?" as an opening of the conversation. I paid it no mind, because they seemed to be doing fine. After about a week, they stopped eating. I tested my water parameters every single day and they were perfect. About 2 weeks in, they seemed visibly stressed and still not eating. Again, perfect water parameters. On week three, all 3 rays died withing 12 hours of each other. I pulled a water sample when I woke up to find the first 2 dead, the third died about 12 hours later. I sent the water sample and bodies to a personal friend of mine who is the lead marine biologist at The Center for Marine Biology at the Virgina Beach Aquarium for testing. The other 2 rays in the tank still seemed fine.
Then about a week after I lost the 3 rays, I noticed my other 2 behaving strangely. Same symptoms. I woke up to one of my pearls dead, and visible worms on my last remaining pearl. I made a post about it and got completely bashed by all of Tom's friends in the hobby group. I was told my water quality was ****, and it was 100% my fault my Ray's were dead. Tom sent me messages saying it was my fault, and he was not in any way responsible. His messages had an ugly tone to them. However, when I told him they were being tested at a lab, the tone changed to one of helpful customer service, and I was told no matter the result, he would replace them. I was extremely friendly and cordial.
Fast forward 2 more weeks. The test results from the lab come in. The animals were infested with Potamotrygon Phyllobothriidae (flatworms native to wild rays) and Elusimicrobia. (A parasite native to tropical ants.) Instead of posting the results publicly to clear my name and not wanting to smear his name and reputation, I sent them to him in a private message. I fully understand that rays are suseptable to parasites, and **** happens. He agreed to replace the rays. I also noticed that his sale posts now include his quarantine process, which I had never seen him include before.
I waited for weeks without contacting him. I reached out and he told me he had 2 rays set aside for me that would be ready on the 18th. I reached out again on the 19th. He ignored me. Waited another day. Ignored again. That's fine. Life happens. I understand. Even though messenger clearly shows he was active. Reached out again a few days later. He told me he had some personal family emergencies going on and he needed a few days. I told him to take his time. Then the very next day I saw him selling Ray's in another group. When I reached out again, he cursed me and called me a pain in the ass.
After the dozens of messages I received from people he's burned, admins, another guy who paid for a ray that he never shipped and blocked on Facebook, and multiple vendors messaged me begging for me to out him, I am finally doing it. I gave him AMPLE time to correct his bad business practices, and I've been patient and understanding all this time just to see him still selling animals while telling me he doesn't have the time. Calling me a pain in the ass was the last straw.
I have included our entire conversation, complete with times and dates if anyone cares to read it. I have also included the lab report that shows 0.764 ammonia in the sample... even after 2 dead animals were in the water before I pulled the sample for up to 8 hours. (2 died overnight while I was asleep.) I'm sure Tom does have dozens of happy customers. I'm sure many sales have gone down with zero problems. That wasn't the case with me, though... and as a business owner myself, I can't imagine EVER talking this way to a customer... or ripping people off. Not everyone has a marine biologist they can run to. I do. I prefer science over the blame game, or "he said, she said."
Do what you will with this information. I'm sure his friends will jump to his defense again, but this is MY experience with him, and I wanted to share. Science doesn't lie. Proof is in the paperwork. He sold me sick animals, blamed me when they died, agreed to replace them when I provided scientific evidence of the parasites, gave me excuses and ignored me while continuing to sell rays, and then treated me like complete **** when I called him on it.
I bought my first 2 stingrays almost a year ago from a different vendor because I fell in love with the species and wanted to get my hands wet, so to speak. Miguel Perez was amazing. Not only did the rays show up healthy and happy, but he constantly messaged me with tips and tricks, advice, and just to check up on how they were doing. He messaged me at 3 in the morning with advice on which meds to use, where to acquire them, and what to do when the rays I got from Tom infected my tank. I was blown away by the customer service I received, and I guess that lead me to believe all vendors were as professional as he was. Turns out I was wrong.
I did TONS of research before buying my first pair and made sure I was ready to go before I dropped all that money. This was my first time owning rays, but I've kept fish for about 20 years. I am not new to the nitrogen cycle at all, and I was aware of the extreme bio load that rays produce. About 2 weeks in, I ran into my first problem. My rays were fine, but I was getting an ammonia reading of about 0.5 to 1.0ppm after a fresh water change. This was concerning. I tested the water straight from my tap, and got the same reading. I made a post about it. I then called my city water company to express my concerns, and they told me they had just made the switch from chlorine to ammonium to purify the tap water, and that I should not be concerned. Ammonium apparently gives a false ammonia reading in the master test kit, and is not the same thing. STILL, I didn't want to chance it, so I installed a 2000 dollar RO filtration system in my house. Crisis averted.
Fast forward about 6 months. I saw a post from Tom selling some leftover BD hybrids in a hobby group. I reached out for pricing, and he sold me 3 of them for 500 bucks. I remember thinking that deal seemed too good to be true. I thought they looked great right out of the gate, but I was new to rays. They were eating, exploring, and seemed to be fine. After posting, I received messages from 3 other people (one of them an admin of another group) that said they looked thin and unhealthy. One even said "you got those from Tom, didn't you?" as an opening of the conversation. I paid it no mind, because they seemed to be doing fine. After about a week, they stopped eating. I tested my water parameters every single day and they were perfect. About 2 weeks in, they seemed visibly stressed and still not eating. Again, perfect water parameters. On week three, all 3 rays died withing 12 hours of each other. I pulled a water sample when I woke up to find the first 2 dead, the third died about 12 hours later. I sent the water sample and bodies to a personal friend of mine who is the lead marine biologist at The Center for Marine Biology at the Virgina Beach Aquarium for testing. The other 2 rays in the tank still seemed fine.
Then about a week after I lost the 3 rays, I noticed my other 2 behaving strangely. Same symptoms. I woke up to one of my pearls dead, and visible worms on my last remaining pearl. I made a post about it and got completely bashed by all of Tom's friends in the hobby group. I was told my water quality was ****, and it was 100% my fault my Ray's were dead. Tom sent me messages saying it was my fault, and he was not in any way responsible. His messages had an ugly tone to them. However, when I told him they were being tested at a lab, the tone changed to one of helpful customer service, and I was told no matter the result, he would replace them. I was extremely friendly and cordial.
Fast forward 2 more weeks. The test results from the lab come in. The animals were infested with Potamotrygon Phyllobothriidae (flatworms native to wild rays) and Elusimicrobia. (A parasite native to tropical ants.) Instead of posting the results publicly to clear my name and not wanting to smear his name and reputation, I sent them to him in a private message. I fully understand that rays are suseptable to parasites, and **** happens. He agreed to replace the rays. I also noticed that his sale posts now include his quarantine process, which I had never seen him include before.
I waited for weeks without contacting him. I reached out and he told me he had 2 rays set aside for me that would be ready on the 18th. I reached out again on the 19th. He ignored me. Waited another day. Ignored again. That's fine. Life happens. I understand. Even though messenger clearly shows he was active. Reached out again a few days later. He told me he had some personal family emergencies going on and he needed a few days. I told him to take his time. Then the very next day I saw him selling Ray's in another group. When I reached out again, he cursed me and called me a pain in the ass.
After the dozens of messages I received from people he's burned, admins, another guy who paid for a ray that he never shipped and blocked on Facebook, and multiple vendors messaged me begging for me to out him, I am finally doing it. I gave him AMPLE time to correct his bad business practices, and I've been patient and understanding all this time just to see him still selling animals while telling me he doesn't have the time. Calling me a pain in the ass was the last straw.
I have included our entire conversation, complete with times and dates if anyone cares to read it. I have also included the lab report that shows 0.764 ammonia in the sample... even after 2 dead animals were in the water before I pulled the sample for up to 8 hours. (2 died overnight while I was asleep.) I'm sure Tom does have dozens of happy customers. I'm sure many sales have gone down with zero problems. That wasn't the case with me, though... and as a business owner myself, I can't imagine EVER talking this way to a customer... or ripping people off. Not everyone has a marine biologist they can run to. I do. I prefer science over the blame game, or "he said, she said."
Do what you will with this information. I'm sure his friends will jump to his defense again, but this is MY experience with him, and I wanted to share. Science doesn't lie. Proof is in the paperwork. He sold me sick animals, blamed me when they died, agreed to replace them when I provided scientific evidence of the parasites, gave me excuses and ignored me while continuing to sell rays, and then treated me like complete **** when I called him on it.
