YoCamron Certified | Quarantined, Treated & Eating
The program, explained
Every animal we sell comes one of two ways. Both are honest. Only one is guaranteed.
Most stores sell you a fish that landed in the country a few days ago and hope for the best. We decided to give you the choice instead — pay for the science, or skip it knowingly. Here is exactly what each option means.
YoCamron Certified — the tier we built our name on
A Certified animal has finished a full quarantine course in our own systems before it is ever offered to you. In practice that means:
- Isolated on arrival. New imports never share water with established stock. Cross-contamination is how wholesale disease becomes your disease, so it simply is not allowed to happen here.
- Treated prophylactically. We treat for the parasites and infections that import stress actually causes — not a splash of something blue in the bag, a real course, dosed and finished. This is where the marine biology degree earns its keep.
- Observed until boring. An animal leaves quarantine when it has been symptom-free and behaving normally long enough that watching it stops being interesting. Boring is the goal. Boring means healthy.
- Eating prepared foods. A Certified fish has a demonstrated feeding response on food you can actually buy — not whatever it was eating on a reef three weeks ago. You will not spend your first month begging a fish to eat.
Certified stock ships only after its quarantine course is complete. When you order, we confirm the schedule with you directly — you always know exactly where your animal is in the process.
Fresh Import — for the keeper who runs their own quarantine
A Fresh Import is the same species from the same suppliers — sold as it arrived, before our observation window, at a price that reflects that. If you run your own quarantine setup and know what a copper course is, this tier is priced for you, and we will happily talk you through what we would do with the animal.
Be clear-eyed about the trade: Fresh Import animals carry no health guarantee. Import is hard on fish. Most make it. Some do not. At this price, you are the quarantine department.
The guarantee ladder
- Fresh Import: live arrival coverage per our Shipping & Live Animal Policy. Health beyond arrival is not guaranteed — that is what the price reflects.
- YoCamron Certified: the same live-arrival coverage, on an animal that has already survived the risky part of its journey in our systems, not yours.
- Certified + Premium membership: a full 60-day guarantee on Certified livestock. Two months. No other store in this hobby comes close — the industry standard is measured in hours.
Which one should you buy?
If you are adding to an established display tank — especially one you have years invested in — buy Certified. The cheapest fish in your tank is the one that does not bring ich in with it.
If you are an experienced keeper with a proper quarantine system and you enjoy doing this part yourself, Fresh Import is a genuinely good deal, and we would rather sell it to you honestly than pretend every fish in the industry ships pre-cleaned.
Questions about a specific animal? Ask Cameron. Not a chatbot, not a call center — the marine biologist who ran the quarantine.