Buying fish online

brad shawn · Jun 20, 2019

good morning ! Just sitting having my coffee break and working up a stock list for a tank that’s in the works. How many of you buy your fish online ? I don’t know if your allowed to recommend places on the forum. The divers den has some very nice fish. And pre quarantine?! I have a QT set up anyways. I have plenty experience on buying fish online (freshwater) and had some awesome luck and some very bad luck. I fortunately I have no lfs in my area that I know of as reputable.

BestMomEver · Jun 20, 2019

I’ve bought from divers den. For the most part the quality has been good. They don’t do a typical QT. I think it’s just a two week observation to make sure they’re eating. I have ordered from them and had success a few times. I will say that QT is a must for DD. My whole tank was was wiped out from velvet that came from a fish from DD. I ordered four fish at one time so I don’t know which one had it but I lost all four of those fish plus four more. That was the last time I ordered from them. Huge loss. If I’d QT’d I could have treated them and things would have turned out better. Live and learn, I guess.

ahiggins · Jun 20, 2019

I just came back after a 2 year hiatus lol I’ve used live aquaria before for fish and never had any issues. I try to buy local but they’re an hour plus away so it doesn’t always work out. I’ve only had a handful of snails that didn’t make it once and they refunded. Good luck

Dom · Jun 20, 2019

Hi Brad.

To begin, I always work under the assumption that every fish I purchase has NOT been QT'd. So I am in agreement with you having a QT set up and feel you should do your own QT.

I have more than one quality fish store within 40 minutes of me, so, I tend to shop locally.

I think buying livestock on line is a crap shoot. Too many variables (package gets lost).

Tell us more about your tank (ie: how big).

Nicholas Scelzi · Jun 20, 2019

Try and reach out to Blake at @Tide Pool Aquatics. He is great ! Very responsive and will work with you to try and order any fish you are looking for and he QTs all his fish and you can read their qt procedure on their site ! Very straight forward and honest

brad shawn · Jun 20, 2019

Dom said:
Hi Brad.

To begin, I always work under the assumption that every fish I purchase has NOT been QT'd. So I am in agreement with you having a QT set up and feel you should do your own QT.

I have more than one quality fish store within 40 minutes of me, so, I tend to shop locally.

I think buying livestock on line is a crap shoot. Too many variables (package gets lost).

Tell us more about your tank (ie: how big).

Yes crap shoot is right. A order of neocardina shrimp is penny’s compared to salt water! Tank is red Sea reefer 250. Currently empty Just got it. So it’s a blank canvas

brad shawn · Jun 20, 2019

BestMomEver said:
I’ve bought from divers den. For the most part the quality has been good. They don’t do a typical QT. I think it’s just a two week observation to make sure they’re eating. I have ordered from them and had success a few times. I will say that QT is a must for DD. My whole tank was was wiped out from velvet that came from a fish from DD. I ordered four fish at one time so I don’t know which one had it but I lost all four of those fish plus four more. That was the last time I ordered from them. Huge loss. If I’d QT’d I could have treated them and things would have turned out better. Live and learn, I guess.

good to know I’ll keep that in mind. Are the same company who supplies pet smarts or is that a rumor

BestMomEver · Jun 20, 2019

brad shawn said:
good to know I’ll keep that in mind. Are the same company who supplies pet smarts or is that a rumor

Don’t think so. Petco bought out Dr Foster and Smith which was the parent company of LA. I believe they will let LA continue to operate as is. They may be supplying but I doubt it.

brad shawn · Jun 20, 2019

Nicholas Scelzi said:
Try and reach out to Blake at @Tide Pool Aquatics. He is great ! Very responsive and will work with you to try and order any fish you are looking for and he QTs all his fish and you can read their qt procedure on their site ! Very straight forward and honest

Awesome thank you I’ll look into it!

Jon Fishman · Jun 20, 2019

I have so many great shops, I have only considered online once, for a Gem tang, and even that I can get locally but it’s a lot more expensive

ScottieB · Jun 21, 2019

Found out about this place while listening to an episode of askBRS. This might be what your looking for.
https://www.marinecollectors.com/

brad shawn · Jun 21, 2019

He’s got some beautiful fish thanks for the recommendation

Steve Blum · Jun 21, 2019

ahiggins said:
I just came back after a 2 year hiatus lol I’ve used live aquaria before for fish and never had any issues. I try to buy local but they’re an hour plus away so it doesn’t always work out. I’ve only had a handful of snails that didn’t make it once and they refunded. Good luck

I Recently Had a bad experience with LA. Nasty, Disrespectful Reps. Not the LA of old, terrible since Petco bought them.

Steve Blum · Jun 21, 2019

brad shawn said:
good morning ! Just sitting having my coffee break and working up a stock list for a tank that’s in the works. How many of you buy your fish online ? I don’t know if your allowed to recommend places on the forum. The divers den has some very nice fish. And pre quarantine?! I have a QT set up anyways. I have plenty experience on buying fish online (freshwater) and had some awesome luck and some very bad luck. I fortunately I have no lfs in my area that I know of as reputable.

You should be on the Vendor-Feedback forum as I just found out

Indytraveler83 · Jun 21, 2019

Just an observation:

Many people come here and comment that the animals they received online are significantly smaller than they expected/were advertised. I’ve experienced that as well.

My 2 cents after asking a similar question is I’d rather try a good lfs if I can possibly reach it, but would buy online from a good retailer over the chain brands of lfs, if that’s all that’s available.

AcanthurusRex · Jun 21, 2019

Buying from LA and Fishy Business for example actually reduces the number of possible disease vectors since the fish are drop shipped from the wholesaler.
LA ORA fish from ORA. DiversDen are conditioned not fully quarantined.
My last LA shipment looked perfect. However I cross contaminated the DT and had a velvet outbreak as a result. The QT’d fish did well. Point is that you can’t assume everything is good by appearance alone.

Steve Blum · Jun 21, 2019

Indytraveler83 said:
Just an observation:

Many people come here and comment that the animals they received online are significantly smaller than they expected/were advertised. I’ve experienced that as well.

My 2 cents after asking a similar question is I’d rather try a good lfs if I can possibly reach it, but would buy online from a good retailer over the chain brands of lfs, if that’s all that’s available.

Yes I learned my lesson from buying online. I Prefer my LFS only problem he gets fish from Sea Dwelling Creatures and Exotic Reef Imports. I suspect these suppliers don't screen their fish well. I think the collectors are using cyanide to capture. The fish do really well for 6 weeks then suddenly die.

vetteguy53081 · Jun 21, 2019

I have ordered from saltwaterfish.com, fishy business.com and Live aquaria. I have had overall good luck with all, but haven't ordered from LA since Petco took over.

My best success was Fishybusiness , followed by saltwaterfish. Live aquaria carries the best doa policy IMO

paphater · Jun 21, 2019

I think divers den is really your best bet, especially if you are looking for something in particular or are looking to stock multiple things at once. I've received fish from some of the smaller vendors, and while they all have been great you are pretty much at the mercy of what they have in stock. I have tried putting 3-4 specific fish requests in to multiple smaller vendors that QT their fish but I have never had any luck.