How many Hobbyist are having fish shipped?

[Forsaken77]

Of note, I said not more expensive on average than other online dealers, not LFS.

Gotcha

 

[Jimmyneptune]

My local fish store is Reefwise, 25 min drive, I buy regularly from them. The LFS store, 5 min drive, the lady thing I bought from him was 12 years ago was a yellow tang it had ich. I still have the yellow tang.
DD is awesome with guarantees and customer service I wouldn't hesitate to buy from them.

 

[TechnicalFisher]

I have purchased all the fish for my present tank from LA (a few from DD) and have been very happy with the quality/health of fish and the shopping/delivery experience. The only issue I encountered was on DOA leopard wrasse from LA. They immediately issued a refund and I had a second Leopard re-shipped and is doing great in my QT going on two months. All in all very happy.

 

[Mark Gray]

This all was a great Thread, In my opinion today 90% of fish come heathy, buy you still must QT them. 30 years ago it was hit and miss but I can only remember one or 2 fish I got direct from over seas that was not in faaily good shape and those 2 were most likely cyanide caught but they lived for many years still just to months to get them back heathy. Today things are really good, At least I think. It was hard for a fish to be in transport in a bag for 3 to 4 days. .

 

[jasonrusso]

Does anyone know if the heat pads (I'll call them temperature control pads) are set to 78 degrees? I just got a fish from LA on Friday. I opened the box in a dark room to make sure he was still alive and was surprised to find that the bag felt cool (it is 80+ degrees in the shop). I put a temperature probe in the box to monitor it while it was on my toolbox and the temperature stayed between 76-77 degrees all day.

This will make sense, because in the winter or in the belly of a cargo plane the box would need to be heated. When it's on a UPS truck in the Summer, it will need to be cooled. So on a summer trip, it would need to be heated on the plane and cooled on the truck. Pretty ingenious if that is the case.

I'm also going to save the box (never occurred to me before) if I make a trip to a "not so LFS" to keep the water warm.

 

[Thle009]

I buy most of my fish online now. LFS here are not very good and charge way too much on most livestock. It's very hard to support someone that always try to take advantage of you. Besides, many online suppliers give one week live guarantee.

I buy most of mine online as well. But I think it's difficult for me to say that my LFS is take advantage of people though, knowing that they have a lot more overhead cost to operate a store than online store do.

 

[Thle009]

Does anyone know if the heat pads (I'll call them temperature control pads) are set to 78 degrees? I just got a fish from LA on Friday. I opened the box in a dark room to make sure he was still alive and was surprised to find that the bag felt cool (it is 80+ degrees in the shop). I put a temperature probe in the box to monitor it while it was on my toolbox and the temperature stayed between 76-77 degrees all day.

This will make sense, because in the winter or in the belly of a cargo plane the box would need to be heated. When it's on a UPS truck in the Summer, it will need to be cooled. So on a summer trip, it would need to be heated on the plane and cooled on the truck. Pretty ingenious if that is the case.

I'm also going to save the box (never occurred to me before) if I make a trip to a "not so LFS" to keep the water warm.

Most of my shipment came in cooler than 78F. I believe this is done to keep the water from going foul and the fish less stress. I run my tank at 74-76F so it works out well for me.

 

[jasonrusso]

I buy most of mine online as well. But I think it's difficult for me to say that my LFS is take advantage of people though, knowing that they have a lot more overhead cost to operate a store than online store do.

In most cases, I think that is true that online etailers have lower overhead. I am not sure if that is the case with the aquatic trade. Can you imagine the cost of maintaining hundreds of tanks? The heating and salt costs must be astronomical.

 

[dh350twin]

The Tang on DD that is $130 is 4.5", which is medium large, not medium small... the fishes max size is 9".

The prices on LA Powder Blues:

So the DD fish is only $30 more than the LA equivalent.

Look... I don't want to come across as a DD/LA apologist, because I'm not... but it sure seems to me that you're out to get them... you obviously really like tsmcorals, and that's great. I think it awesome to have a place you know and trust, and in turn try and advertise for them. Just be careful you aren't doing it by making iffy statements about other vendors. I'm glad you mentioned tsmcorals... I will certainly keep my eyes on the fish there.

I have bought thousand and thousands of dollars worth of fish and have been doing this for over 20 years. I feel compelled to share where I feel comfortable buying from. And I'm not knocking LA I know from experience there way more expensive, no negotiating and have gotten sick fish from there and have called and spoken with them about qt and they pretty much said they do not qt. I could list a hundred places I have bought from. I only recommend TSM because they have taken care of me very well and have personally seen the qt protocol. If your happy with where your buying by all means continue. No arguing just good old fashion conversation and helping each other out. I'm all about everyone helping each other get the best kept fish at fair prices

 

[eatbreakfast]

In most cases, I think that is true that online etailers have lower overhead. I am not sure if that is the case with the aquatic trade. Can you imagine the cost of maintaining hundreds of tanks? The heating and salt costs must be astronomical.

But overhead is less because they can be in industrial area rather then a retail area.

 

[Aquarius]

Bought an Achilles tang last week from LA, is a juvenile about 2 1/2-3 inches. Already eating pellets and picking at selcon soaked nori. Showed up on time and well packaged. Fish was healthy and active, no signs of disease. Now happily swimming in qt.

 

[dh350twin]

Bought an Achilles tang last week from LA, is a juvenile about 2 1/2-3 inches. Already eating pellets and picking at selcon soaked nori. Showed up on time and well packaged. Fish was healthy and active, no signs of disease. Now happily swimming in qt.

Keep us updated here please. Good luck with your new fish. Any pics? Love love Achilles

 

[Aquarius]

I will post a few pics when I get home

 

[divewsharks]

Pacific Island Aquatics : pacificislandaqua dot com is also another good place. Very easy to work with and good customer service. They constantly bring in stuff (a lot of less than common) and source hard to find stuff.
I'm into wrasses and that has become one of their specialties.

 

[Aquarius]

Had to feed it to get an alright pic... thing is blazing fast[emoji41]

 

[Aquarius]

In qt, copper slightly above therapeutic levels ~ 0.6-0.7. Reason I order online is because my LFS isn't concerned about disease and illness. When I was a noob he didn't inform me on qt'ing fish, he just sold me whatever I wanted. It's not entirely his fault b/c I should have researched more instead of diving in green. But at the same time I feel it is very irresponsible of someone representing this hobby not to pump the brakes and inform me of the weight of my decisions. After a bad case of velvet and losing many fish I now qt everything. The alternative is 1.5 hours away from me and they qt all their stock but are quite pricey.

 

[jasonrusso]

But at the same time I feel it is very irresponsible of someone representing this hobby not to pump the brakes and inform me of the weight of my decisions.

I totally agree. A lot of the LFS just want to move product (and who can blame them, that's why they are open). Telling someone that they should isolate a new expensive fish for a month kind of kills the thrill and someone might change their mind. Like you, I had a bad velvet outbreak (heartbreaking) and now I will QT everything going forward.

 

[divewsharks]

I totally agree. A lot of the LFS just want to move product (and who can blame them, that's why they are open). Telling someone that they should isolate a new expensive fish for a month kind of kills the thrill and someone might change their mind. Like you, I had a bad velvet outbreak (heartbreaking) and now I will QT everything going forward.

I used to think that qt'ing would be painful; but I guess it has become the norm. I do keep the qt'ed fish in the same room as my main tank so that I get to look at them just as often. I just make sure not too close - and nothing is shared between QT and DT.

 

[dh350twin]

In qt, copper slightly above therapeutic levels ~ 0.6-0.7. Reason I order online is because my LFS isn't concerned about disease and illness. When I was a noob he didn't inform me on qt'ing fish, he just sold me whatever I wanted. It's not entirely his fault b/c I should have researched more instead of diving in green. But at the same time I feel it is very irresponsible of someone representing this hobby not to pump the brakes and inform me of the weight of my decisions. After a bad case of velvet and losing many fish I now qt everything. The alternative is 1.5 hours away from me and they qt all their stock but are quite pricey.

Why slightly higher? Nice looking fish

 

[dh350twin]

I used to think that qt'ing would be painful; but I guess it has become the norm. I do keep the qt'ed fish in the same room as my main tank so that I get to look at them just as often. I just make sure not too close - and nothing is shared between QT and DT.

It's certainly not the norm. But growing