How many Hobbyist are having fish shipped?

[Aquarius]

Why slightly higher? Nice looking fish

Thanks, just don't want it to drop below therapeutic level after I do a water change, do not want to give the parasite a chance, the other fish have been in there for a few weeks and I'm going to wait a couple more before I add carbon and then wait a couple more weeks to see if it rears it ugly head again. Then my display should be ready, it has been empty for a little over two months. Gonna do 3 months to be sure. Pains of not qt'ing

 

[lightningreef2690]

I purchased 80% of the livestock i have in my 75 gallon mixed reef from Live Aquaria, some from DD. They have one of the best selections of fish available online.

I purchased a pair of bangaii cardinals, a gold nugget maroon clown, a one spot fox face, melanarus wrasse, a trio of bartletts anthias, and my absolute favorite fish, my marine betta.
Every fish made it through QT without a single hickup, and all are still thriving to this day. No parasites, no bacteria, no ulcers or discoloration, no ripped or torn fins, no damage whatsoever to any of the fish upon arrival.

Needless to say I can and will always vouch for the quality of their livestock and customer service.
And they offer the 14 day guarantee for all fish, corals, or inverts! Pretty hard to beat.

 

[divewsharks]

It's certainly not the norm. But growing

sorry, meant my norm... agree most don't qt. of course I don't qt my corals (yet) or inverts; so its all still a gamble.

 

[rompininphx]

bluezooaquatics is probably my favorite online vendor. Most of my fish were purchased online. The good thing is you can usually find anything you would want online, but you will not be able to see it before you purchase. That is why picking a good vendor that ships healthy fish is important!

 

[dh350twin]

We need a fish Broker! Someone who is a hobbyist and will look out for the fellow hobbyist and can have some buying power to negotiate pricing. Hmmmmmmm now my wheels are spinning.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I ordered all my fish from liveaquaria since 2008. Very healthy fish.

I ordered 8 fish for my setup 3 month ago.

 

[Ashish Patel]

This is what they looked like during acclimation

 

[Ashish Patel]

I don't acclimate fish so rarely trust any other vendor for fish other than Live aquaria. I know they quarantine their fish as I have never had a fish introduced that was sick. If I was gonna purchase from petco i'd 100% quarantine the fish before throwing it into my tank! First you risk introducing a pest and this fish needs to get used to eating our foods....

 

[eatbreakfast]

I don't acclimate fish so rarely trust any other vendor for fish other than Live aquaria. I know they quarantine their fish as I have never had a fish introduced that was sick. If I was gonna purchase from petco i'd 100% quarantine the fish before throwing it into my tank! First you risk introducing a pest and this fish needs to get used to eating our foods....

LA ships their fish straight up from a wholesaler, no qt.

LADD holds fish for 2 weeks before puttimg u for sale and treats as necassary, but stll not a true qt.

 

[Nutter]

I have purchased from Reefwise, Zoa Collector, and Pacific Island Aquatics with great results. I also have a Bourbonias Anthias from NYA, but for some reason there seems to be a hiccup every single time they ship me something.

 

[Forsaken77]

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. .

The messed up thing is that things seemed to have reversed. Now a mail order fish has a better chance of being disease free than a store bought fish does. 20 years ago I never QT'd any fish and none had any illnesses.

Nowadays you have to almost assume the fish you buy at the lfs have parasites, ich or flukes. Because on the huge systems with all of the tanks inter-connected, one sick fish can spread it throughout the whole system. That's almost impossible to get rid of.

This one store by me has 3 tanks stacked vertically that are off the main system, but connected to each other (a 3 tank system). The top and middle are used for QT and the bottom tank is full of Live Rock that they sell to people. How screwed up is that? Someone buys a piece of rock and they bring home an infested brick of ich.

 

[dh350twin]

The messed up thing is that things seemed to have reversed. Now a mail order fish has a better chance of being disease free than a store bought fish does. 20 years ago I never QT'd any fish and none had any illnesses.

Nowadays you have to almost assume the fish you buy at the lfs have parasites, ich or flukes. Because on the huge systems with all of the tanks inter-connected, one sick fish can spread it throughout the whole system. That's almost impossible to get rid of.

This one store by me has 3 tanks stacked vertically that are off the main system, but connected to each other (a 3 tank system). The top and middle are used for QT and the bottom tank is full of Live Rock that they sell to people. How screwed up is that? Someone buys a piece of rock and they bring home an infested brick of ich.

Yep they don't care anymore.'

 

[Mark Gray]

The messed up thing is that things seemed to have reversed. Now a mail order fish has a better chance of being disease free than a store bought fish does. 20 years ago I never QT'd any fish and none had any illnesses.

Nowadays you have to almost assume the fish you buy at the lfs have parasites, ich or flukes. Because on the huge systems with all of the tanks inter-connected, one sick fish can spread it throughout the whole system. That's almost impossible to get rid of.

This one store by me has 3 tanks stacked vertically that are off the main system, but connected to each other (a 3 tank system). The top and middle are used for QT and the bottom tank is full of Live Rock that they sell to people. How screwed up is that? Someone buys a piece of rock and they bring home an infested brick of ich.

I Agree with you Years ago you would get some with flukes but the transport was the hardest thing on them there was no such thing as overnight shipping. In general I have had good luck with everything I have bought in the last year everything is alive and heathy and not trying to get any of them back to a heathy state from the shipping or catching process so I am Happy

 

[jasonrusso]

Let me throw another knot in this. My recent LA order included tax. I called to ask them why. The rep on the phone informed me that Foster and Smith is owned by Petco (who has brick and mortar stores in 50 states).

That being said, LA doesn't house fish. They use suppliers. So, if you special order a fish at Petco is it the same as a Live Aquaria fish?

 

[eatbreakfast]

Let me throw another knot in this. My recent LA order included tax. I called to ask them why. The rep on the phone informed me that Foster and Smith is owned by Petco (who has brick and mortar stores in 50 states).

That being said, LA doesn't house fish. They use suppliers. So, if you special order a fish at Petco is it the same as a Live Aquaria fish?

Individual petco stores order from various wholesalers. LA is Quality Marine.

 

[jasonrusso]

So I had a bad shipping experience this week. Not Live Aquaria DD, but UPS.

So my new angler didn't make it. He never ate after I got him. LA refunded the money, but that's a different story.

I ordered a painted black angler from DD on Thursday morning. It was to be shipped out Thursday night to arrive on Friday (I'm on vacation so I can take my time acclimating him). So it got shipped out Thursday. I also ordered some ghost shrimp later from the CA facility to be arriving on Saturday.
I
Ichecked the tracking number Friday morning, and the worst fear came true. The package was delayed and wasn't going to be arriving on Friday. I called LA first thing to tell them. I was told there was nothing they could do and to give UPS a chance. Apparently they have more faith in UPS than I do.

The package status didn't update all day. I called LA later in the day to let them know there was still no update. They told me that UPS would be delivering it on Saturday at no additional charge.

Saturday morning came around and I checked the tracking again. I was shocked to see the tracking now said it was a Monday delivery. The other package was on the truck already. I compared the two tracking numbers for the shrimp and fish and I know they were on the same flight. The check in times were within minutes of each other at the same locations but one was going to be delivered, one wasn't.

I called UPS and explained this was a live animal and there was no chance he would survive. I was told there was nothing they could do.

I went online to change the delivery to "hold for pickup" assuming the pick up desk was open. I was wrong. I was still on the phone and demand that I was given a better option than "we can't help you." I said you need to call them at the depot. I'll drive there. Obviously someone is there.

I think they called, and she was told they couldn't find it. I think I started yelling at her saying they intentionally killed my animals with their incompetence.

As I was yelling, my call waiting rang. It was someone at UPS saying they found my package, only because I put the hold on it!! I told her I would be right there, she left it at the guard shack.

I waited until I got home before I opened it. I was heartbroken when I opened the box. The little guy was floating around with his legs stiff and upside down. I opened the bag and tapped him with a net but he didn't respond.

I know there is a guarantee, but I'm sure all of us would rather have a healthy specimen than our money back.

I figured I would try to acclimate him anyway and pray for a miracle. The water temp was 70 degrees.

After a half hour floating in the bag, I looked in and I thought I saw a foot twitch. I looked longer and finally saw him moving around.

I got my normal acclimation gear and set it up. I had him on a slow drip for about 3 hours. I tested the bucket water and QT tank water 2 times to insure they were matches before I plunked him in.

He went for a couple swims yesterday and is active. I tried to feed him today but he wasn't interested. Who can blame him, lol.

So I'm hopping for the best right now. He's a tough trooper.

I'll take a better picture when I get a chance.

He's smaller than I thought. I might have to get some live brine shrimp if I can find it.

 

[jasonrusso]

So I had a bad shipping experience this week. Not Live Aquaria DD, but UPS.

So my new angler didn't make it. He never ate after I got him. LA refunded the money, but that's a different story.

I ordered a painted black angler from DD on Thursday morning. It was to be shipped out Thursday night to arrive on Friday (I'm on vacation so I can take my time acclimating him). So it got shipped out Thursday. I also ordered some ghost shrimp later from the CA facility to be arriving on Saturday.
I
Ichecked the tracking number Friday morning, and the worst fear came true. The package was delayed and wasn't going to be arriving on Friday. I called LA first thing to tell them. I was told there was nothing they could do and to give UPS a chance. Apparently they have more faith in UPS than I do.

The package status didn't update all day. I called LA later in the day to let them know there was still no update. They told me that UPS would be delivering it on Saturday at no additional charge.

Saturday morning came around and I checked the tracking again. I was shocked to see the tracking now said it was a Monday delivery. The other package was on the truck already. I compared the two tracking numbers for the shrimp and fish and I know they were on the same flight. The check in times were within minutes of each other at the same locations but one was going to be delivered, one wasn't.

I called UPS and explained this was a live animal and there was no chance he would survive. I was told there was nothing they could do.

I went online to change the delivery to "hold for pickup" assuming the pick up desk was open. I was wrong. I was still on the phone and demand that I was given a better option than "we can't help you." I said you need to call them at the depot. I'll drive there. Obviously someone is there.

I think they called, and she was told they couldn't find it. I think I started yelling at her saying they intentionally killed my animals with their incompetence.

As I was yelling, my call waiting rang. It was someone at UPS saying they found my package, only because I put the hold on it!! I told her I would be right there, she left it at the guard shack.

I waited until I got home before I opened it. I was heartbroken when I opened the box. The little guy was floating around with his legs stiff and upside down. I opened the bag and tapped him with a net but he didn't respond.

I know there is a guarantee, but I'm sure all of us would rather have a healthy specimen than our money back.

I figured I would try to acclimate him anyway and pray for a miracle. The water temp was 70 degrees.

After a half hour floating in the bag, I looked in and I thought I saw a foot twitch. I looked longer and finally saw him moving around.

I got my normal acclimation gear and set it up. I had him on a slow drip for about 3 hours. I tested the bucket water and QT tank water 2 times to insure they were matches before I plunked him in.

He went for a couple swims yesterday and is active. I tried to feed him today but he wasn't interested. Who can blame him, lol.

So I'm hopping for the best right now. He's a tough trooper.

I'll take a better picture when I get a chance.

He's smaller than I thought. I might have to get some live brine shrimp if I can find it.

The little guy didn't pull through, it must have been too much for him. I was really hoping he was going to last.

This one stings.

I put this one solely on UPS.

Anyone ever order from "That Fish Place?"

 

[greenhorn reefer]

One place you should NOT buy from is saltwaterfish.com. I ordered a 3 inch Magnificent Foxface from them and what arrived was a 7 inch adult that was too big for my tank.

They ignored my emails until I filed a Paypal dispute. Then they said they were working on relocating the fish and would send me another, but only if I dropped the Paypal dispute of which they had 10 days to rectify the situation. All they had to do was send Paypal the tracking number of the replacement.

So I told them that being they ignored my previous emails, and they had 10 days, that I would not drop the dispute because once you close a dispute it cannot be reopened, leaving me with no recourse if they didn't follow through. And this was a $140 fish.

So that same day, without even trying to rectify things, they refunded my money and left me with a fish they knew I couldn't house at the time. That shows to me that they care little for their customers and even less about the well being of the animals. Then they told me we can't get you anything smaller than 5 inches, yet a week after this they still had the 3 inch Magnificent Foxface listed as in-stock, waiting to scam someone else.

They don't even stock the fish. They take your order and have another place that's across the country from them ship the fish. The funny thing is that whoever shipped the fish wrote "3-inch Magnificent Foxface" on the bag with an enormous fish inside.

Then I wrote a review on their site and they took it down. Very dishonest, care nothing for the animals involved, and just trying to play middle man without even seeing what they're selling. Avoid them at all costs!

Good to know. That situation sounds terrible. I don't usually gripe about things over one issue but when you start to stack issues, like your scenario, that's when I hold people accountable. Good job letting everyone know.

 

[greenhorn reefer]

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 have read several times in this thread " lfs just want to move product." But that applies to online facilities as well so it's unfair to keep labeling lfs with that MO. You're not wrong but no one in the industry is having fish removed from their natural habitat, shipped across the world, and plunked into a glass box because they care about fish. It's all about $.

 

[jasonrusso]

I have read several times in this thread " lfs just want to move product." But that applies to online facilities as well so it's unfair to keep labeling lfs with that MO. You're not wrong but no one in the industry is having fish removed from their natural habitat, shipped across the world, and plunked into a glass box because they care about fish. It's all about $.

So you are happy with the quality of your LFS? You are in the minority if you read around here.