Live Aquaria....California facility

[Pet Detective]

Ok, I have been using Live Aquaria for livestock for many years now with better than average success rate, recently however......I can't keep a fish alive for more than 5 days after delivery, these fish have included, juv emperators (4) juv blue girdled (2) juv koran (3) singapore (4), and most recently a blue angel, just died today....this fish I received friday may 24th 2019, it acclimated well, it was eating voraciously, everything I fed it, seemed quite happy....so was I....until this morning, it began crazy swimming, crashing into the rock work, spinning aimlessly until it lodged itself into a rock and died, this has been the case for almost half of the fish I listed, except the singapores, they are tough to find one that acclimates well to the home aquarium, so I will discount those, one of the juv emperators came with a fungus it appeared to me, 2 days later it's fins and skin/scales were peeling and it died. I want to make clear that all these fish that I have listed were from the California facility, I also received a juv emperator from the Wisconsin divers den on friday and it is doing quite well, eating seaweed from the clip is always a great sign that it will make it.

Before you ask, I have a 250g tank with several adult angels already, Queen, French, Blueface, Majestic, Achilles and blue hippo tangs & several dwarf angels, all purchased mostly from L.A. years ago and all doing quite well, so it's not my tank and I use a plexiglass divider for the new fish so that they all become used to seeing each other for months before I remove the divider....works great, very little aggression that way, so has anyone else been having this problem with L.A. Ca., not Divers Den?

 

[JayKim]

Bought 25 fish last month, 12 died, all from cali. This seems to be the common theme with live aquaria these days. Never had issues 7 years ago. I stopped doing business with LA, Drs Foster Smith, and Petco.

 

[Pet Detective]

Bought 25 fish last month, 12 died, all from cali. This seems to be the common theme with live aquaria these days. Never had issues 7 years ago. I stopped doing business with LA, Drs Foster Smith, and Petco.

May I ask who you purchase from now?

 

[JayKim]

local fish stores, but I am giving Tide Pool Aquatic a try, getting rhomboid and potter's angel this friday.

 

[JayKim]

I think the one in california is a wholesaler and live aquaria hires someone or someone from the wholesaler to pick and package the fish and ship direct to you. So essentially you are trusting them and not live aquaria.

 

[Pet Detective]

local fish stores, but I am giving Tide Pool Aquatic a try, getting rhomboid and potter's angel this friday.

thank you, if you don't mind, post your experience with Tide Pool Aquatics on this thread, I'll be very interested, Potter's angels are tough, so my fingers crossed for you.

 

[JayKim]

thank you, if you don't mind, post your experience with Tide Pool Aquatics on this thread, I'll be very interested, Potter's angels are tough, so my fingers crossed for you.

my first try with Tide Pool Aquatics. He seems to communicate well so far. I've asked for video of fish eating and he's provided the rhomboid but not potter's yet, he said he'll try again. Once you can get potter's to eat frozen food it should be easier to keep. He said it's eating frozen and I don't have any reason to suspect otherwise. I'll update next weekend after I get the fish.

 

[Mark Gray]

I had the same problem 5 out of 6 fish died. My last 2 orders I tried Fishy business. everything is still alive. Good Luck

 

[JayKim]

I had the same problem 5 out of 6 fish died. My last 2 orders I tried Fishy business. everything is still alive. Good Luck

it's sad because their warranty is the best but things have gone down hill lately. I gladly paid more to order from them given my past experience but it's different now. Fishy Business does the same thing, ship direct from wholesaler but maybe they have their own people, who know what they are doing, pick the fish.

 

[Mark Gray]

it's sad because their warranty is the best but things have gone down hill lately. I gladly paid more to order from them given my past experience but it's different now.

I agree I understand their picture of your deceased fish, but I loved the fack they would send another, but not anymore I wish I could remember how long I used them for I know it's a long time.

 

[f793wm]

I buy from Live Aquaria a lot but mostly from their Diver's Den. the last fish I bought that shipped from Cali was a Scribbled Puffer on March 29. he is doing well.
My experience is that fish dying within 5 days is due to either a rapid change in water conditions, or fast acting parasite like velvet.
I QT all fish and now treat them proactively with copper power. I've had too many fish die over the years to assume they are healthy now. I also own a microscope and skin scrape/examine every fish at least twice before putting in my DT

 

[NoobReeefer]

ive purchased probably 10 fish from LA over the past couple years. Almost all of them made it thru QT and into my DT just fine. 2 months ago i got a Naso tang, copper band and squaretail bristle tooth tang. The naso and copperband were very finicky eaters, the copper band died on day 13 in QT th naso made it through QT and died in my DT about a month later. Just yesterday i purchased 10 black axil chromes and a white cheek tang which should be here on wednesday. Hopefully i have better luck than you been having.

 

[Coral Newbie]

it's sad because their warranty is the best but things have gone down hill lately. I gladly paid more to order from them given my past experience but it's different now. Fishy Business does the same thing, ship direct from wholesaler but maybe they have their own people, who know what they are doing, pick the fish.

I just ordered last night from fishy business. Not happy on the surprise package charge tho.

I have also ordered from blue zoo and marinecollectors.com

 

[Soronus]

My Local Fish Store Even QT's my Fish for me, which also allows me to see if they get along with each other and let them sit in Copper for Two weeks. This keeps me from buying any fish online.

 

[f793wm]

Ok, I have been using Live Aquaria for livestock for many years now with better than average success rate, recently however......I can't keep a fish alive for more than 5 days after delivery, these fish have included, juv emperators (4) juv blue girdled (2) juv koran (3) singapore (4), and most recently a blue angel, just died today....this fish I received friday may 24th 2019, it acclimated well, it was eating voraciously, everything I fed it, seemed quite happy....so was I....until this morning, it began crazy swimming, crashing into the rock work, spinning aimlessly until it lodged itself into a rock and died, this has been the case for almost half of the fish I listed, except the singapores, they are tough to find one that acclimates well to the home aquarium, so I will discount those, one of the juv emperators came with a fungus it appeared to me, 2 days later it's fins and skin/scales were peeling and it died. I want to make clear that all these fish that I have listed were from the California facility, I also received a juv emperator from the Wisconsin divers den on friday and it is doing quite well, eating seaweed from the clip is always a great sign that it will make it.

Before you ask, I have a 250g tank with several adult angels already, Queen, French, Blueface, Majestic, Achilles and blue hippo tangs & several dwarf angels, all purchased mostly from L.A. years ago and all doing quite well, so it's not my tank and I use a plexiglass divider for the new fish so that they all become used to seeing each other for months before I remove the divider....works great, very little aggression that way, so has anyone else been having this problem with L.A. Ca., not Divers Den?

By the way. I did have a fish from them pass in March but it was from Divers Den. It was a $259 Angelfish. They asked for my water parameters (which they didn't do before). Here is the email exchange I had with them and their response to treating fish in copper or not.
====================================


The fish died while in a bare QT tank. It was alone. The water parameters were fine. 1.020 salinity pH 8.3 Ammonia & Nitrate 0, Nitrate 5-10 ppm temp 78. I do weekly water change in the QT

I don't check anything of the other parameters as they are unimportant in a QT. I do weekly 50% water change on the QT system.



I am assuming that you take measures to ensure all fish are disease and parasite free when they are shipped out; just maintaining a low dose of copper in the holding system to mask any symptoms, does not help the fish to be properly treated.



Thank you.
<<name redacted>>



Dear <<name redacted>>,

Thank you for email response. Your water parameters look fine, no concerns there. Thank you for providing the information. We do take steps to ensure the specimens we send out are healthy, behaving normally, and eating properly. We only treat with copper if necessary. Again, we sincerely apologize for the loss of your specimen.

Thank you for choosing LiveAquaria for your live aquatic needs. You are a valued customer and we look forward to hearing from you in the future.



If we can be of any additional assistance, please feel free to contact our LiveAquaria Department at 1-800-334-3699 or via email at [email protected]. We will be happy to answer any question(s) you may have.



Sincerely,



LiveAquaria

<<name redacted>>


Customer By Service Email (<<name redacted>>) (03/28/2019 07:22 PM)

 

[albano]

Once you can get potter's to eat frozen food it should be easier to keep.

While getting a Potters to eat is important, IME, it is no guarantee of success... many Potters will seem to do good for a few months and then die for no apparent reason

 

[albano]

I think the one in california is a wholesaler and live aquaria hires someone or someone from the wholesaler to pick and package the fish and ship direct to you.

The same guy that picks and packs the fish for other pet stores, picks and packs yours... if it’s still alive and swimming it’s good enough to ship!

 

[ca1ore]

Quality Marine, a West Coast wholesaler, has been the replenishment source for live aquaria orders for as long as I can recall. They also supply fish to some other online order centers and many local fish stores. The supply chain for marine fish is generally worse today than in the past - partly because growing demand means less qualified collectors and collection practices and partly because it is rife with disease problems. I’ve been ordering from LA for over a decade, and while disease is more rampant today than in the past, with a competent QT system, I don’t find the mortality rate to be materially worse overall (I get between 70 and 75 percent of new fish through QT). I know it has become fashionable to ‘bash’ LA because it is part of Petco (which MUST be a bad thing, right) but for me personally the data doesn’t support the rhetoric.

 

[Pet Detective]

Quality Marine, a West Coast wholesaler, has been the replenishment source for live aquaria orders for as long as I can recall. They also supply fish to some other online order centers and many local fish stores. The supply chain for marine fish is generally worse today than in the past - partly because growing demand means less qualified collectors and collection practices and partly because it is rife with disease problems. I’ve been ordering from LA for over a decade, and while disease is more rampant today than in the past, with a competent QT system, I don’t find the mortality rate to be materially worse overall (I get between 70 and 75 percent of new fish through QT). I know it has become fashionable to ‘bash’ LA because it is part of Petco (which MUST be a bad thing, right) but for me personally the data doesn’t support the rhetoric.

I'm not looking to bash anyone, I just want answers, I've dealt with L.A. for 20+ years and never had this issue....something has changed, either their collectors have gone to poison or other harmful tactics or their standards & integrity have faltered, they still honor their guarantee but I care more about the livestock than the money honestly and I'm not wealthy by any means but I'd rather not have to re-order and take that gamble so much & just an FYI, I had no idea fosters & smith were petco until just recently when they shut down their website.....I'll reiterate.....something has changed and not for the better.

 

[Coral Newbie]

Last night I just order a snowflake clown and a trio of kamohara blenny’s they are all ORA’s captive-bred and shipping from their Florida location so we will see how they do.