Live Aquaria has exhausted my patience

[proxy001]

I probably made 4 orders with overnight shipping in the last 3 months
3 of them arrived 48 hours later. I get it, UPS is responsible , but at some point as a company you are only as good as a the weakest link.

We, customers are PAYING for overnight shipping. Mostly to minimize stress on animals and increase odds of survival.

Over my various orders, they sent me sick fish, dead starfish on arrival, wrong corals.

Of course their willingness to take financial responsibility is limited. Customer service is robotic at best.

The experience has become unacceptable.

Fellow reefers, can you recommend a better company for livestock online?

Thank you

 

[Dave Cureton]

I buy most of my fish locally but had good experience with nyaquatics for some harder to find species. What type of coral are you after? For LPS corals.com has been great for me. For SPS I have had great experiences with YourReef, TSA, and TCK. One day I will get an order from battlecorals as everyone speaks very highly of Adams stuff. Hope this helps.

 

[proxy001]

Thank you . Well, my order has mainly a copper band butterfly (aiptasia), they are already difficult to keep alive when bought locally, I dont think a 2 day vacation at the UPS Kentucky facility will improve my odds here. I will check out the websites you mention for corals . Thank you !!

 

[Picasso Clown]

If you’re looking for rock flower nems, the best place I’ve found was Aquatic Arsenal. Unbeatable prices, great shipping, good communication, and they even threw in two for free (after asking me if it was okay to do so) because they had a transport delay that was out of their control. I love that they took responsibility for that because, again, it was out of their control, which many of the other vendors would’ve just said sorry, that’s out of our control.

 

[Dave Cureton]

Berghia nudibranchs work wonders for aiptasia. They take a little time to get going. I thought they died in my tank as the aips weren’t going away. Went on a week long vacation and came back to an aip free tank. So my advise is buy some berghia then take a vacation.

 

[proxy001]

I did that a couple weeks ago. No idea where they went. Also added a few peppermint. My blue spotted puffer is helping too. But for the big ones, thinking only a butterfly will do. Thank you !

 

[Fishingandreefing]

dang that sucks. I used to like them and I need to stock my new tank. Reefbeauties is another option you can look into but I have never ordered from them before so if others did, I would like to hear some feedbacks too.

 

[NashobaTek]

Saltwaterfish.com has never let me down yet, but there may be better places.

 

[92Miata]

Find some place either local , or regional. Nobody who is shipping from CA is going to be able to guarantee you next-day right now. Its just not possible.


Reef Beauties is in CA. They're going to have exactly the same shipping issues.


Try KPAquatics, or Reeftopia - both are in florida. Pac East is in maryland. I've used The Reef Farm a couple of times (in NC) and they've been good (they ship really cheap to the Mid-Atlantic)

 

[alysak6075]

I did that a couple weeks ago. No idea where they went. Also added a few peppermint. My blue spotted puffer is helping too. But for the big ones, thinking only a butterfly will do. Thank you !

The peppermint ate the nudis. Berghia will eat all of the aiptasia, doesnt matter what size, but you need to remove the peppermints.

 

[Reef.]

Are you guys getting a refund for overnight shipping when it takes 48 hours?

 

[WiscoFishNut]

For fish - local. CUC - reefcleaners.org Corals - my fave is Chaos Aquaculture

 

[IKD]

I created this a couple days ago. Hope that helps!

Summary List of Online Vendors

Hi all, I've seen a few threads looking for online vendor suggestions. I'd like share my list of various places I've heard about or purchased from. I'm sure there are missing ones, so please respond and I'll keep updating to keep the list as comprehensive as possible. Happy Reefing! Note, here...

www.reef2reef.com

i just added a few names listed above as well

 

[TankYou]

I think I agree, live aquaria has exhausted my patience.

On recent order - positives are they shipped the day I asked, received my order on time and My order of chaeto came as a huge amount.

Negatives are, 1 - didn’t include a starfish I ordered, which if out of stock is ok, but there was never a note or any information about it it not being in my order or out of stock, just wasn’t on my invoice and my charge was changed to remove it from my bill by them when it shipped and 2-ordered two five packs of hermits. Got a total of 3 hermits, 4 empty shells and 3 cerith snails. Email them and they tell me to take pics andput them in the freezer and I may get a store credit. Hello! Am I putting 3 snails in the freezer with 4 empty shells, you want pics of empty shells and I haVe to find 3 random cerith to take photo of? Lol. Probably not even worth my time to get the 10 bucks of critters credited back.

 

[Reef.]

Probably not even worth my time to get the 10 bucks of critters credited back.

Correction, that you MAY get back

 

[shred5]

Here is the issue If you are buying from LA allot of their stuff is dropped from Quality Marine.

If you order from Wisconsin facility stuff ships directly from them which is completely different.
The WI facility runs a tight ship and is run by Kevin Kohen you will have much better experience. That place is immaculate inside

Right now shipping is screwy just because they ask for overnight you may not get it so ordering livestock is a risk. Both Fed ex and UPS have warnings about it...

Look at Amazon prime which is supposed to be next day delivery when you pay for prime. Are we getting it no, I would say the average is 3 days and some being allot longer.

 

[GlassMunky]

@tsm corals IS GREAT!
highest quality fish anywhere.

 

[Ippyroy]

I've had 3 separate orders of livestock from Florida, Wisconsin, and one from California from LA. No issues other than packages not dropped off till 5pm. All fish were happy and healthy and they are all doing great. Ordered from reefcleaners.org and got three dead trochus snails out of five and three other snails died shortly after.

 

[Indytraveler83]

I can't speak for UPS/FedEx issues right now, but by far the best packed livestock and highest survival rates I've had are from TSM Aquatics and Aqua SD. Never had a DOA from either, and things arrive packed perfectly and seem prepared for much longer times in the box.

I've had similar issues as above with some DOA's from reefcleaners, as he doesn't use overnight, but John has never batted an eye at immediately refunding me for any claims directly back to my credit card, and the losses are usually minimal.

 

[Mike907]

Fish, I only buy what i can pick up during these crazy times. Reefclearners for cuc, they always send more then i order and the prices are great for the amount. Not to mention they usually all super healthy and happy when i get them. And there are alot of good coral places and im sure we all have our own personal favorites, but mine is Mrreefs.com. Always super healthy, always look bigger and better then the pics, and prices are very good, especially in their "deal zone". Super good communication as well, which is probably the main reason i prefer them, I like knowing there is someone I can personally talk to instead of a robot or just some customer service desk.