Reputable Online Fish & Coral Source

[CodyRVA]

In search of a reputable online store that provides a nice selection of both designer coral and healthy fish. I've bought from Live Aquaria, familiar with Blue Zoo, but their coral selections are mediocre and often ship from different locations which defeats the purpose. I've ordered from Vivid Aquariums and at this point am likely do so again, but I want to see if there are other options for the sake of looking. So, does anyone have any recommendations on a quality online source for fish & coral?

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

the corals i got from live aquaria were a joke. mediocre and full of hitch hikers. the fish were ok.

i got great fish from fishbusiness aquatics.

corals.. i have gotten nice stuff without spending tons from aquasd. I just put an order into cherry corals. we will see how they turn out.

honestly, there are some REALLY nice sticks in the classifieds here as well.

 

[PDR]

I have always purchased my fish from LA, but after a series of issues (customer service and fish related) I will no longer order from LA except to use them for purchasing directly from ORA.

For corals, I have had good experiences from AquaSD (years ago), unique corals, and cherry corals. I would say the best quality was from cherry corals and unique corals was a good mix of quality and decent pricing without having to be on a crazy sale.

 

[CodyRVA]

Thanks for the input! I've personally had great success with LA, but wouldn't consider coral from them. Looks like i'll have to do separate orders. Vivid has great coral, good selection of fish, but nothing compared to LA or Blue Zoo.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

checkout fishybusiness aquatics!

 

[PDR]

I have been wanting to try fishy business but I have some reservations since they have not been great about getting back to me about several inquiries (both through email and pm).

 

[CodyRVA]

fishybusiness has a decent fish selection, but lacking in coral, IMO

 

[Graffiti Spot]

the corals i got from live aquaria were a joke. mediocre and full of hitch hikers. the fish were ok.

i got great fish from fishbusiness aquatics.

corals.. i have gotten nice stuff without spending tons from aquasd. I just put an order into cherry corals. we will see how they turn out.

honestly, there are some REALLY nice sticks in the classifieds here as well.

You have to have lots of experience with wild corals to be able to tell which ones are going to be really nice and they don't really come in for sale on divers den that often. When they do they will take some time to start showing you how nice they are. Most of their stuff is bread and butter acropora, if you want specific stuff you have to buy frags from high end collectors like you have been doing. Not sure what hitch hikers you came across but coral pests are an issue no matter where you order from. Their corals I have got recently didn't have a pod on them. If their corals scared you don't even think about buying a box of mari or wild stuff, lots of life in those But you always get two really nice stunners in those. I would rather do that and get 20+ colonies than get two high end frags from a collector that just chopped them off a new piece they got in from the same place.

I like aquasd a lot but since the indo ban they have only been selling a few frags they are growing out currently and don't get much new stuff in at all. Same for most places except for a rare few. Right now I don't know where I would spend hard earned money. Trading around my area has kept me happy for a while

 

[Scurvy]

Check out Pieces of the Ocean. Ive picked up a couple of healthy wrasse and numerous corals from them.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

I just saw a thread on here about a LFS in Ohio who QT’s every fish in its own tank and filter. Anyone remember the name????? Ugh

 

[topjimmy]

Probably Triton Marine.

 

[Eggs]

Check out Pieces of the Ocean. Ive picked up a couple of healthy wrasse and numerous corals from them.

I’ve also had good experiences with POTO.
Just received a beautiful Black Tang today.

 

[Scurvy]

I’ve also had good experiences with POTO.
Just received a beautiful Black Tang today.

Haha, I got a Rhomboid wrasse in from them today too.

 

[mattzang]

is the coral on LA through ORA better by chance? was thinking of ordering some of their soft corals which are oddly hard to find online and locally.

 

[CodyRVA]

Check out Pieces of the Ocean. Ive picked up a couple of healthy wrasse and numerous corals from them.

Is it just coincidence that most of their stuff shows out of stock?

 

[rkpetersen]

is the coral on LA through ORA better by chance? was thinking of ordering some of their soft corals which are oddly hard to find online and locally.

You should be able to order anything from ORA through your LFS. You might even be able to arrange to pick up the pieces from the store still boxed up, so they never touch the store's water. Same principle works for many other sources that don't sell directly to customers. I did this through an LFS with a bunch of really top notch ocellaris clowns from Sea & Reef.

For direct online fish orders, I've had good results with Blue Zoo and the Diver's Den arm of LiveAquaria. For corals and nems I've been happy with Aqua SD, WWC, Cherry Corals, Tidal Gardens and Boom Corals.

 

[Scurvy]

Is it just coincidence that most of their stuff shows out of stock?

They’re coming off a big holiday sale and usually post a lot as WYSWYG. weekly auctions of fish and coral too. That 33 in WYSWYG tonight was 150 or so yesterday so just bad timing me thinks.

Also will post up videos of fish in stock that may not be listed at all on the site. You can email or DM for pricing.

 

[CodyRVA]

You should be able to order anything from ORA through your LFS. You might even be able to arrange to pick up the pieces from the store still boxed up, so they never touch the store's water. Same principle works for many other sources that don't sell directly to customers. I did this through an LFS with a bunch of really top notch ocellaris clowns from Sea & Reef.

For direct online fish orders, I've had good results with Blue Zoo and the Diver's Den arm of LiveAquaria. For corals and nems I've been happy with Aqua SD, WWC, Cherry Corals, Tidal Gardens and Boom Corals.

Great coral options here, but none seem to offer designer corals and fish.

 

[mattzang]

You should be able to order anything from ORA through your LFS. You might even be able to arrange to pick up the pieces from the store still boxed up, so they never touch the store's water. Same principle works for many other sources that don't sell directly to customers. I did this through an LFS with a bunch of really top notch ocellaris clowns from Sea & Reef.

For direct online fish orders, I've had good results with Blue Zoo and the Diver's Den arm of LiveAquaria. For corals and nems I've been happy with Aqua SD, WWC, Cherry Corals, Tidal Gardens and Boom Corals.

i only know of one LFS in the somewhat area that does ORA and they have insane markup on basically anything so I don't go there. I did start going to a new one that I haven't asked, but why bother with the middle man if I can just order stuff online

for whatever reason the stores near me aren't big believers in aquaculture. i'm not too far from Los Angeles, so maybe they just get stuff a lot cheaper from all those distributors? shrug

 

[CodyRVA]

Yea i'd rather not go through my LFS, i don't see an incentive to do so. There are a plethora of great coral providers out there, same with fish... I'm just looking for a retailer that has both under one roof.