Where do you buy your fish?

Where is your favorite place to buy fish?


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Davy Jones

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Interested to see where most people buy their fish from and what they prefer.

Divers den?
Local fish store?
Live aquaria?
Blue zoo Aquatics?
Other?

I have had good luck from divers den the couple of times i purchased from them. I have not ordered from live aquaria or other vendors for fish yet and was hoping to find some more places to keep an eye open!
 
I do LFS, but have heard lots of positives regarding DD, Live aquaria, and Blue Zoo.

Many should chime in on this one.
 
Petco or other local fish store, but there isn’t very many and they are at least an hour away. We have a local internet classified ad, kind of like Craigslist, most people use to buy and sell stuff including all kinds of fresh and saltwater stuff.
 
Iv'e not ordered any livestock . I really like to check out a fish or coral before I buy.
I understand an LFS isn't an option for a lot of Folks. I'm fortunate to have several in my town .
 
My local petco is awesome (yes i get the irony, but they are a large sponsor of our local club and always bring awesome fish, coral and equipment to the frag swaps as give away items!) But they are currently re-doing their saltwater fish tanks (coral and anemone tanks are still up) so I cant order through them right now. My favorite LFS closed down last year due to a dispute among the owners.
 
I will probably give an online place like Divers Den/Liveaquaria a try this build, but there are probably only 1 or 2 stores in my area that I trust. There are probably 6 or 7 shops in WNY that sell saltwater fish (not including Petco), but out of them only 1 or two keep their tanks in a condition that I would be comfortable buying from. While this limits my choices it also helps ensure that I am getting fish that I can be reasonably sure are healthy.
 
LFS usually. The Petco by me has a decent saltwater section. I do prefer the small mom and pop stores though.

I picked clown fish up directly from the breeder. Got to pick out the two that I wanted from a couple hundred fish. Sure was a cool experience!
 
I’ve ordered around 15+ Fish from LA and have a 100% success rate. Most hardy Fish like cardinals, chromis, blenny, flasher wrasse. I live in Oregon shipping from California doesn’t seem to bad. Have had luck with ORA out of Florida also 3 for 3 2 clownfish and a orchid dotty. Dustin
 
I have had some truly terrible experiences with local stores over the years, so I try to stick with online vendors nowadays (incidentally I bought a foxface and mystery wrasse from the one i still trust earlier today).

LiveAquaria-I'll buy any fish that don't have a lot of variance from specimen to specimen from them (anthias, some tangs, Cardinalfish, Etc). Customer service is second to none.

Divers Den-Same as LA as far as customer service, but the WYSIWYG aspect is preferable for a lot of species.

Blue Zoo- Haven't ordered from them yet, but they seem to get a fair amount of rarer stuff, and their prices seem good.
 
Nice to see everyone's experiences on this! Interesting to see that the LFS is the clear leader at this point in time. I totally would have lost that bet lol
 
Im just getting back into the hobby, but about 5 years ago I always purchased from LA, and shipping to the midwest was never an issue. The local petco's around here make me sad when I walk in, the fish are always dull in color, usually thick black algea, and almost guaranteed 1-2 fish are going to be dead.
 
I’ve ordered around 15+ Fish from LA and have a 100% success rate. Most hardy Fish like cardinals, chromis, blenny, flasher wrasse. I live in Oregon shipping from California doesn’t seem to bad. Have had luck with ORA out of Florida also 3 for 3 2 clownfish and a orchid dotty. Dustin
Thanks ! I'm in Florida & didn't know about ORA
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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