Because of working in a pet shop, I know most fish aren't taken care of properly when shipped and often have disease from traveling with several fish in a small package for a long time. The water quality is terrible! I would like to start ordering my fish online but am unsure if its a good idea. I know some places have some sort of guarantee on the fish in case they end up dead. Has anyone ordered fish online? How did it work out? Can you recommend any online stores?
Buying Fish Online?
- Thread starter amanda_
- Start date
If you've had that kind of experience receiving fish from a wholesaler, then first off I'd say get a new wholesaler. That is NOT typical of the tropical fish industry wholesalers to ship poorly packaged diseased fish. There is a problem with that particular wholesaler. That is not the norm and the shop shouldn't do business with them.
I've ordered fish from quite a number of places online and have had great success. I've been fortunate to have never received any DOA fish in my personal shipments. I have just set up my tanks again since hurricane Katrina, so it's been two years since I had a list of suppliers.
The only one I can recommend at the moment is Jeff Rapps at tangledupincichlids.com. I've ordered from him several times and so have my friends and we've always had great fish from him. He specializes in central/south american cichlids.
I just recently had another positive experiece with blueram06 on Aquabid. The auction was for 15 tiny albino ancistrus cats. They were packaged two to a bag and probably the best job of packaging I've ever seen in many years of shipping fish.
Drsfosterandsmith.com has LiveAquaria.com. I would suggest that you go with them for your first attempt at buying online. They have a reputation to uphold, so I'm sure you'd have a good experience.
There a a lot of great sellers on line. You also can check out aquabid.com. it's a fish auction site. Look for a seller that has been around. most breeders take pride in there fish and will ship with care.
i would also check aquabid.com. i like to deal with the breeders try to keep away from lfs and wholesalers.
I buy all of my fish at one LFS called Fish Den here in Colorado, they're one of the better stores who take care of their fish and don't overcrowd their tanks, they have around 300 tanks in their store. They are to me the best LFS here.
I have oredered from Massive Aggression and Rodgers Aquatics and have had no problems with either one of them. I have also ordered from FishFarm, who is on Aquabid, and will be receiving those fish today. I will let you know how it turns out.
Dangerdoll
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