My Experience Buying from Live Aquaria

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Apr 2, 2002
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To be fair to Live Aquaria, I need to let readers in this thread know that they have sent me a refund in the amount of $137.08. My original order was for $198+ some change.
 

FishAddict74

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Dec 8, 2020
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Update- is is about 24 hours later and here is the status. All the fish are still alive, eating and active. They are in two different tanks. The karlies are doing great and the red lines as well. The espei are tiny so I cannot say how well they are doing but they appear OK.

Unfortunately, I removed 4 dead amanos a few minutes ago. There may be more as it is difficult to spot them in the planted tank. I am able to spot plenty of live ones but it is not possible to get a true count. So for sure the total shrimp deaths in transit or w/i a day are now 17 or 54. If I had to bet as to whether there are a few mor dead shrimp or not, I would bet on a few more daead that I am not able to see/find unlt I break down the tank.

Of the 3 species of fish and the one of shrimp, only the redline barbs are able to handle temps a=of about 59F on the low side. The resboras and the amanos generally have the low 70sF for their low temperature. The fish all arrived in a single bag for each one. But I bought 4 x 12 and 1 x 6 shrimp lots. So to have 17 losses means they are from at least two bags or maybe more.

I am sure Live aquaria tries hard but my experience has been such that I still will not buy anything live from them again. I will pay more elsewhere if that is what it means. But I am only buying things for a few of my planted displat tanks which range from 5.5 to 150 gals. The 150 is not getting new fish unless I can find a big big clown to replace the one that recently passed. Nor do I have a need to buy box lots imported or wholesale any more either. But I needed to replace losses as most of my fish have been with me for many years, some for 2 decades.
O haven’t ordered from liveaquaria in years but my old experiences were decent. One time a couple fish wrong and one died. I called them and they refunded the entire $300 order. The other two times everything was flawless. There’s plenty of great sites though that I’d go to before LiveAquaria
 

fishorama

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Jun 28, 2006
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Well, TTA, I'm glad they stepped up & it sounds like they made it $$ right...But still a lot of anxiety for you.

So FishAddict74, what are your go to sites for mail ordering fish? I've only done it a few times...Wet Spot seems good but I've only done it in person...once from an AC breeder & twice from a now defunct TX AquaBid site...maybe somewhere else too...& almost 30 years ago in person from That Fish Place...well, there were...health issues......but a long, long time ago...

I just heard a nearby shop is closing very soon. (sigh) They QTed their new fish & had lots of live plants (some from our club donations). They will be missed!
 

jake72

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Jan 28, 2019
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On the low end; and i do consider liveraquara the low end; if aquahuna has what you want they are a much better company and usually less expensive.

I almost never buy fish retail online and never in a brick and mortar store. I usually get healthy fish. However, I have not needed new fish in quite a while. I have bought a few corys for display tanks at my club auctions and from another sller at the swap meet I was selling at last Sept.

But time has caused the loss of some fish in my display tanks as well as amano shrimp. So i did an order with Live Aquaria because they had the lowest price for amanos and i wanted 100. I settled for 56. I also bought 6 small redline barbs, 6 harlequin and 4 espei rasboras at a small size. I spent $207.

Fed Ex was not able to return tracking info, but I was preparing for the arrivals and I caould see the driveway from the window. i actually heard the FedEx truck coming up the driveway and I headed to my front door, I is quite cold here and I put on a hoodie. I expected to meet the delivery guy with the box at the door. Instead he had already put the box down near the entrance. I had the box inside with 30 seconds of when he put it down, the box was quite cold.

When I opened the box the heat pack was barely warm not hot. The bags were very cold and i managed to take the temp of one as i was madly putting the fish into tanks or buckets. The water was about 58F. S I was lucky with the fish they were all alive though not looking real happy. There are 13 DOA amano shrimp and I have the rest in a bucket with floating plants to make sure there are no more deaths. I cannot spot the espei which were very tiny but the harlies and red lines seem OK so far.

Trying to contact Live Aquaria is difficult. I do not own a smart phone and do not text. After being on hold for 15 minutes I got a recording telling me to state the issue and to provide a phone number that can receive texts.

I just kept calling in over and over and finally got as human being. hey are rude, unprofessional. Reseach shows that when fish are in water so cold or so hot it will kill them fairly soon, they way to rescue them is to get them back into the right temp ASAp no acclimation as that will mot likely kill them. So I put all the fish inti tanks and they seem OK, The shrimp are being watched in a bucket a bit as I need pics of the dead ones for a refund.


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So if you are considering buying fish/inverts from Live Aquaria I would tell you, Caveat Emptor.

Here is the thing. Almost any of the fish I breed and sell go for more than the price of my entire order. The money here is not imortant to me. What matters is these folks do not deserve their reputation and I would not take free fish from them let alone every buy from them again. Since they bought out DrsFosterSmith (I shopped there a lot) I have shopped for some hard goods with Live Aquaria. I think I need to stop that as well.
 

fishorama

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Just to derail your thread a little bit more, TTA, I hope you don't mind too much. Are your remaining fish & few shrimp still ok?

Thanks for that suggestion, Jake. I may have heard of aquahuna (maybe from you?). I might try them out soon-ish after it warms up a bit after the holidays...They're closer to me in NorCal...& I have tank space to fill, but I'm in no hurry...
 
Apr 2, 2002
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So far all OK. I still can only ever spot 3 shrimp.

I am trying to find a way to keep a few tanks longer than planned. I would only have display tanks. I would still need to punch up my stock for these. They have to be low maint. because I ain't getting any younger.....

So I would need to buy more fish. I guess I will just go to some of the better stores and pay way to much but will get healthy stuff.
 

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