Buying Fish Online

[Racerchic478]

I did a lot of searching on the forums before I posted this question, but if I overlooked a thread discussing this already please excuse my redundancy and link me! Thanks!

I have always bought my fish from trusted LFS. They will order fish for me, quarantine them for as long as I ask, etc. But sometimes it's just downright hard to find a particular fish I'm looking for.

Recently, I started looking at online sources and noticed the prices are sometimes much more reasonable. I'm not saying I'd take my businesses away from LFS, but I might be tempted to buy an occasional fish online. My question, then, is this:

Does anyone have experience buying fish online? Would you recommend it? Any tips? And what Web sites do you trust?

 

[Mikaila31]

I've bought online before, and will be doing it again. The only thing about buying fish online is you also need to consider S&H. The majority of fish need to be shipped express, witch costs around $35. Tips I suggest are only buying from places that use there own pics, lots of places use popular stock pics to show the fish. Also I perfer buying from "hobbiest" sites and I steer clear of the larger sites. Places I would buy from: anubiasdesign.com/, franksaquarium.com, Aquabid.com, and Karmafarm.com; but they don't sell really sell saltwater fish.

Also you live in a major metro city. Texas in genral should have a aquarium society... or at least a cichlid society. (I swear every state has a cichlid society) Anyway in clubs you can usually find really nice fish for a good price, sometimes they are quite close too. Also cheap tanks and normally their are fish auctions.

 

[gaz gun man]

I have ordered tropicals, with no problems and would do so again.

If I was to order marine, then i'd make sure the shop had a good returns policy and live arrvial gurantee, marine fish are not the cheapest!

 

[kj23502]

i have a few stores bookmarked. I've ordered fish online and have had VERY good outcomes. I've recieved like 18ish through the mail.

http/www.drsfostersmith.com/general.cfm?c=3578&gid=388
They also have something called the divers den where the picture of the fish is the EXACT one you'll recieve

Here's another one
http/www.thatpetplace.com/pet/cat/expand...48/category.web

 

[Racerchic478]

Thanks for the tips! I think I might have to try it out sometime soon.

As far as the Cichlid Association goes - we used to have an excellent connection to the Cichlid Association, but he got caught up in a bad circumstance and now it's like the Cichlid Association in Texas has disappeared. At least around here. I haven't seen good looking, large cichlids in a long time. All of ours are between 5-6.5" so we can't put any small ones in there without torn fins and lots of chasing.

Can anyone become a member of the association? I guess I'll have to look that up.

 

[Mikaila31]

I paid $15 to join the minnesota aquarium society. I'm from Wisconsin and they didn't have any problem with me joining. Even if a club is mainly set around cichlids, odds are some people will also keep saltwater and know a good source for fish.

 

[n3ont3tra]

I order most of my fish (fresh and salt) online and I've had very few problems. The best site I use is Liveaquaria.com. They have a 14 day guarantee, and great customer service. As kj mentioned, they also have a Divers Den section where you can see the exact animal you're purchasing. They have a pretty wide variety of saltwater fish too.

 

[Racerchic478]

I've met my bank account's demise. The Diver's Den is now bookmarked! Thanks everyone!