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Good tropical fish sellers
- Thread starter joeyr188
- Start date
Dan's Fish and WetSpot are two good online sources that I have experienced with. The Killi Shack, an online source that specializes in selling killifish, is also another good site to order if you want killifish.
- Joined
- May 19, 2022
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I agree as to Dan's Fish. Except for one fish all mine have come from them.
Aquahuna is good
It also depends on what kind of tropical fish you're looking for to make a list of reputable sellers...
FishandBirdLover
Fishaholic
Live Aquaria is good
Tetras,guppies,killi,betta,shrimp
FishandBirdLover
Fishaholic
Betta squad usa is a great place for bettas. You can also check eBay
It's such a shame they don't sell best Betta.
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
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 cclimation 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.
![IMG_2437[1].JPG](https://www.fishforums.net/attachments/img_2437-1-jpg.306447/ "IMG_2437[1].JPG")
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.
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 cclimation 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.
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.
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
One more thing to add to the above. There was no insulating styrofoam box involved, here is a picture of how the box was insulated. It had crumpled newspaper around the bags and on top and a single heatpack was on top of a paper plate in the box. It was barely warm.
![IMG_2441[1].JPG](https://www.fishforums.net/attachments/img_2441-1-jpg.306451/ "IMG_2441[1].JPG")
It was essentially freezing, or close to freezing temps at both ends of the journey.
It was essentially freezing, or close to freezing temps at both ends of the journey.
I'm not a keen fan of online fish purchases either. I wanna see them at the breeder before buying those fish. I do ship national and international but not during the winter season. That's my strict policy after two shippings abroad went wrong during the cold season. I had already warned them for the risks involved but they strictly wanted them to be shipped. When it actually went wrong, I got a lot of blaming from those two who ordered fish. I don't want that kind of arguments anymore. So, during the winter season, no shipment will take place.
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
The good news in all this is all the fish seem to be doing OK. They have been coloring up and eating. I assume all the shrimp are also OK but I cannot say this for sure as they are quite small and impossible to count.
I got a call from a supervisor at Live Aquaria and we had a nice chat and I think all will work out PK after the 13 shrimp loss. He also admitted that there should have been a styro and that was their mistake. They also were about to give me a refund for the 13 dead amanos that they calculated wrong in my favor by a lot and I pointed this out to the supervisor. I wanted the refund only for what actually was DOA. They were trying to send me way too much. I may have been ticked off about their packing, but fair is fair.
I also know had I followed their normal advice re acclimating the fish I probably would have seen a lot of dead fish. Sometimes the actual science goes against the beliefs of most. But I have first hand experience that taught me exactly how to save a fish on the verge of dying because it is at one extreme or the other re temperature.
It boils down to this. If a fish needs to become acclimated to different water parameters to the extent that it undergoes bio-chemical change ti its system that this takes at least a week an often more. In addition, if you read a lot of papers dealing with how fish deal with any number of things that the fish will be acclimated to the water conditions for 2 to 4 weeks prior to the start of the experiment.
I do not worry about shipping fish due to the cold. I can pack well and I know how to use heat packs properly. I stop shipping from Thanksgiving week until mid-January due to the volume of X-mas shipping and then post X-mas returns. It is one thing for a sweater to be delayed in shipping for a few days during a cold winter, but it is not OK for a box of live fish to have this happen.
I got a call from a supervisor at Live Aquaria and we had a nice chat and I think all will work out PK after the 13 shrimp loss. He also admitted that there should have been a styro and that was their mistake. They also were about to give me a refund for the 13 dead amanos that they calculated wrong in my favor by a lot and I pointed this out to the supervisor. I wanted the refund only for what actually was DOA. They were trying to send me way too much. I may have been ticked off about their packing, but fair is fair.
I also know had I followed their normal advice re acclimating the fish I probably would have seen a lot of dead fish. Sometimes the actual science goes against the beliefs of most. But I have first hand experience that taught me exactly how to save a fish on the verge of dying because it is at one extreme or the other re temperature.
It boils down to this. If a fish needs to become acclimated to different water parameters to the extent that it undergoes bio-chemical change ti its system that this takes at least a week an often more. In addition, if you read a lot of papers dealing with how fish deal with any number of things that the fish will be acclimated to the water conditions for 2 to 4 weeks prior to the start of the experiment.
I do not worry about shipping fish due to the cold. I can pack well and I know how to use heat packs properly. I stop shipping from Thanksgiving week until mid-January due to the volume of X-mas shipping and then post X-mas returns. It is one thing for a sweater to be delayed in shipping for a few days during a cold winter, but it is not OK for a box of live fish to have this happen.
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
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.
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.
Archerfish
Fish Crazy
Not sure how far you are from Seattle but this might be a helpful link:
Greater Seattle Aquarium Society
A nonprofit aquarium hobbyist club serving the Puget Sound area.
www.gsas.org
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