new Adventure Begins

[TwoTankAmin]

Well the other seller was not much better, He sent the fish ground from FL to NY. It got delayed a day due to a IPS error.

One of the roseline barbs and 2 of the the harlequin rasboras we DOA. I sent the pics to him last evening. He guarantees fis for the 3 days. So he said watch the fish and let him know tomorrow and he will refund accordingly. The rasboras were on the small size but n better than the chilis from Aqua Huna.

Here are the pics I sent to the 2nd seller:

As of an hour ago the 8 remaining cbili rasboras in the planted 29 could not be seen. I saw one yesterday evening come out from behind a plant and then rehide. Since then I have not seen any of them/ I cannot spot any corpses. Here is the tank into which they went. I was shooting a lot and some pics were not so great including the tank. I did not edit anything.

I will not ask Aqua Huna for a refund for what I think are the other 6 dead chilis. They need to see pics of the corpses and I cannot spot any. I also discovered it was actually 4 amanos which survived the wipeout. If there were dead chilis on the substrate for sure the amanos would eat some. But they cannot eat them all. But I am not pulling the tank apart to look for bodies. Even if I found all 6 the refund would only be $21. I would pay twice that not to have to break downs and put back together that tank I will just eat the loss and say:

I suggest to anyone thinking of buying fish from Aqua Huna- DON'T!

And here is the 25. The 6 pandas, 6 remaining harlies and the 10 amanos all are in there. I know all the fish are still alive and I see some of the shrimp but no corpses and I think they are all alive. I also added one more anubias on wood to the tank after shooting the pics.

As for seller 90125 whose feedback is 5110/5122 on AquaBid, which is excellent. I would say he is honest and his fish that made it alive seem decent. But his shipping practices are such that I would not be inclined to buy from him again. I think had the box not been delayed there is a decent chance there would not have been DOAS.

When U ship I almost never have DOAS as long as the box arrives withing a day of overnight which is how I ship. Bu my fish are very expensive so when it costs a buyer $125 and up to ship the fish, it is worth it to avoid any DOAs. I guess I am smarter then the average full time sellers because I can put multiple fish into bags when I ship and still not have DOAs.

For a time when selling zebra plecos, to avoid all the work of pulling the exact fish, taking pics, sending them to the prospective buyer and then keeping the fish segregated until payment arrived, I came up with this solution. In addition to the live arrival guaranteed I also offered a Satisfaction Guarantee. If when the fish arrived for any reason at all the buyer was not satisfied, they could returns them to me. As long as they came back alive and in good condition, I would refund the total cost the buyer paid, including shipping. I would also cover their cost of sending them back. In all the time I offered that guaranteed nobody every returned the fish. But I knew this would be the case because I raise and sell healthy fish and know how to ship.

 

[anewbie]

You can check wetspot; they have been fairly good but not perfect the last 2 years for me and i've placed over a dozen orders. Their tank raised fishes can be small but the wc ones tend to be larger (it is clearly identified what you are buying).

 

[connorlindeman]

I have never had a negative experience with aquahuna. I have ordered over 50 and shrimp from them and have only had 3 Doas. What were DOA they were very quick to refund. A+ from me.
As @Back in the fold shipping live things is a gamble. Things happen. Whats important is how the seller handles the situation. Aquahuna has always been great.

 

[anewbie]

I have never had a negative experience with aquahuna. I have ordered over 50 and shrimp from them and have only had 3 Doas. What were DOA they were very quick to refund. A+ from me.
As @Back in the fold shipping live things is a gamble. Things happen. Whats important is how the seller handles the situation. Aquahuna has always been great.

I used to order a bit from aquahuna - i have had a couple of orders come in diseased but generally things have been fine. However if you look at their fishes carefully you can see some signs of inbreeding and none of their fishes live as long as wc fishes i've ordered - i would say 3 to 5 years for rasbora and cherry barbs and 6+ years for wc specimens i've purchased else where - the biggest problem have been obvious defects in some of the cichilds i've ordered and reduce live span - when i moved i purchased 2 angels from wetspot and a 3 pack from aquahuna for my 600 - guess which ones are still alive.

The angels didn't die prematurely they reached adult-hood but still i find it suspect they were the ones to die 2 1/2 years later. Having said this it takes a lot of years to collect data so there is a bit of room for unknowns.

My general statement has been aquahuna is fine for cheap dithers but for show fishes or those you might want to breed go for wetspot or one of the specialty shops. I might purchase dithers from them again (the last batch was diseased which really bothered me); but i will never purchase a cichild or similar from them again.

 

[gwand]

That’s my experience with Aqua Huna too.

 

[connorlindeman]

I used to order a bit from aquahuna - i have had a couple of orders come in diseased but generally things have been fine. However if you look at their fishes carefully you can see some signs of inbreeding and none of their fishes live as long as wc fishes i've ordered - i would say 3 to 5 years for rasbora and cherry barbs and 6+ years for wc specimens i've purchased else where - the biggest problem have been obvious defects in some of the cichilds i've ordered and reduce live span - when i moved i purchased 2 angels from wetspot and a 3 pack from aquahuna for my 600 - guess which ones are still alive.

The angels didn't die prematurely they reached adult-hood but still i find it suspect they were the ones to die 2 1/2 years later. Having said this it takes a lot of years to collect data so there is a bit of room for unknowns.

My general statement has been aquahuna is fine for cheap dithers but for show fishes or those you might want to breed go for wetspot or one of the specialty shops. I might purchase dithers from them again (the last batch was diseased which really bothered me); but i will never purchase a cichild or similar from them again.

They deal mostly with fish stores at wholesale. You are correct. For center piece expensive fish, maybe look elsewhere. I just got some white clouds from them maybe 3 months ago and as of today I have fry.

 

[anewbie]

They deal mostly with fish stores at wholesale.

I know and i sometime think they are selling 'b' stock to end users but i don't know. I also don't know if they have their own mass breeding setup or if they are importing from farms.

 

[connorlindeman]

I know and i sometime think they are selling 'b' stock to end users but i don't know. I also don't know if they have their own mass breeding setup or if they are importing from farms.

They import based on my communication with them.

 

[Oldspartan]

I think we are very fortunate here. The not so LFS will order what we want, so long as we are willing to wait a short time, and Q them for a short time. We likely pay a premium for their service but so be it. I am willing to do so for very healthy fish.

Plus, we always try to keep our business as local as possible. We are also willing to pay a small premium for that.

When I was working my prices were always toward the top. I used to tell my customers that a reasonable profit was necessary so that we could offer good product and good service during and after any sale. I treat the places I buy from with that in mind. The not so LFS fits that bill well. The cost is more than the boxes but so is the knowledge base.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The chilis Aqua Huna sent were way to small to be shipped, imo. They gave me a refund for the DOAs. But basically I lost all the chilis. Ibut could only show pics of the ones that arrived that way. The rest died in the tank. The sidthimunkis are all alive I believe. They were bought as small but a couple were really tiny.

The problem with shipping fish which are really too small to be shipped is it greatly increases the chances they wont make it, especially if there is any delay.

I have a store about 35 minutes from me. There is only one bad thing about it, their prices are about as high as they could be. If you have a weak heart you may not want to shop there. When they tell you the prices on things your heart may stop. But their fish are always healthy and in top condition and I can pick them up. It is actually safe to skip Q on their stock. The store is House of Fins in Greenwich, CT. I think they have been in business for over half a century.

I have not bought fish retail in so long I cannot remember the last time I did.

Also, Wet Spot is the retail side of their business. They make more money from their wholesale operation. But you have to be a retail business to buy from them on the wholesale side.

Here is the real problem with buying fish shipped when they are the more common species one wants to pit unto a community tank. Overnight shipping can easily increase the cost of the fish by anywhere from 10% to 100%. The more fish one os getting the ,close ot the 10% end of the spectrum becomes more likely.

When I was in the first few years of keeping fish, one could ship some things Priority Mail and Express mail was affordable. This did nt last and today I would not ship live fish using the Post Office.

It is almost an art to ship fish in the least amount of water possible. No matter what fish one is getting, the odds are pretty good that the thing in the box which weighs the most is not the fish, it is the water. As the cost to ship has risen over the past 25 years (I set up my first tank at the end of Jan. 2001), it has been increasingly important to use the lest amount of water so the fish still arrive alive.

I should also mention that most of the time I have purchased fish shipped in over the last 15 years or more, I have always been spending a fair amount. Many hundreds became thousands over time. This makes the cost of shipping less of a consideration but it usually means overnight is essential.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Final update. There is still no sign of any of the chilis in the Q tank. They must all have died. But the amano shrimp seem fine and I think the sids are Ok. But given how small some of them are and 12 went into the tank, I cannot see many all at once. But I do see activity and different fish at different times. So I am assuming they are OK. The shrimp are harder to spot in the other tank where then went as they are likley eating algae on the plants and I cannot see them. I will not order from A H again

All of the surviving fish from the Aquabid seller "90125"are doing great. None have shown any sign of being anything but healthy in their planted 29. I am able to count them all since none feel they need to hide. I would consider nuying from this seller again but i would insist on his using overnight sahipping for which I am happy to pay.

Both sellers issued prompt refunds on the the DOAS. However, I dislike seening fish die in transit and would rather pay more for shipping to minimize travel time. I did so with A H. But, it did not help what I considered to be fish too small to ship safely.