Ordering Online. Is It Humane?

[Voxcharm]

Hey guys

So my new tank is nearing the end of it's cycle and ill be adding fish in about 1-2 weeks. I have my heart set on either a single female betta and a small shoal of something compatible and nano sized or two dwarf gouramis. If I go with the female betta plan I am struggling to find any good looking examples in any LFS in my area. I have however found some on eBay, with a guy with very good feedback that stocks hundreds of fish and ships them out daily, seemingly with lots of success.

I have obviously never bought fish this way before and when i first discovered you could was quite shocked. So my question is is it humane to have fish posted? Obviously they have to be shipped from wherever they were bred to the LFS, wild caughts from thousands of miles, however i have heard the losses of these shipments are huge. How many fish actually die from stress related things from being bashed around in a container for 24 hours? Or do people actually have mostly good experiences from buying delivered?

Please help me decide whether to order online or compromise with less impressive specemins from the LFS.

Thanks

 

[FreshwaterAfishianado]

I think the argument could be made that it is less stressful on the fish to be ship directly to your home, especially from a private seller rather than a large store. When they are shipped to the store they then have to acclimate to the shops water after being shipped in very large numbers, then be over crowded tanks until someone buys them, then be acclimated to the fish owners tank

Shipped directly to your house is just cutting out the middle man, plus it would be in the best interest of the seller to take much more care packaging a single specimen compared to dozens of fish, because their survival rate would be all or nothing so to speak. When shipping a single specimen there are no "acceptable losses". Just my thoughts.

 

[Noahsfish]

If you're worried that shipping directly to you is humane, then never by from a lfs!  Some of them get their fish from breeders in Asia, or other mass breeders in the US.  If you order from a private seller chances are he breeds his own fish, and if you order 1 day shippng as you should then they spend way less time in transit then they would if they were from a lfs.  As a bonus since the breeder has less tanks, he probably takes good care of his fish.  Versus where when lfs get their stock lots of their fish arrive dead, or very sick.  So yes, ordereing online is a good idea if you don't mind paying for shipping and make sure the seller has good reviews.

 

[Voxcharm]

You both make an excellent point, that unless you buy directly from a breeder at his or her house, any fish you buy will have been subjected to stressful shipping at some point and probably much worse in bulk to a LFS. Perhaps ill consider only using eBay from now on, there's certainly a bigger selection. And yes this seller seems to have consistently 'the fish arrived very healthy' feedback. It's also only overnight shipping so ill go ahead.

D

 

[attibones]

I use aquabid with excellent success. All my fish arrived healthy and happy. It's always a good idea to read everyone's comments on the seller, and ask the seller about the process. You'll need to know about how they package the fish and about their DOA policy. You'll need to also ask about their shipping dates. Some people only ship on certain days of the week to prevent fish being stuck in the post office over the weekends. Ask a seller about how many fish they ship at a time, how many they will put in a bag (you'll want to shop from people who bag their fish individually or about two or three per bag), and how many DOAs they usually get. If they sound like they are trying to avoid the question, then they may have something to hide but this is not always the case.

Really, the comments about a seller are the best indication on any site about how good the service is. If you are importing a fish, it is extremely important to ask a lot of questions before purchasing anything.

 

[Voxcharm]

I use aquabid with excellent success. All my fish arrived healthy and happy. It's always a good idea to read everyone's comments on the seller, and ask the seller about the process. You'll need to know about how they package the fish and about their DOA policy. You'll need to also ask about their shipping dates. Some people only ship on certain days of the week to prevent fish being stuck in the post office over the weekends. Ask a seller about how many fish they ship at a time, how many they will put in a bag (you'll want to shop from people who bag their fish individually or about two or three per bag), and how many DOAs they usually get. If they sound like they are trying to avoid the question, then they may have something to hide but this is not always the case.
Really, the comments about a seller are the best indication on any site about how good the service is. If you are importing a fish, it is extremely important to ask a lot of questions before purchasing anything.

Noted. Thanks. As I say this seller seems to have excellent feedback and only ships overnight. I will however ask about individual bagging because I'd be concerned at potentially aggressive species being shipped in same bag together.

Thanks.