Purchasing fish on line

[Country joe]

Is it worth buying fish on the net, with most charging twenty pounds carriage fee.

 

[GaryE]

It varies by country - in Canada, it varies by seller.

Very often the local chain stores get their fish from the same distributors the online sellers do. So there is no guarantee of better quality. Add that you don't get to see the fish in advance, to evaluate their health, etc, and the risks are increased.

With the slow crushing of independent stores, many people don't have decent local stores.

I would only buy online:
a) if I trusted the seller's reputation from digging into info from past customers or friends.
b) if I couldn't get the species I really wanted locally.


I bought some fish to breed recently. The seller told me I could get both sexes, no problem. 10 on 10 made it here, and all are lovely healthy males. When I contacted the seller, he didn't know what females actually looked like. So you need to know your sellers - this one was a nice guy, but not strong on the familiarity with oddball fish front.

 

[Innesfan]

For me it is, yes, because the fish that interest me are generally not available in stores.

Most of my on-line experiences have been positive though I do attempt to do as much research as possible about the seller before purchasing. That said, I not along ago had the exact same experience as @GaryE --I ordered a dozen fish of a rare Nannostomus species and got 12 beautiful males. Fortunately I had a few females in my tank already.

 

[OldFishKeeper]

Is it worth buying fish on the net, with most charging twenty pounds carriage fee.

In my case, I find it is worth it, especially when purchasing delicate fish and you know the vendor. I live in an area with very few and, mostly questionable, local fish stores. I say questionable because they charge high prices and offer little or no warrantees or quarantine practices.

I will buy from the local Petco or PetSmart if the price is right, I am not in a rush and I have quarantine tanks available.

 

[Fishkeeper123]

Is it worth buying fish on the net, with most charging twenty pounds carriage fee.

For me it’s not, as I’ve struggled to find any sellers with good enough reviews. Therefore I end up going back to Maidenhead aquatics as they are local with a very good range of stock and eventhough it’s overpriced I haven’t seen any ick or any problems buying from them so if there’s no problem why change. And the extra price is worth it as I know that they have been quarantined for and treated with basic meds whereas I’m unsure of how they’ve been treated if buying online.

 

[MattW]

Speaking from some experience with UK online orders. Try to find a seller that isn't too far away and is reputable. You could try some companies based in NW/NE England perhaps. I will admit I don't know of many companies based north of the border but It would be interesting to see what stores you do have up there. For the £20 rate, that seems ok to me. The two orders I had were £35 and £10(shrimp) fees.