Do you guys/gals buy fish online?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Never have ordered fish. Like to see my fish before I buy them. I have ordered some of my inverts this way. No problems here.
 
My local fish stores are pretty poor. I've placed several orders on-line, and have been extremely pleased with the quality of the livestock (both fish and invests). Please, live aquaria gives a 14 day guaranty. Find a LFS who'll match that!
 
I've bought several fish from LiveAquaria...in the middle of winter and the middle of summer. Nothing but praises!!!
 
I've bought stuff from saltwaterfish.com but don't recommend it. They don't have a customer service number and if anything goes wrong you run a high risk of not being able to talk to someone to fix it.

I've heard people mention problems with live aquaria as well. I think that the story that I heard on here (you can do a search) was that someone received a fish that was DOA and live aquaria replaced the fish. The second fish arrived DOA as well and they refused to return his phone calls or deal with the situation.

All of the online stores seem to be equivalent when things go well. I think that you'll find that there's a difference between the various online stores when things go wrong. If I were you I would check to make sure that:
(1) They have a number that you can call
(2) They have a good rep at the better business bureau and
(3) Nobody on here or reefcentral has had too many problems with them

I send an occasional email to saltwaterfish.com telling them how much of my businesss they lost because they refused to fix a $10 mistake. I also went through the BBB in Florida and they did not respond to the complaint.

Also remember that with all the keep alive guarantees you need to mail the fish back to them (at your cost) packed in salt. You may also need to mail them water samples. They suggest that you use registered mail to make sure that it doesn't "get lost". They'll send you a replacement but typically you have to pay for the S&H unless you order more stuff from them. Some places need you to call within 1-2 hours after delivery to report problems. Its all made as complicated as possible to discourage anyone from making use of the keep alive guarantees.

I'm really tempted to buy live goods online but I've been resisting the tempation. I do have an awesome LFS about 5 minutes from my house though and another one about 1/2 hour away.
 
I'm with Quarryshark - I like to see my fish first. I think it all depends on what you have available locally though. I would think in Pensacola, you should have some decent choices. As far as price goes, I think you come out about the same after shipping.
 
I have bought several inverts from LiveAquaria.com - they arrive in separate bags in a sort of styrofoam cooler thing. One of the crabs and shrimp that I received from them died, but they immediately issued a refund. They have a 10-day guarantee, and their customer service is extremely friendly and helpful.

In addition, I frequent Water World here in Pensacola - it's off of 9th Ave. behind Subway. :)
 
yea, Water World is the one ive been going too :) Im thining of buying my stuff from there.
 
BlueDolphin said:
I have bought several inverts from LiveAquaria.com - They have a 10-day guarantee, and their customer service is extremely friendly and helpful.

They recently bumped their guarantee up to 14days 8O

I've only orderd once from fishsupply.com, I got probably 15 things and all were ok except a fireshrimp that was DOA, they issued credit right away.
 
I bought from liveaquaria and the fish were ok. But the problem is the shipping charges. Its 29.95 per order weather its 1 fish or 20 fish So do the math and see if its cost efective to buy there or at a LFS
 
Back
Top Bottom