Mail Order fish? What's the deal?

[blairan]

Congratulations on the bonus fish! I hope I'll be that lucky when I start to order.

Thanks OhNeil! I've had a great time today watching them get to work on the algae on my plants... I am guessing that the plants are enjoying it as well

 

[TheCrazyFishLady]

I normally buy my fish from LFS but I needed to get some assassin snails and shrimps, I decided to order them online from a aquatic dealer to see how that goes, since most of my aquarium fish food, filter sponges, etc I buy online. Got lots of positive feedback checking up on them online so fingers crossed when I get my new additions next week.

I might end up needing to order some assasin snails. No LFS can find them over here. I guess something happened? Anyway, please update with how they turned out! I might follow in your footsteps.

 

[blairan]

I'm seriously considering just ordering in all our fish rather than deal with rudely inept LFS employees.

I know what you mean... we have several aquarium stores in the metro area but in general the employees at the stores have not been very pleasant when I tried to ask questions about fish or products... it made the bonus fish and efficient service I got online that much more appreciated!

 

[mgamer20o0]

I've seen a lot of sites on the internet offering tropical fish for sale through the mail. Since my LFS doesn't have a great selection of fish, the idea of getting different breeds online seems tempting. Getting live fish through the mail though seems a little iffy. Does anyone have any experiences ordering fish through the mail they can share? Is it something I should stay clear of? Is there a vendor that you would recommend or should I just drive the extra miles to find a brick and mortar store?

what kind of fish are you looking for?

ill ask you this. how do you think the lfs gets the fish? i am all for supporting lfs but sometimes they cant get what you want. there are a ton of places to get fish online it just depends on what you are looking for. a good place to start is aquabid.com

 

[OhNeil1969]

Hey mgamer,

Hukit schooled me on the fact that my lfs is most likely getting their stock delivered in much the same way online stores sell to the public. Right now I'm not looking for anything exotic. I am looking for an algae eater that will work well with my community tank. I'm also looking for a swordtail (my lfs doesn't even have any of those). I'm not worried about the swordtail interbreeding with my platy (plan to get males). I'm a little concerned about the swordtail and mollies mating but I've heard it's so hard to do that the odds should be in my favor. My goal is to get the most diverse tank I can. I'm also planning my next tank which will be a 55 gallon. That tank, hopefully will be more exotic (some angelfish, discus, rhomb bard and others).

 

[mgamer20o0]

i would highly suggest checking out aquabid. the stuff on there going to be a lot nicer then most lfs.

 

[warthog76za]

Got my new additions today from the online aquarium shop, must say it was very well packaged in a Styrofoam box and both bags covered in cut up paper.The 5 Shrimp are well and the 3 Assassin Snails are doing their tour of the tank. I must say I was in a rush to get the additions and actually went to one of the pricey online shops but I have checked around now thoroughly and have found stores here in Germany (online ones) who have way cheaper rates for the same shrimp/snails/fish.

 

[mgamer20o0]

always have to shop around.

 

[OhNeil1969]

I just had some more bad experiences with 2 different local fish stores in my area. I went to the local chain pet store to get somethings for our new beagle (his name is Bishop) and found a 10 gallon tank of mollies with 5 dead fish lying on the bottom and another molly dying right before my eyes. The sales associate in the area seemed oblivious to the situation and gave no impression that he was even concerned with the health of the fish. The other store had nicer people, again a poor selection. To top it off, I bought 3 neon tetras to complete a school in my 29 gallon tank only to find out when I got them home they all had ich. The lighting in the store was so poor that not until I got them home into a well lit tank could I finally see all the white spots. So now I have to go into hospital/doctor mode for fish that I haven't even had for a day. And to think I actually made the effort and drove an extended distance to find this store (that's why I rather cure these fish than try to return them). Mail order is looking better than ever even with the added costs.

 

[jessibell]

I have ordered bettas from Thailand on several occasions, they take about 3 days to arrive to canada and another 2 days to get from the trans-shipper to me. They all arived fine except for one, and the breeder credited me for it. They are very nice fish that you'd be hard-pressed to find in a lfs anywhere. For a relatively rare fish in good condition, the price of shipping is well worth it. Even if you did manage to order it in at the lfs, how long would you have to wait for it and what kind of shape is it going to be in? ordering on aquabid ensures you see the actual fish you're buying most of the time.

 

[jenatron]

OhNeil, I was going to say that that experience teaches the importance of QTing but then I realized you just posted a thread about it, lolol.