safe to ship fish across country?

[malonbl]

Back when I was looking around for cory habrosus, Old Scales mentioned Wet Spots in Portland, OR as a good cory retailer. So, I became familiar with their website and wide selection of fish. Called them and spoke to them about shipping fish, etc. Ended up finding habrosus in town and purchased.

But, while talking to a Wet Spots employee, I had him give me suggestions on some good nano fish to go with my neons and habrosus in my 29 gallon. He gave me a long list of "outside of the box" nano fish, including several tetras, rasboras, killifish, etc. Didn't act like it would be a problem to ship fish to Tennessee. So I researched a bunch and settled on jellybean tetras and mosquito rasboras as good additions to fill out my tank.

Important to say here that I have been learning/reading a bunch since my initial tank set-up (I am a 2 month rookie). In fact, I am probably reading too much to the point that I worry myself about perfectly matching water parameters with whatever seriouslyfish.com or another source suggests as ideal. So, when I called Wet Spots to check on pricing, shipping, etc today, I asked if they had problems successfully shipping fish across the country with varying waters parameters like pH, hardness, etc. The very nice, polite young lady I spoke with said that the fish would probably survive, but not be very happy. Her tone was in a way to discourage the purchase. She did not sound very confident, though, and also had to put me on hold to answer a few questions that I had. She thinks their tank pH is around 7.2-7.4 and thinks hardness is around 100.

My pH is alkaline at 7.8. My water is medium soft at 7 dGH (123 ppm). I already know (now after having already purchased), that both my habrosus and neons prefer soft, acidic water. Yet, they are doing fine.

So here's where I am. I don't want to purchase fish that will not thrive in my tank. But, I wanted to get an opinion from this forum before totally giving up on these species after researching them. Both species are said to prefer acidic, soft water. But I have read on here that most all fish can adjust to reasonable parameters. My main concern was the "sudden" switch from Portland OR water to Nashville, TN water.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Wiggles24]

I live in California most of my fish have been purchased from sellers in Ohio and they do just fine. As long as you acclimate them correctly

 

[malonbl]

Thank you for the reply. And it brings up another question. What are some of the reputable, larger online retailers of fish? I am sure I can find what I need closer to Tennessee. Anyone use online retailers in the Southeast?

 

[tnfinfan]

Gunpowder aquatics is in Florida. Priority mail is still two days from FL, though. Really, best bet is overnight shipping but it's fairly expensive. Read up on drip acclimation if you're considering it. You'll want to ease them in.

FWIW, I've gotten black khuli loaches and Schwartz's corydoras by way of the Lebanon Petco (just asked and they added some to their regular order for me). So, I didn't pay for the shipping and yet they were shipped overnight with the rest of their weekly order. I paid about $1.50 ea. for the loaches and $4.75 ea. for the cories. No way I could get anywhere near that on my own.

 

[Rivercats]

I've used Wet Spot several times and had two large orders containing all nano fish for 2 large nano fish tanks I had set up. It's rare that fish which are shipped have the same water parameters at both the store and the destination. Just use a drip line for acclimating slowly. BobsTropicalPlants.com usually has several types of nano fish. Nano fish can often be harder to find, that is if you want a larger variety, which is what the Wet Spot has. Neither of my nano fish tanks have overly soft water and one actually has a 7.6ph due to some rock I have in the tank. Most all fish can acclimate to higher ph levels without incident.

 

[malonbl]

thanks for all the responses

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Key is slowly adjust them to the different water. Even when I bring a fish home locally it floats until temperature stabilizes, then I add tank water every 5 minutes to the bag until I test and find PH to be the same. Takes time, I'm sure drip acclamation would be smoother.

Sent from my SCH-I435 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[severum mama]

They know what they are doing at WetSpot. I'd absolutely trust them to ship fish to me if I were looking to buy right now. Also... I believe they primarily ship overnight. Overnight is an easy trip for most fish. I think it will be tough for you to find the selection that WetSpot has, with most other retailers.

If you have never ordered online before, I know it can be stressful and maybe even a little confusing. But having personally shipped hundreds of boxes of fish, most for multiple day trips, I can tell you that success is far more common than DOA when the bagging and packaging is done properly.

 

[Luananeko]

I'm lucky enough to have Wet Spot as one of my LFS options, so I've never had to have anything shipped from them All of their fish are extremely healthy though; I don't think I've ever seen a dead or sick fish in their tanks. Healthy fish usually don't have any issues being shipped as long as they're shipped correctly (which as others have said, Wet Spot does).

For the water parameters difference, drip line acclimation should be all that's necessary. Stable parameters are more important than exact numbers, so once they adjust to the higher ph and hardness they should be fine.

 

[malonbl]

I think I will use WetSpots after all the positive feedback. I must have just been unlucky with the employee I spoke to regarding the variant water parameters. It didn't make sense to me that they would limit their online business to areas with exact or very close water parameters if they advertise that they ship all over the country.

Let me ask this as a follow-up question. What has been anyone's experience ordering "wild" fish? The jellybean tetras Wetspots advertise are marked as "wild". That sounds appealing, but would they be any less adaptable than a tank bred specimen?

 

[Grumble69]

I just purchased some cories from LiveAquaria (Drs Foster & Smith). They were shipped overnight from CA to NC. When they got here, they were huddled at the bottom of the bag and didn't look like much. I went slower than usual on the acclimation procedure. I took my time letting them come up to temperature. About 2 hours later, they're zipping all over my tank. They're like little beagle puppies of the fish world. Nose to the ground. Swimming, playing, looking for food. Tumble, bumble.

That was my first internet purchase of fish, but I'll definitely do it again.

 

[DragonFish71]

I've ordered quite a few "wilds" from WetSpot and have had no problems at all. They're very good about getting them to eat flake/pellets and they all came out of QT without losing any.

 

[Rivercats]

I have always gotten extremely healthy fish from the Wet Spot whether they were wild caught or not. I've talked to Anthony who is in charge of online sales and shipping and he said they always quarantine their fish and are sure they are eating flakes and other foods before offering them for sale.

 

[Luananeko]

As Rivercats mentioned, Wetspot puts all their wilds through QT and gets them on commercial foods, which is really the major hurdle you have to worry about with wilds. I would still run them through a round of anti-parasite meds once they arrive just to be safe since wilds can often carry flukes.

Otherwise the main difference between wilds and tank-bred is that wilds are usually stronger genetically. They're less likely to fall ill or have deformities as they grow up. Tank bred on the other hand tends to have brighter colors and can usually adjust to different water parameters more easily.