ordering fish online

[lynmccoy]

I live in a small town in Southwest Virginia. Even the local PetSmart is a 2 hour drive. There is 1 pet shop in the next town (1 hour drive) but they mostly have reptiles and goldfish. Is ordering fancy guppies online safe? I don't mean money-wise,I mean will they arrive dead or alive? Has anyone ordered guppies online safely?

 

[Joyler]

I live in a small town in Southwest Virginia. Even the local PetSmart is a 2 hour drive. There is 1 pet shop in the next town (1 hour drive) but they mostly have reptiles and goldfish. Is ordering fancy guppies online safe? I don't mean money-wise,I mean will they arrive dead or alive? Has anyone ordered guppies online safely?

Check out liveaquaria.com! I hear they are incredible! Also check with HN1 and severum mama they are fish breeders, and I hear nothing but the best! They are fantastic

 

[meegosh]

Yes, ordering fish online is perfectly safe. Mind your weather (use heat packs if cold). How do you think Petsmart and Petco get their fish?

 

[mfdrookie516]

Yep ordering online is definitely safe. It's slowly becomming the preferred method for serious hobbyists. FWIW, I have ordered from HN1 and severum mama and couldn't be happier.

 

[lynmccoy]

Thanks for the advice. I've gotten the 3, yes only 3 varieties of guppies that PetSmart had to offer and their females. But we really really wanted a beautifull tank full of differant varities and online seems to be the only way for me to get them,PetSmart told me that the females had nothing to do with the kind of fry that were produced and I didn't have to get the same type as the male. Is this true or were they just lying to sell females? I'd like to have great looking guppies from my kinda plain looking females and gooding males but I', not sure that sure that's gonna happen.What do you think? We are new to this and learning as we go.

 

[Joyler]

Yep ordering online is definitely safe. It's slowly becomming the preferred method for serious hobbyists. FWIW, I have ordered from HN1 and severum mama and couldn't be happier.

What sites do you use besides liveaquaria, severum, and HN1? or are those the best options? Tryin to see what's out there...

 

[HN1]

Ordering online is perfectly safe as long as the seller takes care and monitors the weather like Meegosh said. Live aquaria is great and there are many very legit sellers on aquabid too. We've got a few guppy and endler strains, but the problem will be mixing them. If you don't mind the line becoming mixed it can be interesting to see what pops out, but it effectively ends that "variety" in your possesion.

Thanks for the kind words folks. It's all about the fish. We're geeks like that.

 

[Joyler]

Ordering online is perfectly safe as long as the seller takes care and monitors the weather like Meegosh said. Live aquaria is great and there are many very legit sellers on aquabid too. We've got a few guppy and endler strains, but the problem will be mixing them. If you don't mind the line becoming mixed it can be interesting to see what pops out, but it effectively ends that "variety" in your possesion.

Thanks for the kind words folks. It's all about the fish. We're geeks like that.

We always appreciate you HN1! your great!

 

[lynmccoy]

I've never ordered any fish online before and I was told about Aquabid by one of our members here. I went on their site and it looks pretty good. Are there anyone or any business listed on there I should be careful about?

 

[tlkng1]

I've ordered from more than one location but haven't heard negatives about anyone. One thing you need to make sure of is that you are home for the delivery. You can usually leave a note for the driver of the delivery service ot leave the box, but, temps and weather are a factor..you don't want fish sitting out in high sun, or, even if not a factor now, freezing temps.

Check a company's return or credit policy for stock that doesn't successfully make the journey.

I've used LiveAquaria mostly and out of many orders, only had one fish that died enroute and I was immediately given credit. As well, when I made a freshwater order, they sent me someone else's saltwater order...oops. I can imagine the guy that got my freshwater order was just as confused

They shipped out the correct items without requiring a return and since I didn't have a saltwater system at the time, I gave the saltwater stock to my LFS. While it is a pain on the very few occasions they make a mistake, they are very good at correcting things and at their expense.

 

[rich311k]

Just about all of my fish have come from online orders, mostly from sellers like HN and MS. I have have had no bad experiences and have gotten some lovely fish.

 

[lynmccoy]

I called Aquara.com,but they will only sell pairs. Since I have only males in my 55g tank and only want no more than 10 females in my smaller tank, it won't work for me. The ones they had were ones I already had. The person on the phone didn't seem to understand that I do not want to constantly be breeding them. She actually asked me why I had guppies if I wasn't going to breed them. I quess I'm strange.