How is it practical to order fish online?

[Soupy97]

I was just thinking, you are not supposed to add too many fish to your tank at once because it can cause an ammonia spike and off-set your cycle, so how do people manage to have fish shipped to their house?

If you were going to buy all of your fish online, then you would have to do it in multiple intervals, and with a rate of atleast $40 for shipping, that would become extremely expensive.

You couldn't order all the fish you want at once because you cant put them all in the tank when they arrive.

Am I missing something or do people just spend a bunch of money for this?

 

[Sillyfishies]

I was just thinking, you are not supposed to add too many fish to your tank at once because it can cause an ammonia spike and off-set your cycle, so how do people manage to have fish shipped to their house?

If you were going to buy all of your fish online, then you would have to do it in multiple intervals, and with a rate of atleast $40 for shipping, that would become extremely expensive.

You couldn't order all the fish you want at once because you cant put them all in the tank when they arrive.

Am I missing something or do people just spend a bunch of money for this?

If you fishless cycle your tank, you can add all the fish at once.

 

[brennae]

Depends on what you are ordering. I had 4 imported bettas shipped to me at once and they all went in their own tanks. Its maybe not worth it for one fish but if you order multiples and have a cycled qt tank you should be fine.

 

[Rivercats]

It all boils down to what you want, how bad you want it, and are your willing to pay for it. Some people don't mind paying extra to get the fish they want. Plus if you order off say Aquabid most use USPS Priority (I wouldn't) which is much cheaper.

 

[Soupy97]

I can understand that. But in regards to the fishless cycle, it would still seem to me that throwing in more fish would be more ammonia in the tank and upset the cycle, unless you were throwing a TON in to begin with for the cycle.

Its frustrating because I want to order fish online but don't want to spend the money haha

 

[Sillyfishies]

I can understand that. But in regards to the fishless cycle, it would still seem to me that throwing in more fish would be more ammonia in the tank and upset the cycle, unless you were throwing a TON in to begin with for the cycle.

Its frustrating because I want to order fish online but don't want to spend the money haha

It'd take quite a few fish to equal 4 ppm of ammonia.

 

[Oohitsae]

I order 95% of my fish online, through aquabid, because they come from actual breeders. I don't like buying at pet stores because its pretty common for them to not know what they are doing and to send you packing with unhealthy fish.

I always ship priority unless they are a rare fish which saves a lot on shipping, rather than $40 I pay about $10-15 and get well cared for, well bred, and healthy fish. Can't complain about that!

It is a lot more costly but worth it IMO.

There is only 1 LFS in my area and I'm not a big fan of it. The owner is knowledgable but doesn't carry enough diversity in stock. We also have 2 chain stores, but I refuse to buy anything live from them because they are clueless. And sadly, there are very few breeders in my area, and what it'd take in gas to get to half of them is about the same it'd cost to ship.

As far as cycling goes, I don't add many fish at a time, one order is at Max 6 fish and it's usually juveniles or small bioload fish so it doesn't make much of an impact on the system. If I fish less cycled I could add all I wanted at once, but these are all established tanks so when I want to add some I just buy slowly. Usually I don't want/have money to buy a bunch at once anyways so it's not really a factor in my purchasing

 

[Soupy97]

It'd take quite a few fish to equal 4 ppm of ammonia.

That's a good point

 

[bshenanagins]

I order 95% of my fish online, through aquabid, because they come from actual breeders. I don't like buying at pet stores because its pretty common for them to not know what they are doing and to send you packing with unhealthy fish.

I always ship priority unless they are a rare fish which saves a lot on shipping, rather than $40 I pay about $10-15 and get well cared for, well bred, and healthy fish. Can't complain about that!

It is a lot more costly but worth it IMO.

There is only 1 LFS in my area and I'm not a big fan of it. The owner is knowledgable but doesn't carry enough diversity in stock. We also have 2 chain stores, but I refuse to buy anything live from them because they are clueless. And sadly, there are very few breeders in my area, and what it'd take in gas to get to half of them is about the same it'd cost to ship.

As far as cycling goes, I don't add many fish at a time, one order is at Max 6 fish and it's usually juveniles or small bioload fish so it doesn't make much of an impact on the system. If I fish less cycled I could add all I wanted at once, but these are all established tanks so when I want to add some I just buy slowly. Usually I don't want/have money to buy a bunch at once anyways so it's not really a factor in my purchasing

I agree, most of my tank is from out of state. My LFS suck. Also, most fish people get online are more on the exotic side, in which LFS prices typically equate to what you would pay for the fish with shipping. If your gonna spend that much for one in the LFS, why not get a bunch of fish for less

 

[Rivercats]

As to the fishless cycle and adding fish.... if you did a 4ppm ammonia cycle when your through you have a very high BB count so you can add pretty much your stock limit (with some expections on large fish and goldfish) since you have the bacteria ready. If you add only a few fish at a time your BB count will actually lower as not as much bacteria is needed so some dies off.