ordering online

[youronlysin]

What are your favorite online retailers for freshwater livestock and plants? I've been wanting to place an order for ages, but I cant bring myself to pay 20 bucks to ship 5 bucks worth of fish. Is there a trick to it besides ordering tons of stuff at once? I wanted to order several small shrimp, but I cant see paying 25 dollars to ship several 49 cent shrimp. None of the local stores have a decent selection last I checked. How do people afford to order fish online???

[fishfreek]

Given the nature of teh post im moving to the FW Gen Disc forum.

[TankGirl]

I have ordered shrimp from AZGardens.com since I could not find cherry shrimp in town. The best thing to do in that situation is to combine your order with other things so the shipping costs are spread out.

The very best alternative is Aquabid (whenver it comes back up) and Ebay, or just ordering from fellow hobbyists. Sometimes you can negotiate the shipping method for a particular item, like inverts maybe being able to tolerate a slightly longer trip than fish.

For fish, you can really get some great specimens from Aquabid, but check the seller here first - often they will have a reputation and you can talk to people who have ordered their livestock before.

[malkore]

Depends on the online store. AZgardens.com has a $25 minimum order...but aquariumplants.com does not.

My suggestion is find an onlien store that's reasonably close to you, so that you can use 2 day priority USPS mail, which is about 1/3 the cost of next day air. That'll work on plants only.

As for fish...if you're ordering $5 fish, then your LFS should be able to order them in for you. I've bought stuff on liveaquaria.com because it was so much cheaper to get an invert pack plus some $20 corals, vs. paying $50 for the same corals at my LFS. That made it worth the $22 for next day delivery.

[WhiteCloud]

I have used http://www.aquariumfish.net/ twice, and everything arrived alive from California to Maine in 18 hours. I did have a Dwarf Neon Rainbow show up without a tail (it now has 1/3 of it grown back), but they were very good about it and credited my account. They accept PayPal...so that is good for people who don't have/use credit cards. These are the only people I have tried...so I have nothing to compare it to, but I would do business with them again. The overight shipping is outrageous like everyone else at like $35....but it is worth while if you are buying a good amount of fish.

WC

[Veneer]

For shrimp:

Try www.petshrimp.com - see the "Buy Shrimp" heading; the livestock is of the best quality you'll find on the web (personally bred by the site administrator), and of a finer quality than that of most all North American lfs.