ryan21

Hi i was wondering if anybody here buys their fish and coral online? It seems cheaper till u get hit with the shipping then it seems to be alot more money. Just want to know where everybody buys their stuff?

TFA101

lots of my canadian buddies order from J and L Aquatics.

http://www.jlaquatics.com

au01st

It's fine once in a while, but remember that without supporting local stores, they will go out of business, then you will have NO choice but to order online.

I ordered my clean up crew from eBay. S/h was $28, but I ordered enough stuff to make it worth it. You can't order just one thing, you'll have to save up and think of what you'll want for the next few months and buy it all at once to spread out the cost of s/h.

hkirchen

The only thing I have purchased that was shipped to me was some of MM's bettas. I don't know if I would feel comfortable buying from any other company. Although, sometimes, you just can't get the type of fish or coral from your LFS and that would be the only solution. However, I would ask your LFS if they will order it in for you. This way you could put down a deposit and leave it there to acclimate after the trip. A lot of livestock can survive the trip, but perish shortly after arrival while acclimating. In my experience, they will order several of the type of fish you are asking for so that the chances of selling you a healthy one is greater. Then they can sell the others to someone else.

That is the way I have done it. (I had to order yo yo loaches because my LFS ran out of them) This way, your risk drops considerably!

au01st

Another thing is livestock ordered online is usually significantly smaller than livestock you buy at the store. You also run the risk of the fish not eating and dying and you're outta luck, where as at the store you can ask to see them eat.

galvatron3000

Blue Zoo and Live Aquaria have both serviced me well. My local store has to ordeer my fish too so it's just a matter of preference to me. I want to support my local store but sometime it just makes more sense to order from Blue Zoo especially when they do free shipping.

Shawnie

shipping is free over $225 ...but i guess thats easy to spend on salties

galvatron3000

I was referring to free shipping on every order which is a deal they ran last year before they started the $225. It was a once a week type deeal where it was a certain percentage off for a week and finally free shipping one week, which I happened to take advantage of. I did get free shipping a few weeks ago when I order a purple tang and Maculosus Angelfish though.

When ordering it just depends on what makes sense financially and common (lol). I look for a good deal. If my local shop actually had more fish variety then perhaps it would be different but they have to order so the majority of my experience is books, online and then LFS.

Oil_Fan

Most of my stuff has been purchased from one of the LFS in my area. But I have purchased some live stock from Liveaquaria.com with limited success. Snails and corals have been pretty good for me. Actually I haven't had a single issue with any of their corals that I've bought from them. A couple of crabs and both were healthy.

Sea stars...not so good there. First one died about 4 or 5 days after getting him. They sent me a replacement and he arrived DOA. My last order from them I finally managed to get one and he's doing great in my tank.

I've only ever ordered one fish from them and that didn't work out either. Couldn't get him to eat and he died a week later.

One thing I will say about Liveaquaria is that they are great about refunds. They don't argue with you though I'm sure they look at your order history to see if they should be or not....heh