Trustworthy online fish stores?

[JakesReef209]

Good news everyone!
My new system is cycled and ready for a cleanup crew and a fish or 2. I’m in the very unlucky scenario of not having a local fish store. Closest thing is a petco that has no saltwater supplies or livestock [emoji19]
So I’m gunna have to do everything online, which has been ok so far for acquiring hardware and equipment, but it seems much more intimidating when purchasing livestock. Has anyone had any glowing experiences? Any terrible experiences? I’m open to all recommendations! Any response is appreciated! Thanks guys!

 

[EriksOasis]

Reef cleaners is great for your clean up crew. Live aquaria has many fish and inverts also and have heard good things about both.

 

[AshwinRavi]

reefcleaners and cherry corals!! have great personal experience with both, cherry corals is having a live sale tomorrow... good luck with your tank! looking great

 

[Oldreefer44]

Have to say that I am getting to the point of not ordering from several online suppliers. Last orders from Live Aquaria and Saltwaterfish.com were very disappointing. 100% fatalities in both cases. Yes they give you credit but not for shipping.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

LiveAquaria is pretty much the main source. I recently ordered from them and there some really important things to be mindful of. Here goes: make sure you are home and able to accept the delivery yourself that day to get the fish out an acclimating right away. When ordering from them pay close attention to the size listed as small, small/medium, medium etc. and see what that corresponds to in inches. For Diver's Den fish, they give an actual size of the fish you will receive, for fish ordered from the normal section, they provide a range. If the range is 2-1/2-3 1/2" you need to make sure you are OK with a 3 1/2" inch fish because if your luck is like mine that is what you will get. For me, there is a big difference in a size range like that especially for those of us with smaller tanks.
Diver's den fish, receive some basic treatment but do not go through anything like a full QT procedure. It's mainly just a WYSIWYG thing. Assume the fish will come in with parasites and need to be treated. Even more so with fish ordered from the regular section. Regular section fish are shipped directly from the wholesaler Quality Marine to your doorstep so again assume they are coming with parasites. Fish at QM receive one freshwater dip and a 30 minute to one hour Prazi bath while acclimating and that is it. I strongly suggest doing a QT on any fish from the "Los Angeles facility" as they call it. My last order I received from LA, included a Tang that was the maximum of the size range quoted and a Lubbock's fairy wrasse with either Flukes or Uronema lice on it.
When it comes to customer service, they have been conditioned by some bad apples out there to be very defensive and to strictly stick to there posted information and guidelines. I would not say it is good customer service by any means and the phone service is better than the email service. I don't blame them, people always try to take advantage in this biz when it comes to livestock. I had the lady on the phone straight up tell me I shouldn't have ordered a Tang for a 50 gallon tank. She might be right technically based on the adult size of the fish but that really is not their place to say to a customer IMO.

 

[JakesReef209]

reefcleaners and cherry corals!! have great personal experience with both, cherry corals is having a live sale tomorrow... good luck with your tank! looking great

I’ve heard many good things about cherry corals, and was originally planning on getting all my fish and coral from them exclusively, but it seems like they got rid of their fish section?

 

[AshwinRavi]

I’ve heard many good things about cherry corals, and was originally planning on getting all my fish and coral from them exclusively, but it seems like they got rid of their fish section?

I haven't bought fish online, luckily I have many lfs around. As far as corals go, they do an amazing job packing and getting them to you safe.

 

[JakesReef209]

Have to say that I am getting to the point of not ordering from several online suppliers. Last orders from Live Aquaria and Saltwaterfish.com were very disappointing. 100% fatalities in both cases. Yes they give you credit but not for shipping.

Man that sucks. I’m definitely reefing on a budget, and I’m so excited to finally get some living creatures into my tank. Having a 100% death rate on my first fish would crush me

 

[JakesReef209]

LiveAquaria is pretty much the main source. I recently ordered from them and there some really important things to be mindful of. Here goes: make sure you are home and able to accept the delivery yourself that day to get the fish out an acclimating right away. When ordering from them pay close attention to the size listed as small, small/medium, medium etc. and see what that corresponds to in inches. For Diver's Den fish, they give an actual size of the fish you will receive, for fish ordered from the normal section, they provide a range. If the range is 2-1/2-3 1/2" you need to make sure you are OK with a 3 1/2" inch fish because if your luck is like mine that is what you will get. For me, there is a big difference in a size range like that especially for those of us with smaller tanks.
Diver's den fish, receive some basic treatment but do not go through anything like a full QT procedure. It's mainly just a WYSIWYG thing. Assume the fish will come in with parasites and need to be treated. Even more so with fish ordered from the regular section. Regular section fish are shipped directly from the wholesaler Quality Marine to your doorstep so again assume they are coming with parasites. Fish at QM receive one freshwater dip and a 30 minute to one hour Prazi bath while acclimating and that is it. I strongly suggest doing a QT on any fish from the "Los Angeles facility" as they call it. My last order I received from LA, included a Tang that was the maximum of the size range quoted and a Lubbock's fairy wrasse with either Flukes or Uronema lice on it.
When it comes to customer service, they have been conditioned by some bad apples out there to be very defensive and to strictly stick to there posted information and guidelines. I would not say it is good customer service by any means and the phone service is better than the email service. I don't blame them, people always try to take advantage in this biz when it comes to livestock. I had the lady on the phone straight up tell me I shouldn't have ordered a Tang for a 50 gallon tank. She might be right technically based on the adult size of the fish but that really is not their place to say to a customer IMO.

Thanks for the heads up and advice! Any suggestions on dips or medications to get?

 

[paphater]

@Atul@AmongTheReef

Great service all around. Amongthereef, they are sponsors here.

 

[Salty1962]

Zoacollector.com, is my go to vendor.

 

[Haggisman14]

just got my CUC from John @reefcleaners! Cannot go wrong there!

 

[jhatfield]

Buying fish is the absolute worst! Yep, a general across the board statement . Fish have a horrible survival rate even in the best of situations. I hate to think what the mortality rate must be between wild capture and the wholesaler.

The wrasse in my tank now is the only one to survive longer than a week. First purchase of two clowns 5 months ago showed up with extremely dirty water which looked like spent 1 extra day in shipping. After drip acclimation, died in quarantine 2 days after shipping which was refunded; guessing ammonia damage. Next two clowns, same store in LA but picked up in person, arrived with internal parasites (white stringy poop) and wouldn't eat. Died in quarantine 4 days later also refunded.

Took a break for a few months then added 3 more fish from another respected online retailer. One died within two days which looked like it had been popped a couple times by the pistol shrimp, but can't be sure. Royal Gramma is awol; it's a lidded tank so guessing dead under a rock and possible victim of my pistol shrimp which I'm trying to trap. So, be aware of the dangers currently in the tank.

Full disclosure: this latest round of fish went straight into my tank after drip acclimation bypassing quarantine which I don't recommend. No real logic here other than I thought I'd give it a try since I had zero success in quarantine. Just not going to all the effort of setting up a quarantine on my kitchen counter just to have the fish die a day or two later. Basically, if the fish shows up not eating it's pretty much game over.

With all that said I have a good cleanup crew from Algae Barn and reef cleaners. Fantastic coral buying experience from Worls Wide Corals and Unique Corals.

 

[AtulR]

@Atul@AmongTheReef

Great service all around. Amongthereef, they are sponsors here.

Thanks Cody! Really appreciate it

 

[WesleyC]

Live Aquaria.

 

[mfinn]

Have to say that I am getting to the point of not ordering from several online suppliers. Last orders from Live Aquaria and Saltwaterfish.com were very disappointing. 100% fatalities in both cases. Yes they give you credit but not for shipping.

Liveaquaria will re-ship any doa's and re-ship any that die within 2 weeks.
That includes shipping



I have to edit this post.
LA does not re-ship any more. They do give you credit back to your credit card, with proof of death in the warranty period.

 

[mfinn]

Liveaquaria is my go to place for online fish orders.
I have had deaths, but most of them were hard to ship fish.
LA has replaced all fish deaths free of charge.

 

[rkpetersen]

As far as online coral purchases, I've had good experiences with Diver's Den, World Wide Corals, Legendary Corals, Jason Fox, Tidal Gardens, and most recently Boom Corals.

Another vote for Reef Cleaners for cleanup crew.

As far as fish are concerned, so far online only from LiveAquaria/Diver's Den, with mixed results. I really have a strong preference now for buying fish in person. With corals, high quality static images can suffice, but with fish, how they behave in the tank at the store can be as important as whether or not they have any visible blemishes.

 

[Baldguy]

Divers Den just because they do have some conditioning and you can see the exact fish you're getting. I like that they keep their fish at 1.025 salinity. Makes acclimation easier. Among the Reef is good also. Jordan has gotten me some nice fish.

 

[DeepBlueSomething]

Throwing my accolades in for reefcleaners.org and John - - great service and CuC