How many of these have you had? It's got to be at least one...right?

[Will W]

1. How long have you been in the hobby and how many online livestock orders have you had?
in the hobby for 16 years. 7 online orders and all in the last year after moving. In my opinion the best thing about online is the variety. if you want something specific its worth ordering online.

2. What do you do with the empty styrofoam shipping boxes?
keep them to ship coral.

 

[ChrisNH]

If I want to get it Quarantined for me I need to get it shipped.. at least for now..

 

[Kscope]

I have kept saltwater aquariums (FOWLR) for since 1980 but my first reef was setup 8 years ago. I have only ordered a handful of times from an online-retailer. It has been hit or miss, but I have several outstanding LFS in my area. Ice and beer go into the styrofoam boxes.

 

[135zman]

I’ve been in the saltwater fish and then reef aquarium hobby for 31 years starting in college when I worked at two LFS in Columbia, SC. Glad to share that one of them is still in business under the same ownership and appears to be thriving.

For years, I would drive up to 3-4 hours on weekends to purchase livestock from stores in Atlanta, Charlotte, Charleston or Greenville SC where I live now. I didn’t make my first online livestock purchase until about 5 years ago after 2 of my favorite LFS closed down.

I’ve probably only made 25-30 purchases between fish, corals, CUC, and pods.

As for online shopping for dry goods, buying from BRS is in the hundreds of times.

I kept a few styrofoam containers along the way that I’ll take on the road when I go to other stores for transporting livestock home and also a few for dipping new fish/corals, but I have definitely thrown the others away.

With the quality I see in my LFS now and amount of pests visible to the naked eye, I now exclusively buy all livestock online and the majority of dry goods online too.

 

[fish farmer]

I've been in the hobby 20 years, probably had about 12 to 15 online orders. One of my larger rock boxes got repurposed to ship fish eggs to a local trout grower. I use styro eggs boxes at work so I try and reuse some of them for local pickups. Most of my recent orders come in really tiny boxes, maybe hold a beer or two and some ice...so using them as a camping cooler would be limited.

They are probably one of the few things I don't recycle.

 

[Back where it all began]

WOW three very different perspectives here!



Do you have really good local fish stores?



This is something I hadn't thought about happening. Very cool!




Very understandable and it happens for sure. I have had it happen too but mostly over the years has been good. If I were to grade it I would give it an 80% B-. This gives me an idea for a new thread!

Hi, I’m fortunate that my lfs is very high quality. I’ve never had any problems with their creatures or knowledge.
The challenge is they carry mostly “run of the mill” corals so harder to get the latest types. But what they have is healthy.

 

[Erick Armanii]

If you pour some gasoline on the styrofoam it makes napalm.. but you didn’t hear that from me if the FBI is watching

 

[xxkenny90xx]

10 yrs and 3 online orders. All cuc, never ordered a fish before

 

[fnlyreefready]

Never have and never would buy livestock online, prefer to see what i am buying first.

I buy random frags all the time they come fast and cheap and it is like Xmas when they show up! Found a company that the customer service is great! Had some Zoas show up in bad shape. Was able to save 2 of the 10 polyps and even tho it didn’t die They are replacing it free of charge with free shipping. The order came in the 24th of this month and the new one will be here between the second and the 4th. Some companies who sell on eBay have a what you see a what you get policy And you get the exact frag pictured. All I can say is give it a try. The first order of zoas I recieved where both 2-3 color zoas. Ranging in the 7-15 dollars a polyp I got one with 8 heads and the other with over twenty ! 37 bucks to my door.

 

[Aqua62]

I started my first saltwater tank in 1988.
Never have purchased livestock online and never will. I prefer to see what I am buying first. I never have purchase coral online either, but since COVID-19 has shut down all the good frag swaps in my area, I am contemplating making my first online purchase with one of the live sales in the near future.

 

[OrionN]

I vote other because I lost count over the years.

 

[OrionN]

If you pour some gasoline on the styrofoam it makes napalm.. but you didn’t hear that from me if the FBI is watching

You can make rubber glue with this. This is the glue I used to fix bicycle tire holes. Use this to glue a patch of rubber onto the tire.

 

[Prasa]

1. How long have you been in the hobby and how many online livestock orders have you had?
I am a newbie to this with only 3 months experience.
I have ordered Corel 2 times and I should admit I was a bit disappointed (not with Corel, my judgement) both times.

2. What do you do with the empty styrofoam shipping boxes?
I keep them for reuse

 

[Erick Armanii]

Being limited to my options or forced to travel about an hour to a less than decent option I shared the belief that many had at first of seeing the fish or coral first hand..

Until my quarantine method, drive time and ultimately fish mortality all became an issue.

Now I order from the diver den and recently was introduced to @tsmaquatics who has a strick 30 day quarantine process. In the past 6 months I’ve purchased 7 different fish, all my corals, and a handful of snails online.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

1. How long have you been in the hobby and how many online livestock orders have you had?

Since 2012. I tend to order a lot of livestock at once, so I'd still guess at around 25 or so.

2. What do you do with the empty styrofoam shipping boxes?

I used to keep them...but my wife pretty much ended that. ;Smuggrin She's right. I was keeping them and not really using them. She made me come to a number that I'll keep on hand as useful (the number is 3). Now to keep a new one, I have to toss out an old one.

 

[keephowlin]

I've been in the hobby four years and have order quite a of livestock bit online, maybe 20-25 times. With fish, more often than not I am disappointed by their size. More than half the time I would have passed on the exact same fish at the LFS. I believe all my fish have come from Live Aquaria and more than half of those through Diver's Den. Even still, more than half the time the fish are smaller than expected. With DD they tell you the size, so I must suck at estimating or they put the fish on a stretcher and then round up. (Not accusing anyone of anything, just venting a bit)...

Coral-wise, I've been happy. Those orders have been through Unique, Worldwide, BRS, Vivid, etc...

I keep about a half dozen or so containers in case I need them, and break up and trash/recycle the rest...

 

[CrunchyBananas]

1. How long have you been in the hobby and how many online livestock orders have you had?
I've been in the hobby about 15 years, and I suppose my answer could be 1 order or over 100 orders. I've only ever personally placed a live stock order for myself. However, through working at LFS's and maintenance companies, I've placed, received, and acclimated easily over 100 orders.

2. What do you do with the empty styrofoam shipping boxes?
Boxes are useful fro taking livestock to and from clients, giving customers who buy a lot of livestock, giving to local coral guys to bring corals to/from shows.

 

[amarcini]

My first purchase was through eBay. I bought 25 nassarius snails and 10 periwinkles. My hermits will routinely kill snails for their shells even though there are many empty shells on my sand bottom. I thought 25 would get me through a few months. The package came and I had quite a bit more than I purchased. Now the tank looks Michael Jackson’s Thriller video at feeding time. So that was a win.
My second purchase was gsp. Gsp took off. So that’s another win. My third purchase is a purple bottle brush gorgonian. It hasn’t arrived.

 

[FishFriend11]

I got first fish tank in 1996 and now I'm up to 5 of them, including 2 SW tanks. Just recently have I gotten into online ordering, mainly since most LFS can't get the stock like they used to, so I have to get them online.
I just gave a few of the styrofoam boxes away to my local/small reef store. I hate to send them to the dump, so I will find a way to give them to someone that can use them. Or maybe use them as a planter? I wonder if they could be used to raise something like copepods, etc?

 

[Bdog4u2]

Been in the hobby since the 90's but including freshwater basically my whole life,my parents used to breed freshwater fish. I have a ton of stores to buy livestock from but i still buy online quite a bit because i get a better guarantee. It's been a few years since I have bought any fish because most of my fish don't like newcomers and I have a few fish between 10-20 years old and don't want to risk introducing anything since even quarantining and treating fish isn't a 100 percent guaranteed.
I have a shed full of coolers from shipments.