Anyone buy fish online?

I am in the process of setting up my first salt tank. Has anyone had any luck buying fish online? If so, any recommendations? Thanks.

 

I purchased a sailfin tang from one of our vendors. Riptides Reef osCommerce It's doing great!
It's the only one I have purchased online, all the rest were either given to me from friends or bought from the LFS.
Jim

 

Fish I would be cautious

HI,
I have bought alage, PODS, snails , and inverts on line all have been fine.
Ive used this Vendor for reforigum stock
About Floridapets.com
He's alittle slow to ship his critters are great.
I bought 100 nass snails on ebay and got about 120 for 18 bucks and they are reproducing.
I ve bought shoal shrimp , pods , algae, from this vendor 100 % alive.


Sachs Systems Aquaculture Welcomes You!

he shipped in 2 days awesome animals.

I would use a reforguim in your loop, I have one with a light DSB , Rock island in center , and Cheto , This has prevented a lot of problems .
I have a good skimmer in the sump.
I have a few pieces of live rock in the tank, the tank has a DSB too, and worms those flat worms help alot.
I don't care for hermits they kill each other and are very aggresive. I love peppermint shrimp in the tank and shoal shrimp in the sump.
I let the corraline grow every where excepts the glass.
Read up on DSB's Good luck
I am very new but haven't killed a fish yet. water parameters are resonable for a new tank.
Doug

psps for tank Lights this company has some awsome prices they have fixed problems that occured in the past with better cords, grounds, I bought a 200+ light for 69 bucks.
Aquatraders

My LPS is having a fit about the prices .

Water changes fix most problems, I would go for weekly after it cycles and back off to every two weeks if tank conditions are acceptable. this helps trace elements and removes organic waste that can be hard on critters Don't expect you PH to be stable cause you have lots of that argonite sand It only helps if the ph falls to 7.8 and thats to acid for most critters, Only use R/O water if you can.

most LPS sell you anything and many times its not compatible with your previous purchases I would write down a plan post it here and let them tell you their experience it will prevent a lot potential murders in the tank and save you some pain and money.

 

online purchase

I have good luck with both inverts and fish purchased from saltwaterfish.com and marinedepot.com

 

I buy all of my livestock from Just Phish. It helps that he's local to me but from what I've heard and read, he does a great job when it comes to shipping out of state too.

 

I just got my Majestic Angel from Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums. It was packed really well, and shipping is only 35 buck up to 225 bucks, then it goes up to 39 bucks. Saltwaterfish.com - Saltwater Fish, Saltwater Fish Aquariums, Tropical Fish, and Saltwater Fish Tanks has free shipping on orders above 79 dollars, but their selection is always limited. Hope this helps,

Michael

 

i buy almost everything online now...my lfs'sssss in my area suck in my opinion.

only place I steer clear of is saltwaterfish.com I have done 4 orders with them and have had death every order. expensive!

Petsollutions.com has been very good to me. prolly 10 orders 0 deaths...they even goofed up an order of mine...was no problem fixing and they even hooked me up with a couple of freebees for my trouble. good customer service.

garf.org many many orders for frags very low death rate, and that is with shipping frags to a rookie.

liveaquaria.com 3 or 4 orders, on the spendy side but 0 deaths

marinedepotlive.com - 4 orders 0 deaths

Berghia.net - order in process, we will see

a couple others that I surf a lot but yet to try are;

aquacon.com
vividaquariums.com
godscreationsunderthesea.com --- good prices but the website scares me.

my main recomendation is check out their "dead delivery program" and is why I will never buy from saltwaterfish.com again. they wish you to ship them the dead item back...additional cost. I did 4 orders from 300-500.00 each had death on delivery each order. most of the items are less then 25.00 each. but to now have to pay another 5 or so dollars to ship it back is insane. most companies will except a digi pic and a phone call within a few hours of delivery. main cause of death was over packed boxes and a bag would burst and run out of water, for truth purposes. most places also garantee life 15-30 days after arival...very similar to many lfs.

once you find a couple stores u like, shipping is your main expense, but if you shop around and have a few u like, u will find the markup from a retailer versus what u get from an etailer makes up for shipping.

last but not least....aclimation...take your time to introduce them to your water. Do the drip method and in my opinion longer is better. I have only done this a year but have 2 tanks 120 and a 60 and both full of life...most bought online. I have had great success from online buying.

one last item....bigger orders can get you free shipping.

Bill

 

Group orders are the best!!! If you can find one or more people to order with you, you guys can split the shipping. Row2fer has some very good points. Lol, you help me out too, hehe.

 

Thanks

Thanks for all the help!