Ordering fish corals and inverts online?

whats everyones views on ordering online for fish corals and iverts?

the site i keep looking at is www.liveaquaria.com

 

I have ordered from Live Aquaria before with good results. I have also order from SaltwaterFish.com. I have had good experiences with both, but from what I have heard some people have had some issues with the later.

 

If the fish or coral is in their Diver's Den section, those are wholesaled fish and corals and are going to be healthy, free of diseases/pests. I would buy these in a second.

The other fish are trans-shipped and there's no way on God's green earth I would buy one of those. I want to make sure my fish don't have any diseases (particularly Amyloodinium or Brookynella....I don't really worry about ich). I want to see how bright their colors are. I want to see what foods they eat. One can't do that with a fish that drops into LAX, is given a water-change, re-oxed, and then is sent immediately up on another plane to somewhere in the US. I would love to see what their mortality rate is. It's gotta be huge. Oh well, with their guarantee, they'll just ship you a new one.

 

Liveaquaria +1. I have ordered from them a couple times. Once I have a goby DOA. A phone call later I was store creditted without issue. Second time I have a shrimp dead, same thing phone call & instane store credit. I dont blame them at all, I should kick myself in the butt for ordering during the cold months. Packing is A+ and I would and will still without a doubt order from them again.

saltwaterfish.com wont be getting any of my money again. I ordered from them once and it was a pain. I called first with a couple questions and the guy didnt seem very knowledgable or interested in me. My questions were all but answered by the stantard info online. I mean thanks but I know how to read. He all but straight up said hang up & click on line. I had several DOA's and when I called they were snooty & made me feel like they were trying to make it my fault. I did ultimately get store credit but thier catch is you have to order something like $60 I think it is to get to use thier store credit, and that is $60 in livestock not including s&h. Google around for reviews & even visit thier forums for the closed threads (anything any unhappy with SWF.com gets closed), and make up your mind from there.

If your looking for other places I have ordered CuC's & macro's from reefcleaners and definitely rep them.

For corals I have had some good look with the ebay sellers out there. I like small cheap frags so I can watch them grow out vs colonies. Just watch the s&h, some places charge you 1 base fee, other charge you a base fee + X amount of dollars for each additional frag and that can add up FAST! It also helps to look for adds with pictures of the frags on eggcrate or something to judge the size, cause I've been tricked with a couple small frags from pics on just substrate.

 

LiveAquaria is good, Diver's Den is better.

Stay with major online retailers and do research into their customer service and delivery success.

 

I have no trouble ordering corals/inverts online... but Fish scare me. There seem to be so many more variables not being able to see the actual fish I'm buying bothers me. just my 2cents