Quality Decline at LiveAquaria

[wvfeefkeeper80]

I started this hobby in 2020 and purchased a good deal of my livestock from LiveAquaria. I never received sick or infested items.

Jump to 2024 and everything from fish to coral has arrived with disease or bad hitchhikers. My last two attempts at purchasing fish were ick riddled and died during acclimation or shortly thereafter.

Is this anomalous? Am I having bad luck or has anyone else experienced this dive in quality??

What other online options exist I may not know about you’ve had good experiences with?

 

[exnisstech]

IMO they started down hill shortly after foster and Smith sold out
EDIT: I don't buy fish online any longer. Shipping has become to unreliable in my area. I have a lfs that will order for me if their supplier has what I'm looking for.

 

[njensen]

I started this hobby in 2020 and purchased a good deal of my livestock from LiveAquaria. I never received sick or infested items.

Jump to 2024 and everything from fish to coral has arrived with disease or bad hitchhikers. My last two attempts at purchasing fish were ick riddled and died during acclimation or shortly thereafter.

Is this anomalous? Am I having bad luck or has anyone else experienced this dive in quality??

What other online options exist I may not know about you’ve had good experiences with?

I agree wholeheartedly I used to order all the time from them and now their quality their service everything is gone by the wayside unfortunately I believe, the only person still there if she is that’s been on since the beginning is cinnamon she’s great otherwise big fat poo poo from me

 

[OrchidMiss]

IMO they started down hill shortly after foster and Smith sold out
EDIT: I don't buy fish online any longer. Shipping has become to unreliable in my area. I have a lfs that will order for me if their supplier has what I'm looking for.

I noticed the same thing after F&S sold. I really enjoyed their site, way back when.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Just wo

I started this hobby in 2020 and purchased a good deal of my livestock from LiveAquaria. I never received sick or infested items.

Jump to 2024 and everything from fish to coral has arrived with disease or bad hitchhikers. My last two attempts at purchasing fish were ick riddled and died during acclimation or shortly thereafter.

Is this anomalous? Am I having bad luck or has anyone else experienced this dive in quality??

What other online options exist I may not know about you’ve had good experiences with?

Just wow

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I started this hobby in 2020 and purchased a good deal of my livestock from LiveAquaria. I never received sick or infested items.

Jump to 2024 and everything from fish to coral has arrived with disease or bad hitchhikers. My last two attempts at purchasing fish were ick riddled and died during acclimation or shortly thereafter.

Is this anomalous? Am I having bad luck or has anyone else experienced this dive in quality??

What other online options exist I may not know about you’ve had good experiences with?

My understanding is that they now drop ship from Quality Marine. That means the fish are getting "double bounced" - they are imported from overseas and then shipped right out to you within a day or so. That really increases the stress on the fish. Pet stores buy this way, but they most often use air cargo, which is faster than typical overnight services, and a lot less stressful on the fish. The stores are also (usually) well versed in handling shipped fish. Also, any shipping losses they incur don't show up to the end consumer as they have died on them.

Your best bet would be one of three techniques: buying pre quarantined fish, quarantining them yourself, or buying captive raised fish directly from the breeder.



Jay

 

[lakai]

They don't all come from quality marine. Here is my take on Live Aquaria. They import a batch of a certain species and generally when the price is high, you'll get the more healthy specimens. The healthiest go on divers den but as inventory declines you get left with fish that are less and less healthy. Once you see the fish go on sale for discount, those are the least healthy of that batch as they start to sell out. I've had a high rate of dead whenever I buy the ones on sale.

 

[Outlaw Corals]

They were the best when they were Flying Fish Express going way back, i used to look at the divers den every night until i went to then around 2018 the divers den had some really nice stuff until it went back to around 2020, then i took a look again just this past fall i even bought some nice softies, cabbage coral, devils hand and some mushrooms and they are doing great still, then again over the past 2 months it’s back to , the past month they didn’t have anything that even caught my attention, and that’s all i have to say about that !!!

 

[Outlaw Corals]

I started this hobby in 2020 and purchased a good deal of my livestock from LiveAquaria. I never received sick or infested items.

Jump to 2024 and everything from fish to coral has arrived with disease or bad hitchhikers. My last two attempts at purchasing fish were ick riddled and died during acclimation or shortly thereafter.

Is this anomalous? Am I having bad luck or has anyone else experienced this dive in quality??

What other online options exist I may not know about you’ve had good experiences with?

You should check this place out, i got some very nice fish from them and they are doing very good i only lost 2 fish and they gave me credit they have a 14 day live guarantee, great prices on the live sales.