Adalius
Active Member
Being from Wisconsin, I used to love Dr Foster & Smith which founded LiveAquaria, their marine/aquaculture facility is a few hours from my house, and I know it's gone downhill ever since they sold but I held on since I wasn't getting terrible service until a year or so ago. I've had a few issues on past shipments with less than stellar fish or coral, and had to use their warranty a few times... but this last order finally did me in.
I put the order in during their mother's day sale, everything said it was in stock and would ship on a Tuesday for Thursday delivery. A week went by and no shipping confirmation. I emailed and was told there is a 'stock or production issue causing a delay'. A week later, still nothing, emailed again, no response other than magically getting a shipping confirmation at 7:30PM that night (2-3 hours after my email).
What arrived is just ridiculous. I bought 2 captive bred ocellaris, it says expected size 1"-4" on the page. I kid you not, these things are 1/2" if even! My biggest concern after acclimation was them going into an overflow if they swim within a foot of it. Then there was a sluggish looking shrimp, I was doing a drip acclimate on him, he started looking better, moving around the bag a lot more, did the same drip routine I've done for 20 years, slipped him in the tank, checked on him a half hour later and he's cruising around, went and ate dinner, came back and he's dead on his side.
As mentioned I've used their warranty before but this is finally turning me off for good. Shame they torched their legacy. Guess I'll be moving to some of the other online retailers that have been recommended in the forums.
I put the order in during their mother's day sale, everything said it was in stock and would ship on a Tuesday for Thursday delivery. A week went by and no shipping confirmation. I emailed and was told there is a 'stock or production issue causing a delay'. A week later, still nothing, emailed again, no response other than magically getting a shipping confirmation at 7:30PM that night (2-3 hours after my email).
What arrived is just ridiculous. I bought 2 captive bred ocellaris, it says expected size 1"-4" on the page. I kid you not, these things are 1/2" if even! My biggest concern after acclimation was them going into an overflow if they swim within a foot of it. Then there was a sluggish looking shrimp, I was doing a drip acclimate on him, he started looking better, moving around the bag a lot more, did the same drip routine I've done for 20 years, slipped him in the tank, checked on him a half hour later and he's cruising around, went and ate dinner, came back and he's dead on his side.
As mentioned I've used their warranty before but this is finally turning me off for good. Shame they torched their legacy. Guess I'll be moving to some of the other online retailers that have been recommended in the forums.
