Excellent quality and prices from Upscale Aquatics!

[Sharkbait19]

Recently I was searching for some more rare & oddball fish for a brackish mudskipper tank that I was setting up, and came across a store called Upscale Aquatics. I was extremely impressed by the vast array of different species they had, both freshwater and marine, and found some very rare fish and invertebrates that I didn't think were very common in the hobby. Even more impressive was the extremely low prices compared to other vendors, even on some of the more hard-to-acquire animals! (For example, I ordered a Red Rooster Pygmy Waspfish for only $39.99!)
I definitely recommend checking them out! Their stock is limited as many of the more rare fish and invertebrates are highly seasonal, but it's definitely worth subscribing to their newsletter for updates, and I think I'll be ordering from them more in the future, if I ever come across something interesting or sought after.
As far as packaging goes, while I've definitely seen better packing in past fish orders, there wasn't anything to complain about either. Shipping is very affordable (only about $20 for UPS priority), but it comes at the cost of no live arrival guarantee. That said, everything arrived very healthy so it wasn't a major concern of mine. However, if you're concerned about DOA refunds, you can pay additional shipping charges, which also upgrades the order to UPS overnight. So far I've placed two orders and the shipping process was fast enough that I didn't feel upgrades were necessary. The customer service is very nice, making sure that you're satisfied with your order before it is shipped out.
So overall, I'd rate it 8/10. While some fish that arrived were a bit thin and needed some food, overall the health was very good and the prices of both the livestock and shipping is extremely affordable compared to other vendors (except yellow tangs, unfortunately - those are still the typical price...)

 

[Sharkbait19]

I just want to provide an update, as I had placed a second order very recently. DO NOT order from them if you live somewhere cold. They do not pack sufficient heat packs and so the box arrived with ice cold water and all the fish were dead, except for one that was barely hanging on.
As I mentioned before, there is no alive arrival guarantee so ordering is at your own risk. I don’t think I’ll be ordering from them in the future, however, as the deaths were due to negligence in packing, rather than any shipping-related factors. I’ve had orders come from other vendors that got delayed by several days, and still arrived fine because the box was packaged with weather in mind.
So while my earlier review still stands, that the fish are generally healthy and quite inexpensive, do be mindful that if you order during inclement or cold weather, there is likely going to be a large amount of DOAs.