beehive124
Active Member
I love LiveAquaria, but they've had a rough run. I don't want to directly blame them, but due to a recent order with them I can see how they have gone downhill. I've seen plenty of threads on here about LiveAquaria and people are quite frustrated with them, which is understandable. From diseased and deceased fish to not updating the website, you expect better from such a large company. Anyhoo, back to my recent order. I ordered 5 Astrea Snails, a Flame Hawk, and the 3 Bangaii Cardinals. The 5 snails and Flame Hawk were shipped from Tropical Fish International. The snails are the cleanest, healthiest snails I've ever seen, which is a weird thing to say, but they're almost gorgeous. The Flame Hawk was alive when I took him out of the box, but died in acclimation. As I poured out the Hawkfish bag water I noticed some kind of transparent worm thing. It looked like clear fish waste, but could've been a parasite. I'm sure it was a perfectly fine fish, but you never know. Tropical Fish International is a fish wholesaler that is quite understaffed. They do their best, but it's hard to keep up on the orders, from my understanding. TFI (tropical fish international) does the bare minimum when it comes to packaging, but it is somehow better than the packaging used by LiveAquaria Wisconsin Facility. It was sad to see the packaging used for the poor Bangaii's. The water was quite cold when I received the package and all of the fish had passed on 
Two notes here: One, TFI's packaging used styrofoam panels and 2 heat packs that were somewhat warm, however the bags were virtually open, exchanging gases the whole shipping journey. Two, Wisconsin facility used this "insulated" bubble wrap crap that couldn't keep the sun warm, and 1 heat pack that was cold when I got my package.
So, conclusion. I think we do need to give LiveAquaria a break because all of their facilities are understaffed (due to pandemic) and when you're am understaffed large company it's hard to provide the best quality whilst staying on top of order demand. They're clearly trying to cut costs in the packaging due to lost revenue, which is understandable, but there is a point where it is unsafe for the animals. I think the Wisconsin facility could at least use Styrofoam panels rather than the "insulated" bubble wrap. But at the end of the day, reefing is reefing and there will be upsets. I think LiveAquaria could step it up just a touch, but in the meantime I'd wait to order from them until temperatures warm up to the 70-80 degree range across the nation. I think temp stability is the most important thing when shipping these fragile creatures, so if we are smarter shoppers, this will also increase the chances of our finned friends surviving and thriving.
I'd like to note that I've had wonderful experiences with LiveAquaria in the past, and I believe that they will turn things around eventually. I will be ordering fish from them again deeper into the spring, just to give them a second chance, and use my store credit I'd also like to note that their customer service isn't half bad. They gave me store credit right after I filed a DOA claim.
If you made it this far, thank you and here's a cookie
Oops Cookie Monster beat ya to it lol
Two notes here: One, TFI's packaging used styrofoam panels and 2 heat packs that were somewhat warm, however the bags were virtually open, exchanging gases the whole shipping journey. Two, Wisconsin facility used this "insulated" bubble wrap crap that couldn't keep the sun warm, and 1 heat pack that was cold when I got my package. So, conclusion. I think we do need to give LiveAquaria a break because all of their facilities are understaffed (due to pandemic) and when you're am understaffed large company it's hard to provide the best quality whilst staying on top of order demand. They're clearly trying to cut costs in the packaging due to lost revenue, which is understandable, but there is a point where it is unsafe for the animals. I think the Wisconsin facility could at least use Styrofoam panels rather than the "insulated" bubble wrap. But at the end of the day, reefing is reefing and there will be upsets. I think LiveAquaria could step it up just a touch, but in the meantime I'd wait to order from them until temperatures warm up to the 70-80 degree range across the nation. I think temp stability is the most important thing when shipping these fragile creatures, so if we are smarter shoppers, this will also increase the chances of our finned friends surviving and thriving.
I'd like to note that I've had wonderful experiences with LiveAquaria in the past, and I believe that they will turn things around eventually. I will be ordering fish from them again deeper into the spring, just to give them a second chance, and use my store credit
I'd also like to note that their customer service isn't half bad. They gave me store credit right after I filed a DOA claim.If you made it this far, thank you and here's a cookie
Oops Cookie Monster beat ya to it lol
