Live Aquaria fish? Should I buy from them?

[mark cid]

has anyone purchased fish from live aquaria.com? Any luck, are the fish good? My LFS's are closing and I'm having a hard time getting to a local LSF.


I saw ice fish on their website.....anyone out there buying from them?

 

[andyg1960]

Very reputable source for fish and coral. Been around a long time and one of the best, in my opinion. They also have a great policy which i believe is a 14 day guarantee to stay alive. If my lfs doesnt have what i want, I buy from live aquaria

 

[CrayHawk]

I've purchased from live aquaria and have always been pleased with the quality of their livestock. I wouldn't hesitate purchasing from them again.

 

[Firedawg1983]

14 day guarantee, great communication, always have been pleased with every transaction! You won’t be disappointed

 

[Left Coast DJ]

Do you treat and quarantine your fish from Live Aquaria before putting them in your display tank?

 

[Susan Edwards]

Just placed my second order today. First order in March, I ended up losing 2 out of 6 fish and no problem getting credits on them. Was much better than a local store where you get NO warrenty, not even to making it to you home!

Of the 4 that survived, one went missing. Can't find it anywhere. The other 3 are doing well.

 

[dede]

Better then the LFS in my opinion because of the 14 day guarantee and more variety available.

 

[mike werner]

Do you treat and quarantine your fish from Live Aquaria before putting them in your display tank?

I qt all my fish regardless of who I purchase them from.ounce of prevention pound of cure as they say.i have ordered well over 30 times from them.only had one issue with a gold flake angel which I got instant credit no questions asked.just an apology from the courteous staff at la.always quality fish at a great price.i don't think you will be disappointed if you give them a try.

 

[Sashaka]

I've ordered many time from LA as well. The few fish I've lost, I had no problem getting credit for. If you buy from Divers Den at LA, you can get fish that have already been quarantined. Still, the stress of shipping to you can lower the immune system of a fish and it can get sick. Velvet seems to be prolific, no matter where one buys a fish from right now. Still, it's always good policy to quarantine and treat as needed. Proactive treating can save you a ton of heartache down the road, IMO. Bottom line, LA is my FIRST choice when purchasing fish online.

 

[Rauland]

I have purchased from live aquaria and have been very satisfied. However, my favorite local fiah store has closed. The owner was very knowledgeable and would help anyone with any problems that came up with their tank. So I realized that when we buy on line the people that help us out of a jamb go out of business. Nothing against live aquaria but I will always try to buy local when I can.

 

[rich nyc]

I buy from them to find rare fish and quarantine. I do try to support my lfs for most fish though since I only buy a fish now and then.

 

[Susan Edwards]

I have one local fish store with a decent stock of fish--the others don't usually have much. And that one store, I lose over 50% of the fish and there is no warranty--no even to get the fish home. In fact, that's the place where I got fish that got velvet that wiped out my tank. I'd love to find a local place, local being an hour or hour and half away from me, that has good stock, good choice of fish and maybe offers a warranty of even 5 days. Maybe our lfs's should try to compete with some of the online services. It's hard to spend a 100 or more bucks for fish just to lose them and be out the money.

Corals on the other hand I like to buy local. But fish I'll stick to online until it gets too hot to ship or order from places that only ship from calif. to me in Calif.

 

[mckinney0171]

has anyone purchased fish from live aquaria.com? Any luck, are the fish good? My LFS's are closing and I'm having a hard time getting to a local LSF.


I saw ice fish on their website.....anyone out there buying from them?

Yup great online vendor.

 

[VR28man]

Live aquaria, in many cases I’m told, directly drop ships from (a few, alegedly very well run) large distributors. Many lfs’ , as well as petco i think, order from the same distributors.

On this, imo it’s a matter of if you think buying the same livestock from the lfs has some value added. Or if you trust your own quarantine better than your lfs’. Or, if your lfs has some sort of awesome non-big-distributor livestock source.

I think the old move-livestock-asap business model has very little value nowadays. But that’s a good thing; lfs’ can find better ways to add customer value.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Considering that none of the lfs's I've gone to do ANY qt practices, it doesn't matter. The deciding factor for me is having a decent warranty . I'm tired of dropping money with nothing in return. Might as well take those bills and burn them. Not to say all the fish from a lfs have died but a good 50-70%. I can accept a 50% loss on fish or corals but having at least a 14-15 day warranty is better and it paid off with my last order.

 

[andyg1960]

Considering that none of the lfs's I've gone to do ANY qt practices, it doesn't matter. The deciding factor for me is having a decent warranty . I'm tired of dropping money with nothing in return. Might as well take those bills and burn them. Not to say all the fish from a lfs have died but a good 50-70%. I can accept a 50% loss on fish or corals but having at least a 14-15 day warranty is better and it paid off with my last order.

50-70% loss? That's really high. Sounds like something is wrong somewhere.

 

[Reef Box]

I have bought all of my fish from Live Aquaria lately. I will no longer buy from my LFS I've have 100% mortality from them and not as much as a partial credit or replacement (and I live in a smaller town with a pretty good relationship with the owner. From then on L.A. all the way 14 days no questions asked arrive alive / stay alive guarantee. Always very nice fish.......AND, ALWAYS QT EVERYTHING!!!! 30 day minimum for me

 

[Silver14SS]

I've had several positive experiences with Live Aquaria, I'll buy from them again.

 

[andyg1960]

LA has been very good for me. The couple of problems I had-- refund, no questions asked.

 

[Susan Edwards]

50-70% loss? That's really high. Sounds like something is wrong somewhere.

It is. Got 2 mandarins from one place. Both gone in 2-3 days. 2 more from another place. 1 still with me, 1 didn't make it. First batch went into qt with pods. Second batch right into tank with tons of pods. 3 bangai, 1 fire fish from one store. 1 bangaii survived. Found the fire fish on floor. She might have been in a decoration I removed so I could watch better. 4 anthias from one store. 2 purples gone in a couple weeks, other 2 dispars going strong. 2 darwin clowns from one store, doing well. From LA: 2 clowns, Ruby head, blue head, mccoskers, & Lubbocks wrasses. Lubbocks looks to have injured itself, mccoskers no idea why it didn't survive. Put the blue head and ruby in display. blue head poofed. So out of 6, 4 made it to the display. 3 left now. Much better odds and I got money back for the 2 that didn't make it. Just saying. At least here in calif, going between san jose to sacramento area, not good odds. And these are only the more recent fish, not the originals in my 66 gal in the first year. Velvet, from one store, wiped all but 4 (goby, dragonet, 2 chromis)