LiveAquaria® Rip Off

[sushi_and_sashimi]

I'm not exactly new but I'm no expert, I tend to use LFS to see exactly what I'm getting. Fortunately San Diego area, some great stores.

Sometimes, I buy online. Companies like liveaquaria.com charge steep shipping (and boxing!) fees. Steep if that were a small order, swallowable for a larger order where those are a much lower fraction of the total price.

I ordered some fish and snails last weekend. They shipped me one fish. One of the fish I ordered. When I asked about it I got some BS:

"We apologize for being unable to ship your order complete. LiveAquaria® strives to ensure the timely shipment of the highest quality aquatic life directly to your door. Therefore, certain items from your aquatic life selection may not be shipped based on availability or the condition of the specimen during order fulfillment. LiveAquaria® will only ship available specimens displaying exemplary health and behavior."

This is crap. They should have reached out and asked if I wanted an incomplete order and to pay the shipping fees. This is not okay.

So for those lurking in the, "New to Saltwater", channel beware. LiveAquaria® has shady business practices. Which I suspect if I searched here I'd find other unsavory stories.

I asked about discounted shipping in the future to make up for this and of course, no response. So there will be no future purchases and I'll mouth off to those I know about them.

 

[DrkNMighty]

Sorry to hear that!

Are you saying they are charging you double the shipping? Once for the first part of the order then again when they ship the rest.

 

[BristleWormHater]

I'm not exactly new but I'm no expert, I tend to use LFS to see exactly what I'm getting. Fortunately San Diego area, some great stores.

Sometimes, I buy online. Companies like liveaquaria.com charge steep shipping (and boxing!) fees. Steep if that were a small order, swallowable for a larger order where those are a much lower fraction of the total price.

I ordered some fish and snails last weekend. They shipped me one fish. One of the fish I ordered. When I asked about it I got some BS:

"We apologize for being unable to ship your order complete. LiveAquaria® strives to ensure the timely shipment of the highest quality aquatic life directly to your door. Therefore, certain items from your aquatic life selection may not be shipped based on availability or the condition of the specimen during order fulfillment. LiveAquaria® will only ship available specimens displaying exemplary health and behavior."

This is crap. They should have reached out and asked if I wanted an incomplete order and to pay the shipping fees. This is not okay.

So for those lurking in the, "New to Saltwater", channel beware. LiveAquaria® has shady business practices. Which I suspect if I searched here I'd find other unsavory stories.

I asked about discounted shipping in the future to make up for this and of course, no response. So there will be no future purchases and I'll mouth off to those I know about them.

Sounds about right, I'm told they used to be one of the greats but their business changed owners and locations... :grimacing-face:

 

[Miami Reef]

Sounds about right, I'm told they used to be one of the greats but their business changed owners and locations... :grimacing-face:

Oh yeah. Live Aquaria was the gold standard—the go-to source for fish online. It still blows my mind how they managed to torch their entire legacy. It takes a special kind of talent to turn a trusted name into a cautionary tale.

 

[PharmrJohn]

I'm not exactly new but I'm no expert, I tend to use LFS to see exactly what I'm getting. Fortunately San Diego area, some great stores.

Sometimes, I buy online. Companies like liveaquaria.com charge steep shipping (and boxing!) fees. Steep if that were a small order, swallowable for a larger order where those are a much lower fraction of the total price.

I ordered some fish and snails last weekend. They shipped me one fish. One of the fish I ordered. When I asked about it I got some BS:

"We apologize for being unable to ship your order complete. LiveAquaria® strives to ensure the timely shipment of the highest quality aquatic life directly to your door. Therefore, certain items from your aquatic life selection may not be shipped based on availability or the condition of the specimen during order fulfillment. LiveAquaria® will only ship available specimens displaying exemplary health and behavior."

This is crap. They should have reached out and asked if I wanted an incomplete order and to pay the shipping fees. This is not okay.

So for those lurking in the, "New to Saltwater", channel beware. LiveAquaria® has shady business practices. Which I suspect if I searched here I'd find other unsavory stories.

I asked about discounted shipping in the future to make up for this and of course, no response. So there will be no future purchases and I'll mouth off to those I know about them.

Good to know. Thanks. This vendor was on my list of online options. I'll remove it. Better yet, I'll keep it and add a note.......

 

[Gjedde]

Ive had good luck with bluezooaquatics since LA went downhill. Seems to be a decent alternative.

 

[sushi_and_sashimi]

Sounds about right, I'm told they used to be one of the greats but their business changed owners and locations... :grimacing-face:

Yeah, now that I'm searching the forums I'm seeing that. Nice thread this month actually.

 

[IPT]

I have had similar experiences here, but I will say they always took care of it when I complained and made my point. They usually responded well with a store credit. There don't seem to be many options these days.

 

[Tamberav]

Live Aquaria used to be amazing, healthy fish and just $99 for free shipping, two week guarantee on all livestock with their aquaculture corals having 30 day guarantee, always a refund, never store credit. For divers den you had to sit and spam refresh at the drop because stuff would sell in seconds.

Different times, rip.

Only thing In ordered from them recently was frozen food, it did come in a styro cooler completely frozen so at least they got that right.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I know this may sound weird, but if you order from Petco most of their orders are funneled through Quality Marine. Not a Petco fan, but QM is a pretty decent wholesaler.

 

[VintageReefer]

Live Aquaria used to be amazing, healthy fish and just $99 for free shipping, two week guarantee on all livestock with their aquaculture corals having 30 day guarantee,

I remember this

always a refund, never store credit. For divers den you had to sit and spam refresh at the drop because stuff would sell in seconds.

Oh I’ve been there. Many many times years ago. Refresh refresh holy crow look what they dropped! Buy now buy now!
Refresh lol

Different times, rip.

Agreed. Wouldn’t use them again these days

Only thing In ordered from them recently was frozen food, it did come in a styro cooler completely frozen so at least they got that right.

And to OP. - it was mentioned in another post but petco uses same source as live aquaria. You can talk to the aquatics manager and they can show you the wholesale list and add what you want in their upcoming order. Let them know you don’t want it removed from the bag and put in their system, only floated for temp. Then show up on arrival day and inspect the bag and bring home

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

I know this may sound weird, but if you order from Petco most of their orders are funneled through Quality Marine. Not a Petco fan, but QM is a pretty decent wholesaler.

not true. Petco was bought by Etropicalfish several years back. They are a wholesaler based in CA with main port in Sri Lanka. QM does not fulfil Petco orders. I know this first hand as I have personally visited both wholesalers and still buy from both companies.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

not true. Petco was bought by Etropicalfish several years back. They are a wholesaler based in CA with main port in Sri Lanka. QM does not fulfil Petco orders. I know this first hand as I have personally visited both wholesalers and still buy from both companies.

I will have to look in to this. This is not the info I have seen first hand recently... I live in Cali, so maybe it’s different ?

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

I will have to look in to this. This is not the info I have seen first hand recently... I live in Cali, so maybe it’s different ?

Tropical Fish International
1405 178th Street
Gardena, California 90248

They own Petco and also the wholesale parent company. Owners Name is Sam, His diver/collection port is in Sri Lanka with the warehouse/office in Gardena.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Tahnks... Maybe I was mistaken. I should stop by, it is only a few miles away. NOT arguing with you, but it seems odd that a fish importer owns a company who’s sales of fish is less than 1% of total sales. You would think someone who owns a big box store such as petco would push more fish sales and if the petco store does sell fish it is paltry at best... and I am not even talking SW

 

[VintageReefer]

Tahnks... Maybe I was mistaken. I should stop by, it is only a few miles away. NOT arguing with you, but it seems odd that a fish importer owns a company who’s sales of fish is less than 1% of total sales. You would think someone who owns a big box store such as petco would push more fish sales and if the petco store does sell fish it is paltry at best... and I am not even talking SW

You’re not mistaken. I know for a fact, they are least used to source from quality marine. I’ve ordered and was directed to QM for assistance

And here’s someone else’s experience

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/petco-has-actually-been-good-for-me.1089800/post-13178320

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

I never said Qm never filled petco orders. I said, few years ago Petco was bought by Tropical fish and they slowly took their orders away from Qm and went on to their own parent company.

 

[AydenLincoln]

not true. Petco was bought by Etropicalfish several years back. They are a wholesaler based in CA with main port in Sri Lanka. QM does not fulfil Petco orders. I know this first hand as I have personally visited both wholesalers and still buy from both companies.

Actually it is true! A majority of saltwater Petco orders in person and online do come from Quality Marine. That’s not to say they don’t have other wholesalers but a major majority of saltwater does come from Quality Marine with it coming direct to stores/fulfillment then to customers. I have a contact directly at QM and have seen the invoices laying out at Petco stores lol and worked directly with them when they were donating for my school tank. LiveAquaria used to be owned by Petco who used to work with Quality Marine but doesn’t anymore since selling.

 

[AydenLincoln]

I know this may sound weird, but if you order from Petco most of their orders are funneled through Quality Marine. Not a Petco fan, but QM is a pretty decent wholesaler.

Agreed I absolutely love QM and most of my fish including Hewbie are from them! And my contact is amazing and absolutely always knows every single one of my questions and is an encyclopedia of saltwater and marine biology knowledge.

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

I stand corrected, I talked to my rep at QM. So Petco is Petco and Liveaquaria is owned by Tropical Fish International. When Petco bought Dr Foster and Smith they also acquired Liveaquaria. But Petco never really wanted Liveaquaria and sold it to Sam (Tropical fish) As part of that deal Sam provides 100% of the Liveaquaria's fish (as he owns it) and some to Petco. QM provides mostly dry goods to Petco (Tropic Marin line up) and some fish. According to my rep fish orders are not that many to Petco its mostly dry goods.
QM does not fill any orders for liveaquaria at all.

We buy from QM and fortunately enough have been in top 3 highest sales for their mom/pop catagory for 2 years in a row. They have the best quality of livestock.