Where is everyone buying their fish from these days other than the LFS. I used reef wise in the past but whenever I check their site they have almost no selection.
I was just looking at reef wise this morning but they have like 4 fish for sell on their site. I’ve purchased from NYaquatics (blochy anthia) he came in 1.011 water and took me awhile to acclimate him. He’s grow more then twice the size since I got him. Other then salinity being way low. I have no issues with NYaquatics and I’ll shop with Michael again. I’ve also purchased they live aquaria and divers den part of live aquaria. With that said I got a purple tang from DD and he came covered in ick. He lived and became a bully and I had to rehome him cuz he was fighting everyone. I know I could have put him in my sump for a lil bit and then reintroduced him but I decided that he wasn’t worth the trouble and went a different route with my fish stock list. I ordered from live aquaria (tangs) and they didn’t come covered in ick like the ones o got from DD (weird as you would think it would be the opposite). I also ordered from TSMcorals (swallowtail trio male + 2 females) all of them ended up not making it and he gave me a refund (more sad about the fish not making it then the money) but overall I’ve had good/bad experiences ordering fish online. Buttttttttt the quality of the fish I get from my LFS have been farrrrrrrr healthier then any of the ones I ordered online. And when I got an ick outbreak in the tank all the fish that came from my lfs ended up living while other perished. I would personally rather buy from my lfs cuz he gets to hand pick from the lot of fish at the wholesaler and pick the healthiest specimens while when you order fish online you may not get the best of the bunch available. Problem with that is when you want a certain fish and it becomes available online you hurry to buy it cuz you really want it and sometimes they just don’t make it. Another point is it’s always good time quarantine your fish no matter what
I've used DD and only had an issue once. A fish came with a blemish that wasn't listed in the description. The fish was healthy and normally I wouldn't care but when you are paying $200+ on a single fish it rubs you the wrong way. After giving me the run around for 15 days they finally told me I was SOL. I hear they are great though if the fish comes in dead. I've order from them two other times and both of those were uneventful.
POTO and PIA are both top notch. Divers den, a division of LA, is good too, but I personally haven't had good luck ordering from regular live aquaria, non wysiwyg. I've received a few fish from LA that should have never been netted and shipped.
I take a picture of the fish I want from the Live Aquaria website and take it to my LFS and ask them if they can get one for me. They work hard to find it and I feel better supporting my LFS. After you pay shipping from online stores, the prices are comparable...and I get to actually see the exact fish before I make the purchase.
Diver's den is generally excellent. Between the standard LiveAquaria and BlueZoo and numerous orders over a couple years, I have had significantly better results with Bluezoo. LA's guarantee policy is top notch, but all things equal I would at this point give my business to BZ.
Two recent purchases from pieces of the ocean. Both came in incredibly well packed with tons of water, with little to no stress, which is remarkable for large fairy wrasse. You can tell his fish are well condition and used to aquarium life, both were eating within minutes out of acclimation. Really well priced as well relative to DD.
Just my 2 cents, but I would not buy based on selection, but rather on quality, track record, sustainability, responsibility, customer service, where does the livestock come from and the list goes on. My opinion on guarantees is that it is important to know if the guarantee is based on the confidence of the seller in their process and health of their livestock offerings or just that they can turn over huge numbers and get the stock so cheap that they can send you a new one without losing money on their end. The "throw enough crap at the wall, eventually some will stick" approach.