Online stores that sell disease free fish

[AquaLifeStudio]

We shouldn’t have to QT anything. We agree to buy said fish for said price, not said fish with parasites that probably will kill fish. QT cost money, time, and emotional toll.

I’ve lost eight fish from Liveaquaria this year. Only ORA fish have survived, save one that recently died.

And while I agree with you, it's because we are taking animals from the largest natural occurring habitat on this planet and placing them within relatively small closed systems with no escape from naturally occurring and prolific parasites. In a world where we have no cure for cancer (or immunizations available to fish to prevent against disease), we absolutely need to do whatever possible to protect life within our care.

I have had some crappy experiences in this hobby and now treat all my new fish with copper for up to 90 days. No if and or buts.

 

[mitch91175]

I buy all of my fish from a local guy named Alex Partida with Red's Reef. He does right by his customers and won't sell anyone a sick fish. I won't get my fish from anywhere else because I trust his process. Small shop, but great quality fish. Should check him out at https://www.facebook.com/redsreef/

 

[Liviu]

here is what I did. Every local store has few coral tanks where they have few fish. There is no medication on this tanks. I keep an eye on what I like and after 4 weeks if the fish is there I will bring him home. I just got a purple tang 3 weeks ago and a black tang, all are good. I try to quarantine and did not work for me. I also check for somebody on local area getting out of salt water hobby.

 

[mitch91175]

FYI, I contacted humblefish aquatics via email but he said he wasn't ready to take any additional orders at this time and to check his website when it's up and running to order.

In terms of cost for pre-quarantined fish doubling or tippling the cost of fish, I would hope that we as hobbyists would happily pay that premium to ensure animal health and a bright future of the hobby. Maybe that means we can afford fewer fish or populate our tank more slowly given the additional cost, but in the end it seems worth it, and right for the fish. It is very sad to see what is going on with the fish industry these days with rampant diseased fish being peddled at very low cost. Nearly every fish store near me is packed with diseased fish, and it seems like most online stores are in the same boat given common suppliers. This needs to change and we need to be willing to pay to correct it. While for some, setting up a stable QT for longer term treatment is a viable option, for many it is not, or they attempt an incorrect QT setup that just ends up just stressing and killing the fish in another way.

Professionally QT'd fish needs to be the way of the future and we should demand it through our willingness to pay and support people like humblefish. Once @Humblefish business is running I will purchase excursively from him or the like, regardless of the additional cost (and no I'm not rich - just spend a disproportionate amount of my income on this hobby ).

I agree with this 1000%. I know we all like to save a buck, but when you are putting fish in your tank and don't have a QT or a great source that does the QT for you, then you essentially are playing Russian Roulette and your luck will definitely run out and all those expensive fish you have in your tank will be memories. It happened to me once I since then I only buy from Red's Reef.

 

[Bradley Keck]

Man, I'm relieved to see I'm not the only one who just cannot make this whole quarantine procedure happen. I have been at odds regarding quarantine for weeks now while my tank cycles. For all the reasons the OP said, quarantine is just is not a realistic option for me. I too would be more than willing to pay extra to know my fish is healthy and disease free. Unfortunately, it is too late for me to find such a place as I have my first two saltwater fish scheduled for delivery today;Nailbiting I have read so many mixed reviews on DD, LA, and fishy business aquatics. Some with great experiences and others not. Seems very hit or miss. To have a place that we can all order from with 100% confidence that our new pets will be healthy and free of disease would be awesome! Here in Indy, we do not have anywhere that treats their stock. Premium Aquatics uses aggressive UV and feeds heavily, but no preventative treatment. A couple of others locally I would not buy from based on observation. I purchased a small midas blenny and small/medium male rosy-scales fairy from Fishy business Aquatics. We will see how it goes. One thing I struggle with, is the concept of a completely disease free tank and keeping it that way. Is this really even possible to maintain long term? It would seem to me that over the course of time, eventually something will make it into your tank and if your fish have not built up immunity/resistance do to lack of exposure, it could be a disaster despite all the quarantine and treatments. Another thought is if I have these two in my tank, and hopefully everything goes well, then I pay a premium for a disease-free fish, once I add him to my tank with fish who were not treated the same way, will he be more prone to developing problems?

 

[fishnchip]

Although they don’t have the largest variety, I had a great experience ordering from Cultivated Reef. I highly suggest them. I got my storm clowns and orchid dottyback from them and I have never seen healthier fish!

 

[jpgraft]

I buy all of my fish from a local guy named Alex Partida with Red's Reef. He does right by his customers and won't sell anyone a sick fish. I won't get my fish from anywhere else because I trust his process. Small shop, but great quality fish. Should check him out at https://www.facebook.com/redsreef/

I'll second this. Alex at Red's Reef has several fish going through a full QT for me right now. I am more than happy to pay a premium price for this service. He also has a storefront near Dallas so if you're in that area you don't have to ship them. Since he's a wholesaler as well, I gave him a very specific list & he happily got them all. His communication is fantastic as well. Check him out! Oh, I might also mention...his wife names the fish! 2 week guarantee as well. It doesn't get any better than that.

 

[mitch91175]

Man, I'm relieved to see I'm not the only one who just cannot make this whole quarantine procedure happen. I have been at odds regarding quarantine for weeks now while my tank cycles. For all the reasons the OP said, quarantine is just is not a realistic option for me. I too would be more than willing to pay extra to know my fish is healthy and disease free. Unfortunately, it is too late for me to find such a place as I have my first two saltwater fish scheduled for delivery today;Nailbiting I have read so many mixed reviews on DD, LA, and fishy business aquatics. Some with great experiences and others not. Seems very hit or miss. To have a place that we can all order from with 100% confidence that our new pets will be healthy and free of disease would be awesome! Here in Indy, we do not have anywhere that treats their stock. Premium Aquatics uses aggressive UV and feeds heavily, but no preventative treatment. A couple of others locally I would not buy from based on observation. I purchased a small midas blenny and small/medium male rosy-scales fairy from Fishy business Aquatics. We will see how it goes. One thing I struggle with, is the concept of a completely disease free tank and keeping it that way. Is this really even possible to maintain long term? It would seem to me that over the course of time, eventually something will make it into your tank and if your fish have not built up immunity/resistance do to lack of exposure, it could be a disaster despite all the quarantine and treatments. Another thought is if I have these two in my tank, and hopefully everything goes well, then I pay a premium for a disease-free fish, once I add him to my tank with fish who were not treated the same way, will he be more prone to developing problems?

You can have a completely disease free tank, just really take patience and planing. I would wait to see if the current fish show any signs of ich, etc and once you know that they are fine, then get a source and either stick to that source or have multiple sources that you know will do right by you and the fish with how they care for them. There is a lot of velvet going around and I have seen too many horror stories on Facebook and in forums where people are just buying fish a cheaper prices to end up regretting it since their entire tank has been contaminated. Like I said, I learned that the hard way and it literally almost took me out of the hobby as much as I enjoy it.

You can get it pest free, but that comes at a much higher cost to do so as well. You also have to decide if everything that you put in your tank will go through a lengthy QT process. Disease can piggyback on anything. All it takes is one drop of water and cyst and it game time for that disease. So far so good with my choice of going with Red's Reef for my fish.

Here's a story that you will like. Their is a LFS that does the least they can with fish and the guy brings in some good stuff. He's been in the business for a long time. People ALWAYS supported the guy. When greed set in and he really wanted to just move fish as quickly as possible (which he always did, but moving more volume) he started to crash peoples tanks by giving them sick fish (mind you that shows no signs of being sick). I used to buy my fish from him until it happened to me. From that point forward, I personally will only buy fish from someone that does a proper QT on them. Will that solely guarantee that I will NEVER get something in my tank, no it won't. But at least it narrows down where I can get something from. I personally trust a source that has a standard operating procedure when it comes to treating fish for diseases. There are only handful of those out there.

Coral is a completely different topic, but deserves the same treatment as fish (specially with coral potentially having eggs that nothing can kill).

 

[squampton]

I would pay a premium for a fish that has QT prior to sale for disease.

I would still qt for observation though.

I do currently QT everything and because of the amount of disease in the distribution network and local store keeping cooper in their tanks, I know there is a good probability of disease.

QT can pretty easy dont even need a glass tank. I use clear rubbermaid comtainer, a heater and HOB filter.

Its also not overly time consuming to do.

 

[shred5]

And while I agree with you, it's because we are taking animals from the largest natural occurring habitat on this planet and placing them within relatively small closed systems with no escape from naturally occurring and prolific parasites. In a world where we have no cure for cancer (or immunizations available to fish to prevent against disease), we absolutely need to do whatever possible to protect life within our care.

I have had some crappy experiences in this hobby and now treat all my new fish with copper for up to 90 days. No if and or buts.

Exactly.. Plus we do not know the age of a fish. Stuff happens.

I think all fish should be quarantined no matter what just like corals.

Something can slip through and we do not know about or how to treat everything. Also disease change over time or build up a resistance.
With corals there is stuff we just have not encountered yet.

Look right now the new disease sweeping the Caribbean again. Some feel the dredging of the port in Miami to get larger ships in may have disturbed something buried for hundreds of years.

Quarantine everything it is not hard or expensive nor does it take up much space.

 

[Swoody]

I also am willing to pay the price for disease free fish. I have 5 in QT at my house and Humble has a Naso Tang going through qt for me now... I have no more room. My local LFS owner is in the process of also setting up this type of service. I look forward to seeing this happen,.. but I’ll be pretty close to, if not already fully stocked. ( darn!)

 

[patfat]

I also highly suggest Alex of Red’s Reef! Working with him was a pleasure, don’t find customer service/quality like this rarely if any more. Communication is top notch and no beating around the bush business. I had a list of fish I wanted to go with and had most in stock, others he was able to get in, in a very timely manner (those also getting qt). The prices are more then fair for the quality. Haven’t had any issues and I honestly don’t expect there to be. Had a good little laugh that the fish were named and comes with a little bio about it. In turn made it feel the fish were more then just fish and more like a pet. All in all being that he’s a small business owner your getting a genuine experience and the appreciation of putting trust into everything he sells.

Check the link I don’t think any would be disappointed.

https://www.facebook.com/redsreef/

 

[PeterG]

I think it’s definitely worth the price to buy fish that have gone thru a proper QT. I’ve been QTing on my own and my 90 gal DT is now fully stocked and I’ve got both a 20 and a 29 gal tank with HOB, heater etc. sitting in the garage. Not to mention every type of copper & associated test kit sitting in my Aqua Pharmacy. Another 10 gal QT is set up on my desk QTing additional corals & inverts now.

I followed @Humblefish guidelines in my QT and the mortality rate while in QT has been pretty low. But QTing comes with it’s own set of costs in both time & $$.
Should I feel comfortable adding one or two select fish to my population, I’d have no hesitation in working with Humblefish.

 

[CenlaReefer]

Coral is a completely different topic, but deserves the same treatment as fish (specially with coral potentially having eggs that nothing can kill).

For the very reason above, I am now very serious about QT of my fish, corals, chaeto, and inverts. I do not want to expose even one small frag to my fish unless it has been in a fallow tank for 76 days. I keep a separate tank to QT coral. That is enough for me. I will never setup a QT tank for fish as long as I live. I rather get QT’d fish from someone I trust will do a better job at it than me.

 

[Afroshacks]

I personally would pay a premium for Qt'd fish. I've been thru the crash cycle several times just because I was hard headed and in the end it turned out it wasn't about the money anymore. I came to a point where I had to ask myself why am I risking the lives of these animals that my children, wife as well as myself have given names to. These are pets and we're pulling them out of their natural habitats so the least we can do is QT to the best of our abilities. I now Qt all fish, dip all coral, and I bleached (cooked) all my rock before adding. For someone to Qt for me would be great and I'd gladly pay the extra cost but even then I would still Qt for observation for at a bare minimum of 2 weeks once I receive them. The stress of shipping in itself can bring out some nasty things in fish. In all of this we need to stop looking at fish as just that and look at them as if they are your pet and part of the family as some can love 10-20 years or more if given the right environment and care. Hopefully Humblefish and others will kick off this process and move us into the future of buying our pets from a safer supplier. I do trust my local fish store here in MI but once again I still QT for 30 days after. I don't treat with copper unless I see signs but I always do Prazipro after observing for 3 days to make sure they're eating and stress is down a bit .

 

[Mdmusicman]

You all have given me a lot to think about. I feel more comfortable now with the idea of getting the fish and quaranting them for a few weeks and just using chemicals as needed. I just would hate to do it wrong and kill the fish with too much copper if it had ick or any other nasty.

 

[Heavymman]

Honestly, I am going through this now. A Fish QT is not too much money to set up and get the Hanna copper test. Also, YOU NEED to quarentine your coral/inverts in a fallow tank because even if you purchase a fully disease free fish, guess what you might have a parasite egg on the coral that you don’t see until too late.... unfortunately I think this is the only way to be safe, I see no other way.

 

[Mdmusicman]

Honestly, I am going through this now. A Fish QT is not too much money to set up and get the Hanna copper test. Also, YOU NEED to quarentine your coral/inverts in a fallow tank because even if you purchase a fully disease free fish, guess what you might have a parasite egg on the coral that you don’t see until too late.... unfortunately I think this is the only way to be safe, I see no other way.

But quarantining coral means you have to have a second light setup, and with how much my LED lights cost I really cant afford to buy a second set just for quarantine...

 

[Heavymman]

But quarantining coral means you have to have a second light setup, and with how much my LED lights cost I really cant afford to buy a second set just for quarantine...

I hear you, and it sucks, but if you want a bulletproof system I can’t see any other way. Remember you need a system to keep the coral alive for 76 days, you don’t need to grow them out there.

 

[User1]

There are some fish that I'd pay to have this. A small 1 - 2 1/2" Regal Angel would be ideal @Humblefish let us make a deal (I'll take what is behind curtain #1 please - DOH! ZONKER - it is a plastic Regal Angel fish). But yes, these are a bit tricky fish if you don't have a good QT system in place not to mention feeding. Probably one fish that I'd make a play for. In another case me asking him to QT 15 or so various damsels he may say no thank you - not cost effective.

But it if is something he can do, enjoys, works around his family, holidays, and vacations while bringing in some supplemental income it could work out for everybody. Shipping is the only thing that neither party has control over - although weather we do.