Purchasing fish from live Aquaria

[dugthefish]

Just placed my 3rd order with them tonight. Everything from previous orders alive and well.

 

[Ari]

All my fishes that I currently have came from our LFS- they seem to be healthier and well acclimated. That means all of the fishes I bought online, LA DD, fishybusiness, etc succumb to death of unknown reason- within 2 weeks. Possible stress from shipping, or maybe the fishes are laden with copper prophylaxis until sold. Thank goodness for LA’s guarantee.

 

[Bossman]

I've had very good luck with both fish and coral from LA. I've bought both from their stock list and DD. My local LFS told me that most LFS get their fish from one of a couple of suppliers and guess who that is!?! Wouldn't you rather have your fish shipped to you or to the LFS to mark up? I believe it just puts more stress on the fish being first sent to the LFS, put in a very small holding tank with tons of activity around it and then once again caught, bagged up and brought home to another tank.

I have only QT'd a couple of times. Every now and then I lose a fish that has been shipped. Usually it happens very quick, within the first few days of arrival. LA has always credited the full amount in that case. I have had LFS fish die and their warranty sucks! I've seen no disease spread from an LA fish to date.

It's rare that a fish arrives in something other then amazing condition. Good color, no fin tears or other obvious signs of being beat up or unhealthy. As mentioned by another poster, acclimation is very important. This usually takes an hour or so to complete. LA includes an acclimation sheet with every order so there is no excuse not to follow the proper procedure.

I have ordered from a couple different mail order fish suppliers that I would not order from again. LA is the best IMO!

 

[Gareth elliott]

I ordered a male anthias three female anthias and three fire fish. The name anthias died and one female anthias died. Along with one fire fish. Everyone else seems to be eating and doing well.

Anthias do not travel or acclimate easily, especially some species. I would order more than you plan on holding expecting some losses sadly. Want a school of 6 maybe order 9. Imo anyway, also would have someway planned to keep them constantly fed, brine shrimp hatchery, auto feeder etc.

Also firefish dont school in our tanks, can be aggressive to conspecifics, where they wont let another eat.

 

[Brew12]

I quit buying from liveaquaria. Since Petco took over they have been a hit and miss for me and more casualties than recovery. Qt everything from them.

Purchasing through liveaquaria's main site shouldn't have been impacted by the Petco acquisition. Liveaquaria is basically a store front for direct purchase from a wholesaler. If you are seeing problems with this livestock then it is a sign of deteriorating conditions at the wholesale level.

Now, it is possible that things have changed at Divers Den since those fish are actually in the possession of the company.

 

[ca1ore]

I’ve seen almost no difference pre and post Petco; and as noted it is irrelevent because all the LA orders are directly fulfilled by Quality Marine. Ok, maybe the ornamental fish supply chain is getting worse, but it has nothing to do with who owns LA. QT all new fish in a tank that matches incoming bag water so no salinity match is necessary (QM runs nominally at 1.018-9). I’d personally hold off on the medication ‘cocktail’ until the fish are eating well, but that’s a personal choice I suppose.

 

[sean rand]

I usually have pretty good experiences with DD. They quarantine for many weeks before they go on the site

I ordered from DD once and the fish came infested with ick. Im not saying its there fault but you have to QT

 

[Geebs19]

I have ordered from LA and DD and have had luck. About to place an order for a few wrasses through LA.

 

[badsmitty]

This is what I sent to DFS after I was banned by them due to to many issues with DOA'S last year
I highly recommend that NO ONE do any business with them, ever since Petco bought them there shipping and live fish are terrible

Please STOP sending me emails. I chose to no longer do any business with you. After 20 years of being a great customer and spending over $10,000.00 with your company, you have chosen to no longer do business with me, because I was receiving to many DOA'S, due to your employees improperly packing the live orders that I put in with your company. I would put a note in EVERY order asking them to please tape the heat packs to the bottom of the lid and to STOP just throwing it on to of the fish and corals to no avail, I talked with your employees about this issue many time and it NEVER got fixed and now you want to blame me. How poor of you as a business to blame your customers, instead of fixing the problems that have been going on since Petco bought LA.
You can now add me to the list of former customers, who will no longer do business with you

 

[Jpconer]

I've bought from them for years - only had occasional issues - but I noticed a change in customer service about a year after Petco took over which I was unaware of during that time. I did have an issue with my last order - I took a chance on a Saddleback Butterfly fm DD - it never ate for me, I had contacted them a couple times during the first week and a half I had it - keeping in mind that in the past they had ALWAYS extended their warranty - but when I contacted them on day 13 they requested a pics of fish which I sent them - Their response was the fish looks fine and we see no need to extend our warranty. Needless to say I was bit confused - if the fish looked good enough to them that they don't expect it to die then they should have extended.

Bottom line - they aren't what they used to be but still appear to get some cool livestock even if the prices are ridiculous at times and while I have not ordered since then - I don't doubt I will in the future.

 

[nden]

My experience with them has been so-so. Ordered one type of fish, received a mix of the one I ordered and another species. Shot over an email with pictures and even notable descriptions between the fishes and was told they were the same species. Honestly, even before I sent them the email, I knew they would cover themselves and say something along the lines of having a, "picture for reference, the specimen you receive may not look like this," clause. Variations within species, I get, but receiving another, completely different one, no thanks.

In my opinion, their saving grace is their 14-day guarantee. I lost most of the fish to uronema, and was refunded that way...

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have had success wit purchases from them but factoring transportation of over 12 hrs, I have paid attention and utilized Slow acclimation

 

[Reefbuds]

I've bought from them a decent bit and it has been fine. If something does happen they were happy to refund for credit. I really only try to buy from the Divers Den tho as this is where the real quality product lies.
Just got a huge shipment of snails, hermits and other cleaners from Live Aquaria and all seem fine. Only a couple losses out of 50+ critters that I have noticed.

 

[Reefbuds]

Also got a pair of flame hawkfish from divers den a few months ago and they arrive ready to jump out of the acclimation bag. Really healthy. Actually, anything I get from Diver Den is really healthy. If possible I would order from there.

 

[Bluelobstor]

I bought from them a bunch from over the last 4 weeks with only 1 loss of life, a pufferfish which I was refunded without question. I'be bought mostly Divers Den, Some ORA, and some from there regular stock. The puffer I lost was from Diver Den and didn't look healthy when it arrived. As a side note I believe all the ORA stuff comes from directly from ORA.

Jason

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

I haven’t had to much success with them either. Only good thing is the 14 day warranty. It’s hard to say no to the discounts and free shipping at $99.

 

[mikenestle]

I have only ordered once from LA fish was dead in 3 days. Every fish I have bought from DD 3 or 4 total have been great and I still have all of them.

 

[Whisperer]

I ordered from DD once and the fish came infested with ick. Im not saying its there fault but you have to QT

Same experience, almost wiped out my entire tank. I have been QTing all my fish purchase since no matter where I bought them.

 

[Ferrell]

I personally did not have good luck with LA but it must say they were most helpful and returned my money less shipping on two occasions.

 

[Jesterrace]

I agree with the posts above, you really need to check the salinity differences. One of the things I love about my LFS is that our tanks are both at the same salinity levels, so if a fish has been there and active in their tanks for a week or two then it's probably going to do well in my tank.