Purchasing fish from live Aquaria

[Elgringodiablo]

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.

I agree with the last point, but would add: quarantine everything from everyone. Don't get me started on people's excuses about quarantine... "All systems have ick, quarantine stresses the fish too much, I can't afford a quarantine setup..." Those all sound like 'famous last words' to me. Anyhow, there is no such thing as a large scale marine fish supplier that has perfect biosecurity, that said, Live Aquaria's is superior to most.

Regarding the initial point about Petco owning them via the Drs F&S acquisition... outside of business practices like customer service or flexibility on the refund policy, Petco has no involvement in the fish being shipped here, packed and reshipped to your location. They are drop shipped directly from a large, well known wholesaler in Los Angeles. Unless you are buying from Divers Den (which is actually a LiveAquaria own facility in Wisconsin and generally has an even better track record), Petco has basically no involvement in the supply chain.

I've had bad luck with some fish from LA and LA-DD, but they have credited me for the losses and have much higher success rates than other retailers I have purchased from. Ultimately the issue is the supply chain and the number of points at which a fish can be infected or mishandled. The more stops you can remove, the better your chances are. Unless you know collectors or trans-shippers, LiveAquaria is likely one of the best choices available.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

It's funny because almost all of these fish are coming from the same wholesalers. Outside of captive bred, I can only assume that most local fish stores and even online retailers are getting their fish from one or both of the big wholesalers by LAX. Sure, there are other marine fish wholesalers in Los Angeles, but I would be willing to bet that those two big guys have about 75% market share. Maybe I am missing half the country, but I wouldn't be surprised if Aussie, Indo and Philippines shipments hit LAX before being reoxed and sent east.

 

[Dr. Reef]

whats funny is i have 6 wholesalers and few divers, i buy from and not online retailers like liveaquaria and NONE of them are in California. Quality of fish is much much better and overall health is much better than LA.

I sell pre-medicated and quarantined fish (just dont advertise, few that know me buy from me). I have been practicing QT and Medicating fish for 15+ years now and i choose to not buy from LA anymore.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and i respect that but unless one has personally bought fish from wholesalers or direct divers, you wouldnt know how different things are. Not all wholesalers are the same and honestly i only use 2 wholesalers for fish that are really good.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

whats funny is i have 6 wholesalers and few divers, i buy from and not online retailers like liveaquaria and NONE of them are in California. Quality of fish is much much better and overall health is much better than LA.

I sell pre-medicated and quarantined fish (just dont advertise, few that know me buy from me). I have been practicing QT and Medicating fish for 15+ years now and i choose to not buy from LA anymore.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and i respect that but unless one has personally bought fish from wholesalers or direct divers, you wouldnt know how different things are. Not all wholesalers are the same and honestly i only use 2 wholesalers for fish that are really good.

That is awesome! From what it sounds like, you are part of the exception and your customers are fortunate that you go the extra mile! You should ramp up your advertising efforts so people know more about your offerings and can have the better option available to them.

To your later point, I have wholesale accounts, have been in person to multiple wholesalers (including the one that drop ships for LA, which is comparatively clean and well controlled vs others I’ve seen) I have also purchased directly from collectors/transshippers.

Is it possible that there are better sources than LA? Absolutely! But compared to most, especially when you figure in accessibility, scale of inventory and price, they are likely among the best public options.

(Ps. Thanks for editing your initial response, it came off as a little accusatory)

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Does anyone know if the ORA captive-bred fish from LA are kept separated from non ORA captive-bred stock?

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Does anyone know if the ORA captive-bred fish from LA are kept separated from non ORA captive-bred stock?

 

[Elgringodiablo]

Does anyone know if the ORA captive-bred fish from LA are kept separated from non ORA captive-bred stock?

They are shipped directly from ORA (unless purchased off Diver's Den). Separate facility in Florida.

 

[Lukas75]

In my own experience DD is good, Florida is good, but California can be hit or miss. I've gotten some fantastic fish and I've also received some horrible animals to include a near tank wipe. Lesson learned quarantine everything.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

They are shipped directly from ORA (unless purchased off Diver's Den). Separate facility in Florida.

Thanks. I emailed LA today asking this and they had to contact ORA. This is what they said:

According to ORA their captive bred fish never come into contact with wild caught fish. They also have separate systems for fish and corals.

That would lead me to believe that the captive-bred fish should not be exposed to any health issues beyond stress related issues.

 

[Robink]

All my fish fish are from LA or DD. I quarantine everything before it goes into display. I also check the salinity in the bag before I put the fish in qt tank as it has never been what I've been told over the phone by them. I start the qt at about 1.020 sg and if the water in the bag is lower, which it usually is I add ro to bring sg down. Have never had it higher than 1.020 from them.

 

[User1]

I've ordered fish twice from them. Lt. Tang last year - perfect. Purple Tang back in Nov/Dec time frame - they had a sale. Didn't make it. Few others purchased the Purple Tangs during the sale and they also didn't make it. One made it to the QT process but I don't remember if it made it after that. Refund for me so far it is 50% success rate.

My daughter has made a couple fresh water purchases and has had zero luck with 100% mortality rate. Refunds of course but she no longer buys from them.

 

[JayL]

Thanks for all the info. Out of the seven saltwater fish I purchased only four made it through the QT process. This is the second order I made through LA. The first order none made it through QT. Not sure if I want to buy from them again. I am willing to try let places. My LFS has a great selection. I might just stick with them.

 

[reaper0268]

I've used LiveAquaria for all of my fish over the last 10 years. My LFS is really bad. There were very few issues over the years that were quickly refunded.

 

[CivicS14]

I ordered from DD because of the extra process they go through in care and had nothing but luck. I’m sure there is a big difference from just LA and DD though.

 

[gtrider]

i purchased a fat head anthias from them.. drip acclimation.. QT for a week and he's doing great. eating like a champ and always out and about (some people said they hide)

 

[Kal93]

I've had luck with an anthias and a fairy wrasse. I matched QT salinity with shipping salinity, temp floated and transferred the fish immediately to QT after opening the shipping bag, and slowly adjusted QT to my DT parameters over 1-2 weeks. Both fish were treated with prazi.
To be honest, I only QT the fairy wrasse for 1.5 weeks, since I know the switch to my DT will stress him out. I transferred him Sunday and he's still hiding

 

[SeaJay]

I just placed my first order, mostly inverts, from LA/DD. This morning I get a UPS notification that my shipment has been delayed. Seems like the additional cost of using FedEx instead of UPS would be offset by the reduction in loss of life/refunds issued.

Hopefully the BTA from DD will arrive ok, the rest were inverts from LA and one Diamond goby to replace one I lost in QT. The Diamond gobys at my LFS are tiny, so I figured I'd give this a shot. We shall see...

*Edit* I just got a delivery confirmation email, so hopefully at least my DD BTA arrived safely. I'll run home at lunch to get him off the front porch.

 

[Tgould]

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.

My thoughts exactly. To much coincidence for me. My father and I have ordered through divers den for years and have never lost a single fish. Not one! That is until recently when we decided to add some new editions to our tanks. It’s been a couple years since adding any fish to our tanks and we both decided to add a few recently. We haven’t really watched the divers den website in awhile but I’ve read about the Petco deal and was a little concerned. I know first hand how new ownership can wreak havoc on an existing business. When we started to watch the daily postings of fish I noticed right away the marked price increases in fish we already had purchased in the past. But whatever, prices always go up and their minimum free shipping amount had dropped to $99 so I wasn’t too concerned. I also noticed they don’t list as much individual info on each fish anymore, what their eating, how well, etc. Something they used to do. Then came the fish. I ordered 3 chromis, 1 melanarus wrasse, and three anthias over a one month period. I ended up losing the wrasse. Sad, but ok, it’s bound to happen sooner or later. My father wasn’t quite as lucky. Out of the 3 chromis, 1 foxface and one juvenile emperor that he ordered only one chromis and the emporer made it. That’s 3 out of five dead. And this is a 220gal reef tank that is over ten years old. In the last eight years or so, since we have started ordering from divers den we have never lost a fish. None! The fish even look different. Not so healthy and robust. Look like their fresh off the delivery truck. Hard to get eating, thin, overall just not like it used to be. Makes me believe Petco has pulled the corporate two step and “cheapened up” the best fish supplier in the business. Sad.

 

[SeaJay]

I just placed my first order, mostly inverts, from LA/DD. This morning I get a UPS notification that my shipment has been delayed. Seems like the additional cost of using FedEx instead of UPS would be offset by the reduction in loss of life/refunds issued.

Hopefully the BTA from DD will arrive ok, the rest were inverts from LA and one Diamond goby to replace one I lost in QT. The Diamond gobys at my LFS are tiny, so I figured I'd give this a shot. We shall see...

*Edit* I just got a delivery confirmation email, so hopefully at least my DD BTA arrived safely. I'll run home at lunch to get him off the front porch.

Forgot to follow up after this. Everything arrived in good shape. In that order was a diamond goby to replace one from LFS that didn't make it throught QT. This one is more lively and healthier looking than the ones I've gotten locally. Melanarus is healthy and lively as well. He was eating well after a couple days of playing dead and hiding while he got used to his new home. I'll be ordering more from LA until they give me a reason not to.

 

[Westside Guy]

They are shipped directly from ORA (unless purchased off Diver's Den). Separate facility in Florida.

Luckily my LFS is located in Hollywood, FL and gets weekly shipments by truck from ORA on Fridays as long as their order is large enough. If people ordering receive their shipments directly from ORA and you take them home in the original shipping bag you have a really good chance of receiving a healthy fish. To the best of my knowledge ORA also ships by overnight air to a number of LFS around the country.