What percentage of online ordered fish survive?

Skep18 · Nov 14, 2018

Ordered fish 3 times online. 1 order came in with brook and killed all 4 fish within a few days in QT. Other 2 orders of fish are fine, one of which is still in QT right now.

vetteguy53081 · Nov 14, 2018

Im at 100% survival.
Just had a great shipment from fishy business. They are after 2 weeks very happy and hardy

4FordFamily · Nov 14, 2018

Tonya Stuempfl said:
I only buy clean up crews, and cheap corals from online locations. Many of these places are very reputable...but first the fish are bagged, then sit ready to ship for a day -- more if it is a weekend, then add a few more days into the mix for shipping. That is a lot of stress, little oxygen, and swimming in their own filth. They are bound to get disease. Recently, I purchased some stuff on a Thursday. I qualified for free 2nd day shipping -- score! They didn't ship the order until Monday and I received it on a Wednesday. It says right on the website that the order is gathered the next day. I'm guessing it was sitting around on a shipping dock all weekend. I generally don't blame the seller -- mostly myself. But I leaned this through losses of my own.

Just so you know, LFS get their fish the same way we do. Sometimes, they’re picked up at the airport but more often than not the journey is the exact same.

Dan I · Nov 14, 2018

I've had the best of luck from LA Diver's Den. However, no luck from saltwaterfish and Blue Zoo Aquatics. Luckily I got an amazing LFS that hand picks me healthy fish from the wholesalers and fattens them up for me a bit before selling them to me.

Pazman · Nov 14, 2018

I have ordered 5 fish (Yellow Tang, Flameback Angel, Royal Gramma, Lyretail Red Anthias, firefish) from Live Aquaria and all have survived since May 2018. They are all healthy and growing.

falc · Nov 14, 2018

I am fortunate enough to have a good LFS and have had great survival rates! Few times that I have ordered fish from a large online retailer have barely made it out of QT. I believe being banged around in residential delivery is just too stressful..

mattzang · Nov 14, 2018

F291 said:
I've had the best of luck from LA Diver's Den. However, no luck from saltwaterfish and Blue Zoo Aquatics. Luckily I got an amazing LFS that hand picks me healthy fish from the wholesalers and fattens them up for me a bit before selling them to me.

which one? i'd rather not drive to West Covina, but might be willing for a decent LFS. Mine was just showing me their fish had ich, laughed about it, then took water from that tank and put it in their frag tank. "ich is fine it comes and goes." frustrating lack of decent LFS around here

OldManSea · Nov 14, 2018

12 fish from live Aquaria over the past 2 years. All are alive still, some for 2 years and others now at 1 year.

Dan I · Nov 14, 2018

mattzang said:
which one? i'd rather not drive to West Covina, but might be willing for a decent LFS. Mine was just showing me their fish had ich, laughed about it, then took water from that tank and put it in their frag tank. "ich is fine it comes and goes." frustrating lack of decent LFS around here

The LFS is not in West Covina but in Rancho Cucamonga. It's a new store called Pisces Exotic Pets. Charles, the owner, is knowledgeable and a great guy. He will special order pretty much any fish if he does not have it. He will also make sure it is eating and healthy. His coral selection is starting to become great too. I've known Charles when he worked at another store and he is very passionate about the health of the fish and corals. He will not sell you a sick fish for profit.

wesman42 · Nov 14, 2018

F291 said:
The LFS is not in West Covina but in Rancho Cucamonga. It's a new store called Pisces Exotic Pets. Charles, the owner, is knowledgeable and a great guy. He will special order pretty much any fish if he does not have it. He will also make sure it is eating and healthy. His coral selection is starting to become great too. I've known Charles when he worked at another store and he is very passionate about the health of the fish and corals. He will not sell you a sick fish for profit.

Yeah but with the wealth of knowledge on here, I'm more inclined to buy then online...and treat them myself. If they die, there's always a guarantee.

My success rate has been 100% with online retailers, LA included...but around 40% with LFS fish. Both received the same treatment prophylactically in a QT.

Dan I · Nov 15, 2018

wesman42 said:
Yeah but with the wealth of knowledge on here, I'm more inclined to buy then online...and treat them myself. If they die, there's always a guarantee.

My success rate has been 100% with online retailers, LA included...but around 40% with LFS fish. Both received the same treatment prophylactically in a QT.

Yeah, I agree to an extent. However, with my experience I would rather have a fat "healthy" fish that I can confirm is fine before I take home. Going back to online fish with guarantees are great but you only get credit to which you still need to order more fish to qualify the free shipping. That turned me away from online as well.

mattzang · Nov 15, 2018

F291 said:
The LFS is not in West Covina but in Rancho Cucamonga. It's a new store called Pisces Exotic Pets. Charles, the owner, is knowledgeable and a great guy. He will special order pretty much any fish if he does not have it. He will also make sure it is eating and healthy. His coral selection is starting to become great too. I've known Charles when he worked at another store and he is very passionate about the health of the fish and corals. He will not sell you a sick fish for profit.

well pictures on yelp looks nice, hah. I might have to roll there, Rancho is actually closer to me. I keep wanting to make a drive to Amazing Aquariums in Orange, Vivid Aquariums in simi valley area, and Seaside something in Huntington Beach. The Seaside one has some pretty nutty deals, they had pintail fairy wrasses for like $48 a couple of weeks ago. Kicking myself I didn't roll down there then.

Dan I · Nov 15, 2018

mattzang said:
well pictures on yelp looks nice, hah. I might have to roll there, Rancho is actually closer to me. I keep wanting to make a drive to Amazing Aquariums in Orange, Vivid Aquariums in simi valley area, and Seaside something in Huntington Beach. The Seaside one has some pretty nutty deals, they had pintail fairy wrasses for like $48 a couple of weeks ago. Kicking myself I didn't roll down there then.

You won't be disappointed with Charle's store and his commitment to helping you out. I've been to Vivid's new store in Canoga Park and they had nice stuff. They had a 14 day guarantee in their fish and you can get a new fish by bringing in the deceased fish, which I think they still do. If you are willing to drive to Simi, you should check out Reef Lounge in Anaheim. They have some great corals and fish as well.

mattzang · Nov 15, 2018

F291 said:
You won't be disappointed with Charle's store and his commitment to helping you out. I've been to Vivid's new store in Canoga Park and they had nice stuff. They had a 14 day guarantee in their fish and you can get a new fish by bringing in the deceased fish, which I think they still do. If you are willing to drive to Simi, you should check out Reef Lounge in Anaheim. They have some great corals and fish as well.

does vivid have more varieties of fish than they list online? their online offering is pretty basic. They're by far the furthest from me, about an hour 30.. I keep thinking I'll do an order from unique and then swing by vivid while i'm sort of in the area.

I'll have to check out reef lounge when I do the amazing aquariums visit. thanks for the suggestion!

Dan I · Nov 15, 2018

mattzang said:
does vivid have more varieties of fish than they list online? their online offering is pretty basic. They're by far the furthest from me, about an hour 30.. I keep thinking I'll do an order from unique and then swing by vivid while i'm sort of in the area.

I'll have to check out reef lounge when I do the amazing aquariums visit. thanks for the suggestion!

When I went to Vivid, the fish choice was pretty much the same as online. However, they had a variety of SPS and LPS corals. Reef Lounge and Pisces Exotic Pets had the most variety of fish.

lakai · Nov 15, 2018

F291 said:
The LFS is not in West Covina but in Rancho Cucamonga. It's a new store called Pisces Exotic Pets. Charles, the owner, is knowledgeable and a great guy. He will special order pretty much any fish if he does not have it. He will also make sure it is eating and healthy. His coral selection is starting to become great too. I've known Charles when he worked at another store and he is very passionate about the health of the fish and corals. He will not sell you a sick fish for profit.

I've been there, place is pretty nice. Largest selection of healthy and happy marine fish and corals in that area. Guy is legit and sources his fish from the same wholesaler as LA and picks only healthy fish from them.

Captain Quint · Nov 15, 2018

I'm probably at between 90 to 95% live on online orders over the years.

100% from the two LFS' I use, but I've always had QT and staging tanks before my DT sees a critter.

I also count myself lucky if I need to provide bigger homes for any critter that gets larger than I want. One LFS will gladly take them and offer me store credit, select smaller fish of the same species, or sell on consignment.

nhlives · Nov 15, 2018

I just get tank raised from ORA. Never had a problem

Joshua Kerstetter · Nov 15, 2018

I've had pretty good success with LA, first shipment was a copperband butterly and longhorn cowfish, that I had in QT isolation for 30 days just for monitoring, I don't medicate unless I see a problem, which they were fine during the 30 day period, they ate well, behaved normally. Moved the copperband and cowfish into the DT shortly after, they're doing awesome and I'm 3 months in. Second batch included a flame angel, a fish I've had multiple failed attempts at, and blue naso tang, yellow tang and scopas tang. Eventually the Scopas began bulling the yellow tang so I moved the Scopas up to the DT where he began getting bullied, he eventually died in the DT because I was too late/lazy to pull him out and put him in isolation, that was completely my fault, around the same time the yellow tang had stopped eating he died in QT. I still have the flame angel and blue in QT over 2 months now, as I need to pull my sailfin out of the DT tank and put in isolation chamber in the sump becuase I'm too afraid of him killing the blue tang that looks really good in QT, he's gone from about quarter size to double that in 2 months, the flame angel is skiddish when he sees me but overall healthy and social when I can sneak up on them to obvserve. My hope is to get everyone moved around soon so I can clean and get the QT ready for another batch that I hope to purchase for the incoming black friday sales. Looking for a replacement valentini puffer, niger trigger, another wrasse, possibly an anathias, and if there's another compatible cheap tang.. who knows! but overall I can't complain about what I've recieved from LA so far.