What’s the best online fish store??

SOARnTACO · May 7, 2019

My fish stocking ideas are getting more specific as I get to end of my list. Problem is lfs has been hit or miss. I see most only stores have a 14 day guaranteed alive. I know of saltwater or vivid.

Is there more stores out there and who do you think does the best?
Since you can’t see your fish before u buy.

James M · May 7, 2019

This is based on my experience,I’ve had no problems with LiveAquaria.

Psychonaut · May 7, 2019

I live about 90mim away from the nearest fish store that isn’t crap, I have order from LA 4 times now and have never been disappointed. Doubly so for everything I got from Divers Den. Any fish is gonna be upset after traveling 3000 miles in a cardboard box, but I got a shipment of 3 anthias today from DD and they were all eating after an hour in the tank. The one time I did order from another company they were out of the starry blenny that was listed on the site, so they sent me a lawnmower blenny in its place (starry blenny way prettier) and the foxface I got had really bad internal parasites and almost killed the watchman goby it was in QT with.

I go LA with literally everything I can, but I’m now getting close to the end of my stock list, and the fish I have left to buy, I really want so if they don’t have them in stock I may have to go elsewhere

Dragon52 · May 8, 2019

I usually go with LA/DD but have used Vivid Aquariums also. By far LA has the one of the best guarantees in the business.

Nem0 · May 8, 2019

do the quality / good experiences change in the different sectors of LA? DD vs ORA vs normal?

WMR · May 8, 2019

Check out the vendors on this site, they have some pretty good looking fish & good prices as well

Dragon52 · May 8, 2019

Nem0 said:
do the quality / good experiences change in the different sectors of LA? DD vs ORA vs normal?

Not in my experiances

Psychonaut · May 10, 2019

What ARE the fish vendors from this site? Saw a lot of coral vendors but few fish ones. Anyone have any recommendations from a R2R vendor?

JayKim · May 10, 2019

Stick to local fish stores if you can. They can usually order the fish that you want. If you decide to use live aquaria, buy from diver's den. I've ordered from live aquaria recently and I had a lot of deaths and sick fish. They drop ship fish directly from wholesaler so you are putting your trust in the wholesaler. I had good experience in the past when I was in the hobby 7 years ago, but things change. Their 14 days stay alive guarantee is great though.

zoous · May 10, 2019

Live Aquaria well packaged and on time for me.

hart24601 · May 10, 2019

Here is my list of favorites at the moment even though you specifically asked about fish.

Clams - pacific east aquaculture
Acro packs - battlecorals has really wowed me twice
Other coral - unique corals followed by divers den/ORA section of LA's website
Fish - NY aquatics has been good, but mostly I get from regular section of LiveAquaria
Then other vendors.

Overall I have not really had bad experiences with any vendor, even off ebay, over the past 5 or 6 years.

Overall nothing really touches LA's 14 day guarantee on fish.

Pmauro55 · Aug 8, 2019

Do any of these online fish stores quarantine their fish before selling them or is it a crap shoot, I don’t mind paying more if I know the animal is healthy when I get it.

rahusky · Aug 8, 2019

I had good experience with http://www.ibluewater.com/index.html They are pricey. I've read they supposedly 'quarantine' fish prior to sale.

drstardust · Aug 8, 2019

rahusky said:
I had good experience with http://www.ibluewater.com/index.html They are pricey. I've read they supposedly 'quarantine' fish prior to sale.

Was this recently? I had heard good things about them many years ago, but nothing recent, and they don’t seem to update their site often.

rahusky · Aug 8, 2019

drstardust said:
Was this recently? I had heard good things about them many years ago, but nothing recent, and they don’t seem to update their site often.

Yes, a pair of clowns. Super happy and healthy.

Jettareefer223 · Aug 8, 2019

Live aquaria I’ve order a ton from them and if I have a problem they fix it. Fish are healthy and the WYISWYG the fish pictured is what you’re going to get. You don’t have purchase a warranty.

Lateral72 · Aug 8, 2019

Honestly? They all have their faults.

I was going to suggest LiveAquaria DD, because it was really the best of a bad situation, but they actually killed one of the fish I ordered during packing this week, decided to ship half my order and then basically told me to go pound sand when I suggested they should've contacted me prior to shipping half my order.

Jettareefer223 · Aug 9, 2019

Lateral72 said:
Honestly? They all have their faults.

I was going to suggest LiveAquaria DD, because it was really the best of a bad situation, but they actually killed one of the fish I ordered during packing this week, decided to ship half my order and then basically told me to go pound sand when I suggested they should've contacted me prior to shipping half my order.

Ask to speak to a manager they’ll take care of it. Some of the lower level people can be asinine. They shipped my pipe fish on the coldest week of the year and I was PO’d one guy told me I should’ve called. Needless to say I wasn’t happy all at they only credited one. I talked to the manager they shipped two new ones once it warmed up and gave me additional credit as well. Overall no other vendor’s are going to do that. I had another issue with peppermint hogs they sent me 3 back to back two were doa and one didn’t make it a few days. I asked for them to contact once they some time had past it all worked out I was only charged for the original one. I had ordered a tiger tail coral beauty on DD that died after the warranty, and they sent me a replacement no questions asked it’s $225 fish. All together I’ve had some bumps in the road overall they’ve been good to me.