Never had an issue with shipping and ive ordered at least 200 packages in the last 5 years.
Who likes to buy livestock online but hates shipping
- Thread starter NowGlazeIT
- Start date
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OP
OP
Your one lucky dog
just got my first online shipment an 2 hours early very happy with fedex and extremely pleased with WWC packing was uber my only question is what is that vial I got Brightwell Aquatics tissue supplement? best used?
![IMAG1204_1[681].jpg](https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/imag1204_1-681-jpg.649496/ "IMAG1204_1[681].jpg")
![IMAG1205[683].jpg](https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/imag1205-683-jpg.649498/ "IMAG1205[683].jpg")
![IMAG1206[686].jpg](https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/imag1206-686-jpg.649500/ "IMAG1206[686].jpg")
got 7 hours till my lights turn on gotta keep busy somehow.
got 7 hours till my lights turn on gotta keep busy somehow.
I did have probably 5 packages delayed but all survived. Of that only one package gave me real issues and it was from a novice shipper who didnt know how to package.
LuizW13
Well-Known Member
just got my first online shipment an 2 hours early very happy with fedex and extremely pleased with WWC packing was uber my only question is what is that vial I got Brightwell Aquatics tissue supplement? best used?
got 7 hours till my lights turn on gotta keep busy somehow.
Man, WWC forgot to list what i purchased (random acro pack), I have no idea what i just got, oh well.
I have like four of those brightwell supplements, i was just going to look up the best way to use that later.
don_chuwish
Smells something fishy
My only truly 'local' LFS rarely has any interesting livestock, they do much more freshwater. I can tell them what fish I want and they'll say OK and make a note, but then I never hear from them.
An hour's drive away I have 2 options, 1 that always has good stock of things to see. Both have been great about ordering anything I want. I just need to resist the lure of those online photos!
I'll probably end up ordering coral online though.
An hour's drive away I have 2 options, 1 that always has good stock of things to see. Both have been great about ordering anything I want. I just need to resist the lure of those online photos!
I'll probably end up ordering coral online though.
OP
OP
Sounds a lot like my current situation with LFS
Radman73
Valuable Member
IMO, there is a market for fish that have been through at least a basic QT. And I'm willing to put my money where my mouth, or keyboard anyway, is. I'm truly shocked more vendors don't do it as a service as it's far more economical to do it on a large scale vs 2-3 fish at a time.
OP
OP
I think some don’t hold the fish long enough to QT and others are intimidated or have failed mainly to lack of knowledge or space. Think about how long we advise to QT a new arrival 76 days right? To be most effective that is. Then you have airborns to control. meaning tanks kept 10 ft apart from new arrivals to already established QT’d fish. That requires a lot of space and slower supply to demand. I think there is a market for a fully QT’d fish vendor (cough) @Humblefish (cough) but to pull it off on a commercial scale would be truly impressive. And I’d want to work there hahah
Radman73
Valuable Member
Agree, but there are innovative ways around some of those limitations. The 10ft rule is direct travel distance from tank to tank. Simple air barriers could inhibit that travel path. And I'm not looking for a complete guarantee that fish are disease free. I want reasonable assurance. I'd still QT on my end, but it wouldn't be nearly as involved. More along the lines of observe and treat if necessary.
azbigjohn
Valuable Member
I have limited experience with shipping except with Live Aquaria, which has been great on the 3 orders I placed. I had 2 favorite LFS in Phoenix, but just moved to NM, where the nearest LFS is 2+ hours away, so I will be wading back into shipping.
Wish me luck!
Wish me luck!
OP
OP
I’ve only ordered once from LA (oct2017) but I received fish from 3 of their facilities and Live Aquaria is the reason I QT but it is nice to hear so many have had better luck. I thought they were just the Walmart of online ordering. Where the old “get what you paid for” applies just as heavy
5altkreep
Active Member
I picked "other"
My lfs isn't too bad, prices are reasonable, but selection is pretty limited.
However, I'm lucky enough to be able to shop divers den/liveaquaria, and drive about 45 to pick up in person.
OP
OP
Woaho! Now that’s cool!
Mark Waltermire
Active Member
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Where I live we have 4 LFS's within an hour drive. I will call them A, B, C, and D for the purpose of making things simpler. A is in one direction, while B, C, and D are in the other (I live along the coast of NC). Store A I haven't been to in about 5 years just because we don't go into that city hardly ever, but they don't QT and they sell Freshwater and Saltwater. They close off their saltwater section on the day they receive fish so you have to wait at least a day after they get stuff before you can buy.
B and C are about 30 minutes away and D is about 50 minutes away and just opened in the last 2 weeks. They opened up the new store because the other 2 stores in the area didn't know how to deliver people what they were asking for. Shop B has really small tanks, overpriced and uninteresting corals, as well as super expensive tank dry goods as well as poor selection. Store C is owned by a "trust fund baby" who doesn't care that the "display" tanks look like crap, they have no inverts, and would only place a livestock order about once a month and you didn't get a say on what they would order even if you were. They have a Gem Tang in a 300 gallon tank with algae covered glass, bare live rock, and have been running the tank without their MH bulbs in it for the last year because the replacement bulbs came in broken and the owner was too lazy to contact the distributor and get new ones shipped out. The tank also doesn't get fed enough as the tang has some of its fins missing now due to abuse from the other tank mates. Both store B and C don't quarantine fish and I've bought 3 fish from store B with 2 of them dying within 24 hours and the 3rd died within a month due to an aggressive tank mate so I will take responsibility for one of them, but fish shouldn't die within 12 hours like a firefish did. Store C has enough separate systems that you can pick out good stuff as well as the fact they only place livestock orders once a month means that I've bought My clowns, goby, and purple tang from them all after them having sat at the store for a month. I was luck too because the purple tang was even on their coral system so I didn't have to worry about any pests on him.
Fish store D opened up due to a demand for a good store and I hope to see them take off. They are going to be QT'ing everything once they get some new pumps delivered as their Mag 18's ended up just being a trickle with 8ft of head pressure. They also will be training leopard wrasses to eat prepared foods as well as mandarin goby's. The store is managed by a person who was working at store C and got fed up with telling customers that they should just order from BRS because it will arrive faster and cheaper. I just dropped off a bunch of frag plugs to them so they could have some more variety right now and am waiting for them to get in a Powder Blue tang as we are going to due a trade since I brought in like 15 frags of Duncan's, Sunny D's, Jedi Mind Trick, Paly's, and some frogspawn. Some of you all are thinking that I gave a store 10 duncan heads alone for 1 PB tang, but I would rather see them succeed than have to go out of business in a year and the manager is going to give me some Acro frags out of his tank so it will end up being good.
Due to all of the fish stores in the area though I have never placed an order online. The only time I was really tempted to was I really wanted to buy a clam for my tank and I knew LA has the best guarantee policy of 14 days which is enough to know if a clam will survive or not. After getting a par meter though my sand bed is only around 80-100 par, which I think will be too low for a clam, but maybe some of you could DM me with some suggestions of clams that you think might with with that "low" par level in my 72 bowfront.
B and C are about 30 minutes away and D is about 50 minutes away and just opened in the last 2 weeks. They opened up the new store because the other 2 stores in the area didn't know how to deliver people what they were asking for. Shop B has really small tanks, overpriced and uninteresting corals, as well as super expensive tank dry goods as well as poor selection. Store C is owned by a "trust fund baby" who doesn't care that the "display" tanks look like crap, they have no inverts, and would only place a livestock order about once a month and you didn't get a say on what they would order even if you were. They have a Gem Tang in a 300 gallon tank with algae covered glass, bare live rock, and have been running the tank without their MH bulbs in it for the last year because the replacement bulbs came in broken and the owner was too lazy to contact the distributor and get new ones shipped out. The tank also doesn't get fed enough as the tang has some of its fins missing now due to abuse from the other tank mates. Both store B and C don't quarantine fish and I've bought 3 fish from store B with 2 of them dying within 24 hours and the 3rd died within a month due to an aggressive tank mate so I will take responsibility for one of them, but fish shouldn't die within 12 hours like a firefish did. Store C has enough separate systems that you can pick out good stuff as well as the fact they only place livestock orders once a month means that I've bought My clowns, goby, and purple tang from them all after them having sat at the store for a month. I was luck too because the purple tang was even on their coral system so I didn't have to worry about any pests on him.
Fish store D opened up due to a demand for a good store and I hope to see them take off. They are going to be QT'ing everything once they get some new pumps delivered as their Mag 18's ended up just being a trickle with 8ft of head pressure. They also will be training leopard wrasses to eat prepared foods as well as mandarin goby's. The store is managed by a person who was working at store C and got fed up with telling customers that they should just order from BRS because it will arrive faster and cheaper. I just dropped off a bunch of frag plugs to them so they could have some more variety right now and am waiting for them to get in a Powder Blue tang as we are going to due a trade since I brought in like 15 frags of Duncan's, Sunny D's, Jedi Mind Trick, Paly's, and some frogspawn. Some of you all are thinking that I gave a store 10 duncan heads alone for 1 PB tang, but I would rather see them succeed than have to go out of business in a year and the manager is going to give me some Acro frags out of his tank so it will end up being good.
Due to all of the fish stores in the area though I have never placed an order online. The only time I was really tempted to was I really wanted to buy a clam for my tank and I knew LA has the best guarantee policy of 14 days which is enough to know if a clam will survive or not. After getting a par meter though my sand bed is only around 80-100 par, which I think will be too low for a clam, but maybe some of you could DM me with some suggestions of clams that you think might with with that "low" par level in my 72 bowfront.
Instigate
Valuable Member
I live like 15 min away from there. Good people working there. Good prices too.
dede
Active Member
Just went through the exact same thing today with Live Aquaria, I think they should change shipping companies or at least offer an option of shipping company on checkout.
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