I just had my 2nd experience and 2nd bad experience with buying fish online. I bought a Heniochus Black and White Butterflyfish and it died 2 days after I added it to the tank. I did the "drip" method for ~3 hours. Added the fish and then observed. It seemed okay although it wasn't eating much except pecking at the algae on the back of my tank. It eventually got a white spot on it's side and then developed three separate open sores annd died in the middle of the night. I have a clown fish, and two yellow tail damsels. Not sure what went wrong. My water parameters have been stable for the last 6 months.
I previously tried adding a green mandarin bought online even with all of the online reccomendations against this fish. becuase I found several postive remarks as well. The problem I had with the mandarin wasn't feeding it was the mandarin developing a skin problem and then dying 1 day after drip aclimation.
I've previously bought hermit crabs and snails on-line with some success 2 died shortly out of ~10. I'm interested to hear about the the success rate of other aquariasts with invertabrates and fish from online versus LFS. I think eventhough I pay 2x as much I'm going back to the LFS from now on but wanted to hear more from others.
yeah so far all my stuff I got locally. I am interested in buying corals online for my nano tank in a few months.... we'll see how that goes. I have a very good lfs and have gotten all my fish from that one place... I don't have to worry about cyanide or anything and I've only had one fish fatality in the 3 years I've had the tank. It's not worth saving the money to buy online. The fish undergo way too much stress when shipped to your door. At least at the LFS you can watch the fish eat which is super important.... its best to find a local place u can trust...
Also u always pay more for net caught fish over cyanide fish... but in the long run a dead cyanide fish is more expensive than your net caught fish. Pay more upfront to have a long living fish.
__________________ Gwen - 2008 Atlanta Reef Club Board MACNA XX Committee 125g RR AGA "The Simple Reef Tank"
I like to see what Im getting and talk to a person directly. Ive been let down with online stores and now the costs are higher than local! atleast here in AZ.
I have good experiences with both myself. I think the important thing on-line is not to do it in the winter months......like....now......seems like shipping is twice as difficult. One thing for sure, shipping costs drive it up considerably, but sometimes you just can't find something you want locally, or sometimes it is just as cheap.
Local LFS is always prefered since you can actually see the subjects and how healthy they are.
I only buy my fish online. Yes, I know that goes against the grain for most people. However, the LFS here is really terrible. I will only buy dry goods there. No fish or corals. I did buy two fish there a while back that looked fine. I watched them for a week in the LFS, I brought them home but they died while in quarantine. I've had great sucess with fish that I've bought online. No deaths while in quarantine. I've only lost one of those and that's because of a power outage while I was at work.
We do have one really good LFS, but he only deals in corals (So I guess he really is a LCS). So that's where I get most of my frags.
I just meet a LFS ( on-line)
They have a Warehouse close to my house they are Online store but sells for the Local Reefer to
They have a great price ! I can order on-line and drive 1 mile and pick up
Online prices and no shipping
__________________ 55 galon , 2 powerheads, skimmer , 40 pound of sand , 40 pound of live sand, RO/DI filter.
I just tried out on-line fish purchasing for the first time a couple of weeks ago. My club had a bunch of people that wanted to place an order through Live Aquaria. Since we were over $175 shipping was free and that was the real selling point for us.
I actually took delivery on the entire order and it all looked great! Everything was bagged per person and even had heat packs to keep the temp nice for shipping.
I bought a blacksailfin blenny and it came in very healthy and ate pretty quickly.
Good to hear feedback on Live Aquaria- I got a $50 gift certificate from xmas that I need to spend.
Most people bought inverts but 2 of us purchased fish. The other guy in the club purchased a Scotts Fairy Wrasse and the thing is beautiful! Great color and also ate pretty quickly.
My ONLY complaint was the inverts(cleaner shrimp & peppermint shrimp) were on the small size :sad: but the price was right ;-)
Thats interesting. as I am now thinking, 250 bucks for a new harlequin tusk is a might steep. Online may be the way to go if I can be sure its aussie variety and not indo-pac. Just color and general health preference. The one in the store today is a beutiful specimen but jezzus, I need 250 for something else!
MY expierence has been to buy in person, although when I worked for some area shops most sellers shipped some very healthy livestock. but let the petstore take the hit, you go there and if the animal is eating and looks clean and healthy wait a few days and go back , if it is still there and looks just as good "Buy Him" use the few days in between times to research the animal if you are unfamiliar with the species and learn something about it. never buy on impulse in this hobby it will surely lead to disaster and a death or money lost.
I have found that buying a animal when it is very small seems to ensure its life in your tank. all my fish that currently reside in my tank have been bought when they were generally an inch in size . they all have survived but any others that I have got in the larger 3-4 + inch generally died after a few months.
also I have found many a fish carpet surfing including my scotts fairy wrasse , he actually made it to the kitchen .... the poor guy .. how he managed to find that one little open area was a longshot for sure . well just to say , ensure your tank is jump proof if you have expensive fish that like to jump..
I just made my first fish purchase online and put them in the tank yesterday. I got them from www.saltwaterfish.com. So far I'm pretty pleased. The fish appear healthy, they didn't seem any more stressed when I got them via Fed Ex than they usually do from the LFS, and they ALL ATE first thing this morning! (woo hoo!)
I got 3 PJ cards, a Fridmani dottyback and a flame angel. The cardinals are smaller than I expected, but they'll grow. The flame is fat and beautiful and immediately started swimming all over the tank and picking at the rocks rather than hiding when I first put him in. I even see the dottyback quite a bit although they're known to hide. He's picked out his area to hang out.
Of course, ask me again when they've been in the tank a couple of weeks and that'll be the real test. I've had a lot of problems with new fish from the LFS dying within days or a week of getting them, even when they've been eating (not only at the lfs but even in my tank) and looking healthy. Of course there's no survival guarantee from the lfs, which is the main reason I decided to order from SWF.com. They have a 15 day guarantee. If the fish dies, you send it back, packed in salt and you get a credit.
icon under there name and give them Reputation points
