Fish pricing

[Lorena quinn]

Where can I get the best deal on fish but that still has good benefits like a warrenty, free or reduced shipping ect...wanting to order some fish but most places want $150 order for free shipping :headwally: but I don't want to intruduce everything at once in order to get free shipping. Any help is appreciated. :)

[mcgyvr]

It would help if you filled out the location field in your user profile or at least told us as we currently have no idea if you are located in Florida or Zimbabwe..

Based on what you posted so far though your best bet seems like you should find a local fish store to purchase from..
In general it is not cheap to ship live animals overnight so the only way to offer free shipping or whatever is to require a larger order value.. No getting around that..

If in the US check out Liveaquaria.. That in general is the "best" bet for online ordering success,etc... and free shipping at $99

[EMeyer]

saltwaterfish.com has a lower minimum ($79) to get free shipping. Of course after that they tack on a "box charge" so effectively its a $89-$99 minimum but still, great vendor with a lower minimum. Theyre easily as good as the more expensive vendors (liveaquaria or bluezoo)

Or, you can spend the cost of fish + shipping + a little extra and buy the same fish for a higher price in a LFS... :)

[mcgyvr]

From what I've seen saltwaterfish has a hit or miss review record.. Quite a few negative reviews.. and a decent amount of positive ones too..
I've been hesitant to order from them in the past but may give them a shot..

[Lorena quinn]

I just joined yesterday and needed some fast answers so havn't filled out anything yet but will do that know thank you. Im from wv. My lfs is where I have been ordering from bc i do not have to pay shipping but they do not have salt water tanks set up in store so they have to order. The company the go threw does not seem to have what im looking for but updates different live stock each week. So what they don't have this week they may have next just didn't want to wait around on a few things and didn't want a big order ether. Thank you for the help!

[EMeyer]

From what I've seen saltwaterfish has a hit or miss review record.. Quite a few negative reviews.. and a decent amount of positive ones too..
I've been hesitant to order from them in the past but may give them a shot..

In the absence of direct experience, it totally makes sense to look at reviews.

But over the years, watching as my direct experience with various companies differs dramatically from reviews, I've come to consider online reviews to be worth the cost of the paper theyre printed on :)

[Lorena quinn]

I look at reviews on everything not just fish anything I buy offline or looking to purchase that I don't want to waste my money on. I also watch videos on everything and constantly asking questions. This hobby is to expensive to just dive into it and hope for the best.

[albano]

The company the go threw does not seem to have what im looking for but updates different live stock each week. So what they don't have this week they may have next just didn't want to wait around on a few things and didn't want a big order ether...

This is the same way ALL fish suppliers/ wholesales/shippers operate. No one has all types of fish in stock every week. Some are hard to get, some are seasonal, some hide from the divers!

[Dsekula]

If you have a reef tank as oppose to FO you could order one or maybe two fish and get some coral to make up the difference for free shipping. It's what I do if I want a specific one or two fish that's cheaper or don't have the ability to add all the prospective fish to the DT or qt at once. I've even got some coral or frags that we're decently on sale and traded/sold them with others or even a lfs for credit. You still end up paying a bit more so your one $20 fish costs you say $150-$200 to get free shipping but if you get some other items you can make most if not more money back on occasion which I find more appealing than $20 plus $50or so shipping with nothing to show for it. Usually I find some higher end items but not super insane like a rarer color lps that normally sells for 50-100 a head for example. I'll grab something like this in a sale section and there's a pretty good chance I can at least make the cash back. That's just one idea but you still spend the cash up front.

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[Lorena quinn]

Thats is a great idea Dsekula. Ill will think of that in the future as my tank is fo right now but plan on changing that.

[Dsekula]

Ah that's tough then, I'd probably set up a few small qt tanks if you want to order online and not pay extra shipping(even buckets etc work) then add fish at different intervals so the bioload isn't too much for the DT. Otherwise your stuck going local unless you have a few friends that want to group order.

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[mcgyvr]

In the absence of direct experience, it totally makes sense to look at reviews.

But over the years, watching as my direct experience with various companies differs dramatically from reviews, I've come to consider online reviews to be worth the cost of the paper theyre printed on :)

That is very true... Typically more people go out of their way to review a product because they weren't happy for one reason or another vs those that were happy so yes many are heavily weighed in the negative..

[Dmorty217]

0For the run of the mill stuff Liveaquaria is the best bet, followed by bluezoo, Nyaquatics and then they fall off significantly. If you're looking for rare fish or harder to find fish, then amongthereef or pacific island aquatics is who I would suggest

[Lorena quinn]

Thank you. I'm really looking into a dwarf lion fish at the moment but wanna do my research better before I jump into that. I have a black Darwin clown and a cleaner shrimp on the way. I figure it would eat my shrimp as well.

[Dsekula]

I read your last message and just wanted to give you the heads up that the clown would probably be dwarf lionfish food too. I haven't had a dwarf lion but researched because their cool fish and I wanted to know if I could have one. They could reach about 7" when mature and from what I've read tank mates should be larger than them to not be considered food. Again, no first hand experience but you should definitely do some more research on them if your really want one and don't want to potentially feed them really expensive food ;)

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[Lorena quinn]

That's what I suspected. They hide alot anyway. Would rather see what I pay for swimming around lol. Thanks for the info.