Good places to buy fish online?

[dougchambers]

Our LFS dropped the ball yet again. They've been promising to bring in a group of Achilles Tangs for us the past 4 weeks. It's Tuesday and the latest shipment didn't have any Achilles. Something about forgetting to put them on the order...

With that said, who are the more reputiable fish dealers online. In the past 9-years of keeping a reef, we have never bought fish online. At this point, we might try the risk if we can find a good supplier.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Doug

[Torno]

liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquliveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com aria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com liveaquaria.com LIVEAQUARIA.COM!!!!!

HTH! :)

[dougchambers]

Torno - I see you are very enthusiastic in your support of liveaquaria. What have you ordered from them?

Unfortunately, they are out of stock...

-Doug

[JENnKerry]

I can't support LiveAquaria enough. I've gotten quite a bit of orders from them and I must say that they have outstanding livestock and their customer support is tremendous as well :)

[TWallace]

I too say LiveAquaria. I don't know of any place else that offers a 14 day stay alive guarantee on most of their fish. I've ordered from them and everything arrived alive and I got free shipping cause my order was over $225. I think they're still running that promotion, too. Even with Saturday delivery that I requested, I only paid $12.50 in shipping for next day delivery. Pretty damn good deal. Since they're out of stock, I recommend using the "email me" feature so you're put on the list. Assuming you can wait a bit for it, I have no idea how long it would take for them to get one in. Also, this thread may belong in the Vendor Experiences forum.

If you really have to have it soon, try Marine Center (http://www.marinecenter.com). I don't think they have any sort of guarantee, though.

[DirtySouth056]

Try ReefHotSpot.com they have it in stock, they also offer an 14 day Live Guarantee. http://reefhotspot.com/store/index.php?cPath=21_23

Or you can call them TOLL FREE AT 1-877-478-4707

[dougchambers]

Thanks guys! I've added myself to the "email me" feature and from LiveAquaria and will see when they get stock. I'll look at ReefHotSpot also.

-Doug

[YoungReefer06]

LIVEAQUARIA.COM

I have order about $2000 worth of stuff from them and I and completly satified.

-Kyle

[dougchambers]

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I'll give them a shot when they get stock again...

-Doug

[vthondaboi]

I'd skip out on reefhotspot personally. I thought they were on the up and up but they seema bit shady.

[dougchambers]

Good to know... Mileage can vary with most online retailers. I'll keep an eye out.

One of the other LFS gave me a call and offered to order in an Achilles for us. We will see if he can get one. I'd really like to see the fish before we put it in a bag.

-Doug

[DirtySouth056]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6905454#post6905454 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by vthondaboi
I'd skip out on reefhotspot personally. I thought they were on the up and up but they seema bit shady.

What about them is shady?

[ReefHotSpot]

Hello vthondaboi,

I'd really like to know what you think is "shady" about reefhotspot.com and what experience you've had with us? You list very little information about yourself so it is a little difficult for me to figure out whether or not you've ever ordered or spoken to us. In fact, that seems a little shady to me. :rollface:

Granted we are a small company and doing everything we can to grow but we've always stuck by the ethic that doing well by our fish/corals is doing well by our customers. On the customer side, we have never not honored a claim of death unless the customer was not there to receive the package which we send priority overnight. To be candid, I really will not send another package to a customer who is not available at the agreed upon delivery date when their poor conduct results in the death of the animal. It is our responsibility (yours and mine) to treat these animals better than that. From my point of view, a lot of love and care goes into each animal and each delivery. People might have different "tarred" ideas about suppliers and their conduct toward their animals but that does not mean all suppliers are the same. Some of us try to do things in a different way.

Best Regards,
Maxwell

[dougchambers]

Maxwell,

Nicely put!

Thanks,

Doug

[chasekwe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6909034#post6909034 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by redrunblue
Hello vthondaboi,

I'd really like to know what you think is "shady" about reefhotspot.com and what experience you've had with us? You list very little information about yourself so it is a little difficult for me to figure out whether or not you've ever ordered or spoken to us. In fact, that seems a little shady to me. :rollface:

Best Regards,
Maxwell


Are the pictures on your site of the actual specimans Maxwell? Your site appears that that is the case but I didn't notice any indication of that so uh ya, just curious.


On another note, liveaquaria is very good.

[ReefHotSpot]

Hello Chasekwe,

The pictures are the actual items that we have in stock. However, it sometimes happens that an item will say it is in stock on the category page for a couple of hours or overnight but when you go to add it to your cart then it says it is out of stock. The reason for this is because someone has purchased the item after hours or early in the morning when we are not available to update the site. If you are trying to purchase the fish in the picture then it is important that you make sure when you add it to your cart you do not get an out of stock indication. I'm sorry that may seem a little confusing but our site isn't currently set up to take out of stock items off-line. That is something I am working-on.

On the other hand, I highly recommend that you check the bottom of the category pages almost daily. The new products for march etc. have the items which we have recently pictured and put on the site. I go everyday picking at about 4-5 warehouses and we add new arrivals almost daily.

Best Regards,
Maxwell
ReefHotSpot.com

[ReefHotSpot]

On another note, liveaquaria.com is probably pretty good but I've never ordered from them.

Best Regards,
Maxwell
ReefHotSpot.com

[chuckdickson]

I second the liveaquaria.com, great customer service.

[maxxII]

I've never ordered from Reefhotspot, but after seeing their prices and reading Maxwell's reponse, I'm certainly willing to give them a try.

I do have experiance ordering from:

LiveAquaria, phishybusiness, and Reef Science.

LiveAquaria sold me a Tomini Tang for more than Reefhotspot is advertising, but has excellent customer service. The first one didnt make it, and they shipped a 2nd one, no questions asked, (Still have it and its doing great...BTW, they look like Maxwell's pic typically, not the washed out gray image on LiveAquaria's website. What really impressed me the most was their willingness to work around my difficult schedule for shipping the fish. It wasnt easy and took some of their time, but I greatly appreciate it.

I could say the same things with phishybusiness. One thing to note with PB is that their packing is insane. I've never seen anyone pack livestock so well. I used to work at a Wholesale/Retail LFS on the west coast that shipped as far away as Norway on occassion, and I've never seen things packed this well. If you receive a shipment from PB and the bag is broken and leaky....whoever shipped it REALLY DOESNT LIKE YOU, becuase they will have had to deliberately trash that box. Hats off to Serdar and Renee.

Chad at RS is good also. I only ordered once from him but his livestock was in good shape and he included a bonus frag of electric green hydnophora in my shipment.

Nick

[Loralie]

Liveaquaria is awsome. Dr.Foster's as a whole is excellent. I have also ordered with sucess from Vivid Aquariums. Dave is super and has great service. If you call and let him know what you want he can usually get it with in a matter of days

[bigdee65]

I have only order from LiveAquaria as I was in the same situation as you Doug. So when my lfs refused to order me Lyretail Anthias I decided to order online. I also ordered a decent sized clean up crew so I got free shipping. Today was the 2 week mark and I only lost my Skunk Cleaner and I was credited the money no questions asked.

I was also impressed by the packaging and will be ordering from them again soon.

[dougchambers]

Thanks for the feedback guys... My LFS offered to order in an Achilles that should have arrived ~noon yesterday. We stopped by just before 7pm last night and the shipment still had not arrived. All they could tell the shop was that the packages were between LA and Boise. Unfortunate!

I'll give them a call later today to see if the shipment arrived late last night.

-Doug

[orgetorix]

My personal favoritet is themarinecenter.com They are a bit pricey but always have great livestock. They can also get rare fish and a plus if you live in Southern California (which you don't) overnight shipping is only $10 on any order.

[vthondaboi]

My club did a group buy from Reefhotspot and 10 out of 16 Tangs arrived DOA. Another one or two died within the two week guarantee. One of the ones that I got that arrived alive arrived with ich. Some guys two skunk clowns died too.

Then he missed the re-ship date and pushed it back a week. During that wait period he sold the Tangs he was suppose to ship to replace for us the week before. We ended up getting about 5 or 6 replacement Tangs.

Naturally we paid the shipping fee but I think he should have stood up for his business and waved it due to missing the ship date and 10 Tangs DOA.

Not sure how it was communicated to him but he packd the Tangs this time around two to a bag and we had to re-bag them once they got here.

Not sure if he runs it out of his house but one time I called and got someone completely unknowledgeable about even True Perculas. Oh and answering the phone more often would be nice.

[Torno]

DEE-NIED! lol

[WILDTHING]

come on guys this is not the correct thread to go into long discussions about your displeasure with a company. Thats for the feedback forum.

THIS thread was asking about good places to buy fish online.

I've seen threads like this go south fast and get closed just as fast.

colleen

[vthondaboi]

Sorry didn't mean too except I made a comment and people asked me to explain and I did. Mods may delete or edit out my earlier reply as I'll post something in the Vendor section.

Also is Reefhotspot allowed to solicit business in this forum? :eek:

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6927717#post6927717 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WILDTHING
come on guys this is not the correct thread to go into long discussions about your displeasure with a company. Thats for the feedback forum.

THIS thread was asking about good places to buy fish online.

I've seen threads like this go south fast and get closed just as fast.

colleen

[ReefHotSpot]

Reply to vthondaboi,

The order was for 19 baby blue hippo tangs and 2 pink skunk clowns. You received the baby blue hippo tangs at $12.40 per fish and I paid for shipping on the initial order. When Robin originally called to place the order she was under the misconception that they were $20 a piece. I let her know that their was a better price. I don't try to cheat anybody.

I had a lot of requests for these fish and that is the reason I tried to sell them. It didn't work out. They're really cute but too young. I no longer sell them because of their mortality rate in shipping. I take responsibility for letting one order be comprised of 19 of them. I had them for about a month online and no longer sell them because of their high mortality rate in shipping.

You are misinformed about missing a ship date. I missed no ship date. Robin informed me that she was going on vacation and that is the reason the ship date was pushed back. I didn't sell any out from under you but had to make other replacements. As I said, I no longer sell them because of their mortality rate in shipping.

The total value of the shipment was replaced and the baby blues which were not replaced were replaced by other livestock at a discounted price. The person that I was dealing with in the group purchase sent me an email the day after the replacement shipment thanking me.

As a hobbyist, it is remarkable to me that people could take such an attitude. The fish you ordered are exceptionally fragile. You got them at a very fair price. All I can do is make good on my guarantee and that is what I did.

[BrianD]

redrunblue and vthondaboi,

This isn't the place to hash this out. Please take your discussion elsewhere.

BrianD
Staff
Reef Central

[ReefHotSpot]

BrianD,

Sir, I don't disagree with you about this not being the right place. I am new to reefcentral. But, if somebody takes to using words like "shady" in regards to my company, I will respond because I am honest man and this is an honest company.
Isn't that fair?

Regards,
Max
ReefHotSpot.com

[ta_billy]

Achilles Tang...difficult to acclimate, but not impossible. However, if he/she does acclimate, plan on this fish being the boss of your 135gal.

IMO, only the Clown Tang is more agressive.

Very cool fish, but beware!

[mjdlonghorn]

vthondaboi
Stop pouting about a few dead fish. I know from experience that bably blue tangs are fragile. I think the marinedepotlive website even says that they dont guarantee a live arrival. Your experience is trivial and I am seeing way too many posters try to get others to refuse to do business with merchants because of a single grievance. This is becoming so common I feel like I have to call you out on it. I have spent $100+ on a clown tang that just refused to acclimate. Its just bad luck.