[crushingmyself]

hello everyone do you know if its a good idea to order saltwater fish online and if so what company would you perfer thank you for your time

[Samper]

If I have to order fish online I prefer Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums but I'd rather see them in person if at all possible. I'm told by a secretary there that they do quarantine all fish for atleast 2 weeks. One week in Cu but I'm not sure at what level and another week in observation before being put up for sale. All in all I've ordered 9 fish from them for our reef club here and a bunch of inverts for cleanup crews. To be sure I still did a short quarantine before I handed them out and I'd advise you to do the same. I have had a good experience with them though.

[Clay12340]

Unless you live in an area very near to the ocean in which the fish was collected from any fish you buy has been shipped from some vendor or another and probably more than once. There are some very thorough instructions for acclimating and quarantining a new fish on this site that should probably be followed for any new tank acquisition purchased online or locally.

There are two big differences that concern me between ordering a fish online vs buying it locally. As Samper said you can't see that it is healthy and eating before purchasing, so there is a higher chance that you will be at the mercy of an unscrupulous seller. The other is that shipping something across the country is more stressful than moving an apparently healthy fish from a local store to your home.

Aside from those two issues there can be an issue of price. Fish need to be sent overnight and it is very expensive to ship them. If you were only purchasing one lower priced fish it would cost far more than asking your local shop to get one for you. If you were doing a group order and getting a half dozen rarer more expensive fish it is probably far cheaper to order them online.

I've only ordered one saltwater fish and it was from Saltwaterfish.com - Saltwater Fish, Saltwater Fish Aquariums, Tropical Fish, and Saltwater Fish Tanks. The fish was less than half the price of anyplace else online and the shipping was free, so I took a chance. The fish was and is still healthy, but the shrimp I ordered along with it came dead on arrival. They were true to their policy and refunded my money, so I can't complain about their service. However, take that with a grain of salt as one order is hardly enough to base your decision on.

I've ordered freshwater fish and inverts from www.liveaquaria and had great experiences each time, and have had the same success dealing with their equipment sales side as well. Although I've not dealt with their marine animal services I'd be willing to bet that they handle them very well.