Are Mail Order Fish Ok?

[pkppv]

My local fish stores are very very very very very lacking of diversity, and its really hard to ever get any fish that i want. Does any one have any experience with mail ordering fish online? Is it safe? reliable?

 

[Juggler75]

Depends on sellers, where are you based and maybe people will be able to recommend some.

 

[pkppv]

connecticut, US

 

[Mikaila31]

Depends a lot on sellers. Shipping fish is expensive though. Priority or 3 day costs about $15 and next day is around $20-30.

Anubias design is a good importer that is fairly close to you. His site is down ATM for some reason though. He also tends to slow down in the winter since its harder to ship fish with the weather so cold. Franksaquarium.com I think is in the north eastern US too. Kinda depends what kinda fish you are looking for...

 

[tmh0921]

I recently ordered some from wetspottropicalfish.com and they arrived in perfect condition. They were well packed in an insulated box, with a heat pack, and even had a portion of mature filter sponge in the bags with the fish. Their sales guy was VERY accommodating. They are in the US (I had mine shipped to GA). This is my third mail order experience with 2 out of 3 being positive. I'd ask around and get recommendations (not from reviews on sellers website, they can be misleading). I had one seller who was TERRIBLE...shipped me two dwarf cichlids with ich....I lost them and had to treat my whole tank. I got my replacements from this place and they were top notch. They have a pretty good selection of tank bred and wild caught fish.

 

[the_lock_man]

I can't recommend any specific sellers, since I'm in the UK, but in general, yes it's safe, providing the seller packages the fish right.

They need to be double-bagged, well insulated with polystyrene and I would expect a heat pack in summer, and 2 in autumn and spring. Once you get into the depths of winter, then a decent seller will refuse to ship via anywhere that's cold. I would always pay extra for a guaranteed next-day service.

 

[tmh0921]

Yeah, most good sellers require next day delivery and refuse to ship in temperature extremes.

 

[pkppv]

Thanks guys!