Purchasing Discus Online...

[mswagnon]

Hey all,
 
Currently where I live there are not a lot of places that have discus, and it isn't very often that they have them in the first place. They also do not carry a wide variety; I have only seen Red Turquoise in my area and Blue Turquoise. I also have no way of going outside of the area to look for Discus in other areas without the trip taking too long and me worrying whether or not the fish would make it home (I have no car, would have to take the commuter rail everywhere and walk, would take hours).
 
I was wondering what everyone's thoughts are on getting Discus from online sites, if there is one particular site someone would recommend, and maybe experiences from buying Discus online. I am highly hesitant as most sites I have found only guarantee live arrival with no warranty or anything after the first two hours of arrival. 
 
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sawickib]

I can offer little help here as I do not keep discus or order them, however i have bought quite a few fish on the internet. One you will always want to search around for the dealers reputation among the fish keeping community. Another good option even though it costs more is to do overnight shipping, esp. with such sensitive fish. I always have to buy most of my fish over the internet because their so rare, but i rarely have had problems and the buyer always backed me up, your best bet is to find a good dealer and know they have a good reputation, if your hesitant as to whether the fish will get to you alive or not, just think those discus at your local fish store were in a very stressful tank full of other discus and then shipped out pretty stress-fully aswell most likely without not being fed for 48 hours, buying from breeders is usually in excellent conditions and most people pack fish very well, but thats where checking their reputation comes in handy.