Why buy live inhabitants online?

[Greaps]

Double Post

 

[Greaps]

I live in S. Florida, which has a ton of LFSes. None I have been too have a great selection of every single thing you would want. Some are good for cheap starter frags, some are good for fish, some for great deals on inverts, I really haven't seen many that have a great selection of SPS frags like WWC or BC. I honestly get better SPS frags from other reefers locally than from any LFS I've been too. I use different places (in store or online) for different things.

Also, it's easier to sit on the couch and shop for corals, and I'm guessing most people save up a bit and reach the limit for free shipping.

Whats your recommendation for cheap starter corals in South Miami? I'm in Palmetto Bay, my go to LFS on US1 and 144th seems to be struggling and has less and less stock.

 

[West1]

Why do you pay shipping? Order through diver's den and shipping is free over $99. Also, i trust them first and foremost. They quarantine there fish and corals for a minimum of 30 days. LFS do not. Before you all say quarantine yourself, I do! I rather a quarantine tank just be observation tank not an actual treatment tank!! Never have gotten anything sick from diver's den. many sick fish from LFS's. Not worth the risk.

I would never also buy anything from a online seller that I did not trust like e-bay.

Can you post a link to Diver'sDen?

I have never purchased online before also due to shipping fees... have been considering

 

[AquariumSpecialty]

We offer free overnight shipping on livestock for orders above $200.00. Our selection is growing every week. Many people are not aware (yet) that you can purchase dry goods and livestock from us on the same order with free shipping on both if you purchase $200.00 in livestock and $99.00 in dry goods. One stop shop for your aquarium needs...

Link to our livestock section...

http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/care-and-maintenance/aquarium-specialty-live

 

[hart24601]

Hey all,

I'm not new to the fish keeping hobby; about 10 years experience, mixed freshwater and saltwater. One thing that I have never done and cannot figure out why anyone would is buy animals online. Not because they aren't good quality or anything like that, but I can never justify the shipping cost.

So, I guess I'm curious to hear from all of you out there who do buy online, why?

I cannot justify buying a $30 fish or coral and spending the additional $30-50 in overnight shipping when I can drive 2-3 hours and go to an LFS and get it for roughly the same price, plus $10-15 in gas, maybe less.

I also ask this because I've considered starting my own coral and fish breeding in my garage and I've been told time and again that "online fish stores will bottom you out, no one can beat their prices". I also see a lot of negativity towards starting up new LFS's because of online sales. I can understand this for dry goods (food, etc.) but live animals? How? I'm just not understanding this from an economic perspective, given the shipping costs.

So...opinions? Thoughts?

Thanks!

As I am sure several people pointed out already, here are my reasons:

• Places like Live Aquaria run special where shipping is free over $100 (just last week)
• My LFS is FAR more expensive than online - at least 2x, sometimes more
• The LFS here have real issues with disease in their tanks - I have counted a dozen or more dead and dying fish
• All three LFS locally have no guarantee with salt water coral or fish. LA has 14 day and on their captive raised coral 30 day (!) stay alive guarantee
• More selection online - the stores sometimes get ORA coral, but nothing else aquacultured

I try and buy from my local stores, but they make it hard. I still give them plenty of my money, even though I just bought purigen from them and it was 2.5x more than from amazon. Even for dry goods, there is not a single place within 3hr that sells ecotech, AI, maxspect, vertex and so on. All pretty much hydor powerheads and marineland strip LED lights. The entire expanded metro area is around 1 million people in central Iowa and we don't have a single store that has the above.

 

[Radman73]

When I lived in Atlanta I had a couple excellent stores near my work place. They were worth the drive on the weekends too. Quality livestock and good to excellent advice. One even had a decent QT process. Prices were on par with online pricing. I always tried to support them, even paying more for certain items as, in the grand scheme of this hobby, $20 here of $20 there really doesn't mean that much.

Having moved to the Orlando area, the only store I've been to is WWC. None are exactly close to me but neither were the Atlanta stores. Hopefully soon, now that the new DT has water, I can start making the rounds and seeing if any are worth the effort.

I have bought from LA. One fish made it, the other died a few days into observational QT. It seemed stressed from the beginning unfortunately. LA handled it exceptionally well of course, and that kind of service shouldn't be overlooked. Like others, the convenience of selection online is almost unparalleled locally for the vast majority of us. How many LFS would I need to visit to find 3-5 specific animals? That said, LFS' are invaluable in that rare occasion where you need something immediately for an emergency. And I don't want to ever lose that resource.

So, I'll probably mix in who I buy from. For MAP items I might as well buy local. Yes, I could get rewards points but building a relationship with a LFS can have value as well. I buy online for convenience, not necessarily just price. As for corals, I always bought those from fellow reefers or at frag swaps. Might dip into an online vendor at some point as I start to hunt for nicer specimens.

 

[Greybeard]

We offer free overnight shipping on livestock for orders above $200.00. Our selection is growing every week.

Never purchased livestock from you, but I bought some plumbing parts from you for my current system. Was very happy with the price, selection, and service. I'll be shopping here again.

 

[Greybeard]

My new tank is up and running, finally ready to add fish... I'll be visiting the LFS on Saturday, pick up a few common critters... juvenile Scopas or Tomani tang, maybe a rabbitfish. Eventually, I want a male/female pair of Genicanthus angelfish... not positive yet which species, probably Lamarck (maybe Bellus). In any case, I'm highly likely to order these online. The pair is likely to be priced so that shipping is included, and ordering them through a LFS is likely to be _far_ more expensive.

Corals? I'm planning a trip to TL Reefs. It's several hours away. I'm hoping that a guy that walks in with a short stack of hundred dollar bills will be able to get a price break

 

[DH-Reef]

Can you post a link to Diver'sDen?

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/index.cfm?

Most of my orders of both fish and corals comes from Live Aquaria (California) and their Diver's Den (Wisconsin). Like I mentioned earlier in this thread, you can mix your order between locations and still get free shipping from both, as long as your total order is over the free shipping requirement amount. I've had nothing but great experience with them and highly recommend them.

 

[MT. Reefer]

Just purchased 9 zoa frags from a fellow reefer on R2R... can't get 9 rare zoa frags from any LFS near me.

Living in NW Montana certainly has it's drawbacks in this hobby. Nothing here is easy to come by at a reasonable price. I would love to buy better zoa frags from someone on R2R but haven't seen anyone offering.
I just received my first fish order from Live Aquaria and it was the best online purchase I've made. I bought a small yellow tang, Copperband Butterfly, 2 red scooters and a few trochus snails. Shipped free at $104.00
My copperband is eating frozen mysis and I bought some "Ocean Nutrition" fish only formula frozen food. The Copperband attacks this stuff and I know first hand how hard it can be to get CBB's to eat.
Everything I received was in great condition.
Corals on the other hand....from most venders on line runs$40.00 to $50.00 to ship a few frags???

 

[Scorpius]

You can find overnight shipping cheaper than $50. UniqueCoral is $19. Lets be honest about this. Overnight shipping can get expensive, but when you realize what it takes to get something cross country you can't complain.

 

[littlebigreef]

Its been interesting reading the responses on this thread.

I shop online because I try to buy as much aquacultured corals as possible. Further, I feel that people who cultivate and grow coral should be rewarded for being good custodians. (My primary area of interest is zoas and sps so I have a lot of leeway here.) At the end of the day I know that aquacultured corals have half the problems and twice the resilience of wild collected animals.

As for fish I'm lucky to be in the Chicagoland area and have access to several top tier LFS. That said, if I do order something from Liveaquaria I know that its a very short chain of custody between the ocean and my aquarium.

 

[puffy127]

...1. A few of the online vendors do a better QT than many LFS. Some even do prazipro, TTM and condition the fish which cuts down QT time for me....

Which vendors do TTM?

 

[saltyhog]

I don't know of any on line vendors that do a true quarantine. I too would be interested to know who actually does that. Even DD encourages the customer to quarantine their fish.

 

[the_reef_keeper]

I personally buy fish (expecially more difficult to keep fish) online just for the 14 day guarantee in case something goes wrong..

 

[AquariumSpecialty]

I don't know of any on line vendors that do a true quarantine. I too would be interested to know who actually does that. Even DD encourages the customer to quarantine their fish.

Hello saltyhog, We quarantine everything. We even dip our corals if we move them from one tank to another...even though we haven't seen a pest in months. Call it paranoia but when you have as much invested as we do then it makes sense. For our fish we just started making our own medicated fish food. We also use UV.

In the past we used copper with mixed results and I'm hoping with the new food and UV we can avoid using copper all together. So far it's working. If we ever have to isolate a fish then we have the ability to do that also. I image that some online stores quarantine their fish but I'm not sure.

 

[Doubbler]

I have them hold all my purchases till the box is full

 

[saltyhog]

Hello saltyhog, We quarantine everything. We even dip our corals if we move them from one tank to another...even though we haven't seen a pest in months. Call it paranoia but when you have as much invested as we do then it makes sense. For our fish we just started making our own medicated fish food. We also use UV.

In the past we used copper with mixed results and I'm hoping with the new food and UV we can avoid using copper all together. So far it's working. If we ever have to isolate a fish then we have the ability to do that also. I image that some online stores quarantine their fish but I'm not sure.

Good to know, I was mainly referring to fish however. I don't know anyone who truly quarantines fish....and if they did I would still quarantine them myself. Too much at stake and not that hard to do.

 

[FlamingGrapes]

I buy online frequently not only to get the livestock I want, but I have much better luck avoiding disease via the one or 2 online dealers I use. I have had a number of disease outbreaks over my 30 years that always come from the LFS (They are "good" LFSs). Even if the disease outbreak is in my quarantine tank, I lose the fish, have to run all the way back to the store (45 mins+), and risk spreading it to my other tanks. I just don't have the disease issues online. When a fish does died and is covered by the online store's guarantee, it is easier to get a refund verses a LFS.