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i couldn't believe it when i heard that people buy fish over the internet. i couldn't believe it more when i heard that the fish actually survive the journey. i'm in victoria australia and found a guy (www.lewisdiscus.com) in northern queensland who these prize winning discus. He ships them across the country and sometimes to other countries and they survive. how does it work? I want some discus but it feels cruel to put them in a box, on a plane and in a van until it gets to my door. Wouldn't the water cool down and harm the fish. Don't the boxes get thrown around and dropped? I'm a little baffled by this concept.

I've bought fish from many places. I've had fish shipped to me (Michigan) from Texas, Georgia, and Tennessee. I've only ever bought common fish (tetras, rasboras, otos, corys) from LFS. Anything else I get from a good breeder. Most fish from stores can't compete.

For CA/SA, I agree Jeff Rapps at www.tangledupincichlids.com has the best fish. Most of his get larger (5+). Dave Soares, Ray McCaleb, and Neil (I forgot his last name he is contacted at www.apistogramma.com) have some of the most beautiful dwarf cichlids you'll find.

If you want african cichlids and aren't afraid of shipping costs ($50) and want some high quality fish go to Armke's Rare Fish online. I got my F1 Ps. Saulosi from him and they are great.

Simpkia -

Do the boxes get dropped etc? Yes! I ordered some fish from the south of england once, they only had an overnight journey of about 350 miles. When the courier guy arrived and needed me to sign for them, despite having 'Live Fish' stickers all over - the box got thumped right on the ground! I was so stunned I was speechless, and just wanted to get the fish inside. Told the chap they had come from and he was quite annoyed and said he would say something to the company. But sometimes, fish seem to be quite resilient and tough, maybe its those who are not weakened generally by mass inbreeding.. I don't know.

x

Simpkia,

It all depends in Australia. My LFS actually goes down to Customs every week and picks what he's buying from the quarantine tanks of the importers.

Must ask him how they are shipped in. But thinking that since a lot of our stocks come from Asian fish farms they could come either plane or boat in special shipping containers.

In response to the initial topic of this thread.... I've had excellent communication and luck with AquariumFish.net, but my all time favorite online breeder is Paul at BiloxiBettas.com --- VERY INFORMATIVE, FRIENDLY AND HONEST!!!!! The only drawback is you'd have to be interested in Bettas ---- but luckily I am!!!!

To thine own self be true...

simpkia - originally I hadn't thought about it either, but just happened to be at my LFS one day when the FedEx man arrived with many a package

Now that we have the articles on how to ship, let's do it. I'm going to start a thread in the classifieds to see who wants to trade what.

Whatchagot? Mike

For SA/CA cichlids go to http://www.tangledupincichlids.com]http://www.tangledupincichlids.com[/link] For rainbowfish go to [link=http://www.thatfishshop.com/]http://www.thatfishshop.com/[/link] and for good pleco's go to [link=http://www.anthonystropicalfish.com/

Hope this helps

tetra hedral - i guess i'd never even thought about it. i assumed it was from more local distributors though, not across the country or the world! I thought that perhaps my local fish store in the suburbs would get their fish from the city for example. Anyway, I guess I'm a little bit wiser now! Thanks for the info!

Those links are pretty good, but there is something I'd like to change about them. In the first link they say that blowing air into the bag will kill your fish. That is completely untrue. We breath in about 21% oxygen, and breath out 16%, so blowing up a bag with your own breath would work fine. Of course, it is always better to do it the "proper" way, but if you can't, there's always that alternative.

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They shade the glow of it with their mossy-misty costumes,
They wear masks of silk, porcelain, brass, and silver,
So as not to mislead with their own, ordinary faces.

I've ordered fish online a number of times with no problems. I purchased from [link=AquariumFish.net]http://www.aquariumfish.net/index.html" style="COLOR: #FFCC66[/link] and [link=LiveAquaria.com]http://www.liveaquaria.com/" style="COLOR: #FFCC66[/link].

With Aquabid you're dealing with individual sellers, so shipping methods can vary. Online stores like those I mentioned and others have minimum purchase requirements and/or high shipping costs.

Here are a couple articles on shipping your own fish:

[link=http://fins.actwin.com/nanf/month.9806/msg00282.html]http://fins.actwin.com/nanf/month.9806/msg00282.html" style="COLOR: #FFCC66[/link]

[link=http://www.petfish.net/ship_fish.htm]http://www.petfish.net/ship_fish.htm" style="COLOR: #FFCC66[/link]

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

I hate to shock you, but how else would most LFS around the world obtain their stocks of fish?

Does anyone know of any good places to buy fish online? I was thinking about doing a fishless cycle for a new tank and (as far as I can tell from research), I can add all my fish at once.? I thought getting the fish online would ensure that I could get fish that I couldn't get from around here and since I would be getting them all at once, I could save on shipping. Any ideas? Am I completely off with this fishless cycling thing? Thanks in advance!

If I understand correctly the idea of a fishless cycle is to make the bacteria colony large enough that you can add all your fish at once. You keep the ammonia high so that the bacteria colony grows larger than what you need. There sould be no ammonia spike.

Mike

Even doing a fishless cycle I wouldn't add all the fish at once. You would most likely have a huge amonia spike. You need to add just a few fish at a time to let the bacteria keep pace with the load.

Oxygen can't be used in the bags containg anabantoids (sp?), corys, plecs etc that utilize atmospheric oxygen. The same principles as to why divers do not have compressed oxygen in their tanks.

What about the plane trip? Would the temp in the cargo hold not be extremely low?

-Greg

They also fill the bag with pure Oxygen not just plain old air. You need a styrofoam lined box to keep the temp stable.

Mike

I'm not exactly sure since I've never done it, but this is what I've read. You don't feed the fish for a couple days beforehand (to reduce wast in the bag). Then you bag them up, using a large bag mostly filled with air. Then you pack the bag up in the box with peanuts or something similar (to keep the fish from moving around too much). You will also need to you heat/cold packs if necessary.

Also, if possible, persuade the customer to use the fastest method. This will be more expensive, but a lot better for the fish. Most sellers don't even guarantee the fish unless overnight/express shipping is used.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

how do you package fish for shipping if you want to sell fish over aquabid???