Live Aquaria

[4Fish]

I have been ordering dry goods/equipment from Dr. Fosters Smith for years with great success. Today I received my first attempt at ordering live from a vendor. I give my experience a B-. Two fish DOA, and boy did those bags smell. Live aquaria gave me a full refund for those two fish, no questions asked. 5 other fish never arrived although they were indicated as being in stock. Not sure I will do this again, but Live Aquaria really stands by their guarantee. Just thought I would share. Also, all boxes received by 10:00am which was pretty cool

 

[NYCEnglish]

That sounds pretty bad to me - you're generous with your B- rating!

 

[Josh]

That's somewhat unusual. I've never had an issue with LA shipping livestock.

 

[poolguy]

live aquaria has always been a+. very unusual any fish arrived doa. i'm expecting

10 1/2 inch triple\tale maori on tusday.

 

[timberwolfny]

depends on what you get divers den for me was always perfect. California warehouse 50/50

 

[BrooklynReefer]

Divers Den is usually very reliable, although (like with many sites online) the colors of corals in their pictures can be a bit over saturated (especially in the blue category). I had one issue where I ordered a zoa colony, and they sent a comparable colony but not the one pictured. At first I was annoyed, but the one they sent had an extra sps hitchhiker that I turned out to like a lot so I let it go.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

I've only ordered clean-up crews from LA, but they have always been great with their guarantees...credits for even a single dead hermit or snail...which you will always get in a shipment. Still, I've never gotten more than one DOA out of the many snails, etc I'll get in an order.

 

[marrone]

LA guarantees are great, no questions asked on DOA and if you do get something that has a problem, isn't eating, ich or another diseases, they'll extend the 14 day guarantee if you let them know. The only problem that I've had is when I've order regular stuff off of the website, not the DD. A number of times I was sent the wrong fish, though on the DD I did have them sent me the wrong coral once.

 

[petraio]

i Order from them years ago when I belive they first start ! a flame angel was so bad of ich looked like had fallen in salt!! and coulnd't shale it off ! but i had friend on this forum that have gotten great looking fish from DD ! i just feel that prices on DD are way way too high!!

 

[d5332]

Live Aquaria is nothing but the absolute best site on the internet for fish.

If I could print my purchase history from them, its extensive.

They have never ever shipped me the wrong stuff.
Have never questioned me on deaths.
Have never on deaths.
Has never sent sick fish, or at least visually confirmable sick fish.

So lets get this straight, you ordered from Live Aquaria, some fish died for whatever reason and they gave you your money back no questions asked????!!!!!!!!!!!

A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Please try doing the same with your local petstore or a few other online retailers and let us know how it goes

 

[BrooklynReef]

Live Aquaria is nothing but the absolute best site on the internet for fish.

If I could print my purchase history from them, its extensive.

They have never ever shipped me the wrong stuff.
Have never questioned me on deaths.
Have never on deaths.
Has never sent sick fish, or at least visually confirmable sick fish.

So lets get this straight, you ordered from Live Aquaria, some fish died for whatever reason and they gave you your money back no questions asked????!!!!!!!!!!!

A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Please try doing the same with your local petstore or a few other online retailers and let us know how it goes

Am I not reading this correctly? 7 fish were ordered, 2 came dead, 5 didnt ever come. And you think they deserve a
'A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++'. Wow. Crazy.

 

[lnevo]

Your not reading it correctly...the guy with the dead fish gave them a b- because of how they addressed the situation...then someone else gave a+++ based on his experience..

 

[d5332]

I have dealt with Live Aquaria a lot and know that they keep a flawless online inventory and they have amazing customer service.

Its an A+ and will always be an A+

Anyone that has dealt with SaltwaterFish.com or some of the other legacy sites can relate.

Lnevo, your interpretation is 100% accurate.

I would love to be able to buy all my corals from Live Aquaria as well, maybe I would get my money back for the wall hammer i picked up last week that is not looking so good today, I will not even bother calling the store I bought it from....

 

[Geraud]

Liveaquaria are indeed very serious. Ordered a bunch of things I could not find locally.

On one of the shipments, one of the bags got pinched, and since it was an SPS frag (luckily not something super rare), it was floating upside down with its foot attached to a piece of styrofoam. This meant that because of the pinching, the coral traveled outside of the water.

I acclimated to give it a chance, but it started RTN'ing to the point of no return (90% gone the first evening). I called them and explained the situation, they refunded me right away. Nothing to send, neither pictures nor dead coral.

It made a sad situation way less stressful.

 

[LBC]

The 'Premium Select' Fiji (45lb box) I received last week, arrived barren of any coralline nor life whatsover. It's 'curing in a 50gal tub, except, theres no smell, nothing dying off. To me, its dry/shelf rock that was kept in water locally here in Cali, then shipped to me overnight. It was on 'sale' for $70, but they charged me another $70 for shipping 5 mile away (I'm in LBC, they shipped out of Gardena!)

I called to arrange return and they said instead to wait 30 days until it 'colors up'.

Yeah right. I won't hold my breath. Luckily, I have contacted my credit card and they will chargeback, except I do have to ship the rock back which is such a burden and unneccesary cost to me.. which means in retribution I'll also file a complaint with BBB regardingly them lying - the Live Aquaria description of their Premium Select states 70-90% coralline encrustment on each rock on at least one side. This rock has no coralline whatsoever. Don't even see any dehydrated/bleached coralline on it.

 

[Geraud]

Do you know how coralline looks like? Because they might be right... When I received my rocks (not from Liveaquaria), they were purplish then lost color during the cycle. Then back to super colorful. So unless you know what you are looking for, sometimes it is easy to miss that a rock is covered in Coralline.

As for life, look with a lamp at night. In a couple of weeks you should start to see copepods, amphipods, worms etc.


If not, well then ok, go ahead and file.

 

[LBC]

Yes as I stated, I have enough experience relocating multiple times to across the states (til finally settled here, well until i relocate overseas=).. and dealing with the dehydrated bleached look coralline takes once unsubmerged

My fond memories of dealing with lots upon lots of cured rock in the past, back in the good old days of reefing when companies actually weren't just doing it desperate for the $$$, would get rocks not just with lots of coralline but with big patches of of the much rarer orange coralline which would be thicker and grow slower, but so neat!

Now having sold all my livestock and starting fresh, have to face the reality of what companies have turned to: taking progressively more and more shortcuts.

LiveAquaria bragged how their rock, unlike most of sellers', is not transhipped but instead flown into the USA, and it doesn't sit on a boat for weeks and weeks on end like the other unscrupulous live rock dealers. I can indeed fathom a time, years ago, when they actually did live up to their boasting. But something happened at some point, where they're just too busy or whatever to update the fact that they have resorted to the boats and their Premium Select is no longer premium select - maybe premium select dry/shelf rock that has been pre-hydrated, at best.

 

[Geraud]

Really sorry then.

In my case I ordered my rock from Premium Aquatics. It was "Bali Alor" (they do not seem to have that anymore). Amazing shapes, very good coralline (in many colors) and to top it off... I noticed a bunch of polyps here and there. Exposed to the light, they turned into a sizeable green paly colony (each head is the size of the quarter) and a zoas colony (green center, brown tentacles).

 

[LBC]

Now, thats even what Fiji used to look like!

I was just lured in by LiveAquaria boasting 70-90% coverage on each rock, and that the boxes of rock are flown in from fiji by air. Had I know they were blatantly lying, I would have never bothered to change my favorite sources since, heck, over 10 years ago.

And where might that be? Why, AquaticTech & Jeffs Exotic Fish. Dont know if they're both still around, wouldnt be surprised if they sunk in overhead since they were so reasonable and delivered the real think, not bait and switch like Live Aquaria.

From what I remember, the best rock I got was still in the transhipper's box and Gary?/Jeff had coordinated to ship the same day picked up the boxes from internation air cargo. Those were the days.. the rock used to be full of coco worms, sps(!), macros, crabs, various sponges, small clams, and the multiple mantis/pistol shrimp per box! Now from what I see, all of those hitchhikers are a think of the past.

And I dont even mind not having all those hitchikers we used to get. But, at least some , a couple a few, one?!? This shipment had none (did the 1.030 test) and what's worst, at very least its supposed to have coralline, which helps 'clean the water'.. and live rock not having it, is: dry/branch rock.

Why is this happening? Why am I judging the state of the entire industry on just one box? Well, I'm not I'm just acknowledging its a sign of the times; that fact is the live rock is growing at a rate some 30%/year in most recent years.. which means it is mostly likely unsustainable yet sellers due to competition and volume, continue to slap premium/select labels on any box of rock perhaps randomly just tofill an order these days.

 

[LBC]

^BTW live rock growing = I mean the industry, that is