Livestock Online Purchasing "Expensive"

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tenwhiteduke

New member
Why purchase online?? Unless you dont have access to a good LFS.

I have been searching online comanies for livestock, and it seems that all of them are extremely expensive, either there price is low and they tack on a high shipping cost, or they include shipping and the cost of the livestock is almost double. I dont understand why anyone would purchase from them, unless you dont have access to a LFS, or searching for something they dont have.

Any comments on this???
 
From what I have seen it is the opposite. Every LFS within an hour wants ATLEAST $6.99/lb and the rock is junk. Other places want $8.99/lb. Online it is easy to find some uncured rock for $2/lb and shipping tack on $1.50/lb for shipping so that makes $3.50/lb. Not bad at all if you ask me. You can get cured Fiji Rock from Live Aquaria for $5/lb and that is with shipping included. How much is the live rock where you are from? I would imagine its probably pretty cheap down there.
 
i guess it just comes down to preference. there are a lot of different kinds of live rock. fiji is dense. marhsall is not. etc.
 
PremiumAquatics.com, LiveAquaria.com, TampaBaySaltwater.com, ReeferMadness.com are all decent rock suppliers. I've heard good stuff many a time about the PremiumAquatics rock.

As for corals and fish? Unless you have a good LFS in your area (and probably more than one), you can find more variety online. For instance, my area only has one very good store with SPS (YourReef in Roseville).
 
Maybe lots of people live in my predicament where the nearest saltwater fish store is a five hour one way trip with no guarentees if they die on the way home.
 
I think online vendors used to be alot more reasonable and you could get some good deals on larger orders to cancel out the shipping cost. Now prices are high everywhere and I love the sites that make you pay 10.00 for a box and charge you for heatpacks as well. I just don't order from them.

The real puzzler is with propagation methods most of the corals they are selling are sm frags not wild caught colonies and the prices are now 2 times what they used to charge for whole colony a few years back. I find many reefers who frag there corals are also now asking near to LFS prices.

If everyone refused to pay those insane prices they would start dropping.
 
We only have three LFS in the area and to be honest not a single one is what I would call good. The only one that has decent saltwater fish has the tiniest selection imaginable. The other two....well unless you like ich on your fish. ;)
I just prefer to stay away.
Other than that or taking an hours drive to the nearest city, ordering online is the only other option for us.:(
 
I've always had good luck and saved money on the items I did order online over the LFS, especially dry goods...
 
Depends on your location.

LR-wise - I wouldn't buy more without being able to hand-pick it.
Perhaps I can get it far cheaper or half-price ... but I'd rather not look at LR-cannonballs for the next decade of reefkeeping :)
 
I agree it depends on location. The first post was from a guy in Florida. I'm sure you can get much better live rock at a much cheeper price down there. Up here in the north east the live rock is expencive and has very little life on it. I ordered mine online for about the same price as the LFS up here and got much more life on the rock for about the same price. Depends on where you live.
 
I have bought quite a bit of live stock on-line; fish, inverts and rock. We have 2 LFS - 1 is good and the other sucks. The selection on-line far outweighs anything I can find locally. I bought my jawfish and catalina goby from liveaquaria - they are my favorite fish - I have never seen either one locally. The 14 day arrive alive guarantee is a big selling point.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9523256#post9523256 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tenwhiteduke
I meant fish, inverts, corals, not LR.
Click to expand...

I'm an idiot, I totally misread your post. Sorry bout that
 
I agree, it depends on where you live. We're lucky to have one good LFS in our area, but other than that, only chain stores (PetSmart and PetCo). Before our LFS opened, we would have had to drive at least an hour to find a reasonable store, more like two to have a good selection.

I try to support my LFS as much as possible, because I know if they go out of business, I'm in trouble for livestock.
 
I have 3 LFS local to me and the variety is seldom any good. Plus many online vendors actually guarantee there livestock. The LFS don't guarantee anything usually once it's left the store. And if you get in on a group buy with friends you can split the shipping which makes it real nice.... expecially when the livestock comes right to your door step.
 
Even with shipping I've found online gives you a better variety and a much better cost, alot of us just don't have a good store locally, or should I say a fair store....
 
I should reiterate that I have 1 good LFS locally. Even though I buy allot on-line, I always spend at least 30% - 50% of my budget at the good LFS. I want to see them stay in business so I spend as much as I can there each month. They will trade frags for store credit and the help deserves a raise. If they have it - or can get it, I try to buy from them. But If I keep asking and they still can't get it in I buy on-line.
 
OK, location, availability and quality. I get it. Yes I live in FL, and yes i do have a very good LFS near by. I have found a couple more, but have not been to them yet. There prices are cheaper than that online, just about everything, and the quality is fantastic. He does guarantee his livestock, and yes I dont have a rediculous shipping fee of $45 to tack on plus box and heating pad. Plus I get to hand pick everthing I want. I guess I am spoiled, and have only been at this for 10 days now. Sorry!!
 
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