Most Trusted Fish Source

Alex Bonanno

Well-Known Member
BRS Member
What is everyone's most trusted fish source? LFS or online? I, unfortunately, have no room in my apartment for a quarantine system. I want to add a few new fish to my tank but want to reduce the risk of adding any diseases or parasites to the system as much as I can.

Any recommendations?

Alex
 
I like to buy local. I’ve had great success from love the reef. But when I want something on line I’ve used saltwaterfish.com with great success. Good luck
 
TSM aquatics out of New Jersey does quarantine as well. The fish have been great with good communication from the owner. Divers Den has been hit or miss over the years (for me).
 
TSM aquatics out of New Jersey does quarantine as well. The fish have been great with good communication from the owner. Divers Den has been hit or miss over the years (for me).
Thank you For the recommendation. I checked out their website. They seem pretty legit surprised I haven’t heard of them before.
 
Reefs4less, Humblefish Aquatics both of these vendors quarantine there stock as well and at a better budget than marinecollectors.com .

That said I would check LFS first maybe would work with you to hold it for a week?
 
I would check out the new BRS sponsor All Things Aquatic, in Foxboro.
Kevin and his crew are great people, and they have one awesome set up over there, especially for Fish. I was in there a few weeks ago and was very impressed with his set up. Tons and tons of UV, and all the Fish I saw looked super clean and healthy. Well worth the trip from anywhere. I know I will be making it often, even if it's just to drool into the shark pool
 
I am biased and will say support your LFS, but there are a lot of really good options out there. Especially if you are willing to pay for it. Regardless of whether you go LFS or online, focus on transparency. With a LFS it is fairly certain that you can walk in an scrutinize every detail of care and ask questions. I would imagine it would be fairly simple to request video from a good online vendor now too. Equally important as to the care and QT procedures of the vendor is to make sure that the vendor is using reputable resources for their livestock. You want to make sure that your specimens were responsibly and sustainably collected. Not all wholesalers and diver/collectors are equal and your LFS or online shop should be stocking their tanks based on quality not price imo
 
The most risk free source for fish is from someone you know that had it for awhile or another member who has the fish for awhile. That's as safe as it can get. However, you'll probably end up with fish that nobody wants or keep waiting until you're out of the hobby.
I get my fish from many sources including LFS, LiveAquaria, NYaquatics, PacificInland, Aquatic Collection, etc. None of them is perfect if you ordere enough times. Sometime it's out of their control.
I look forward to order from AmongtheReef one day.
 
Many great suggestions above.

My take of fish, (well, I no longer carry fish in my shop due to limited space) is that no matter how reputable an online fish vendor is, the shipping stress kills.

Most fish if not all, carry bacteria, virus, parasites, just like human, when their immune systems are strong, infections are kept at bay. Once the fish is stressed, the infections take over.

I am not saying QT is useless, it is just scientifically invalid for bacteria and virus infection (for parasites such as ich, your milage is vary). Actually bacteria and virus infections on fish are as common as visible parasite infections such as ich, you just don’t see it. I am very confident on this as I used to work on infectious diseases.

One may say, I follow strict QT protocols and my fish are very healthy. But I have over a hundred fish and most of them are over 10 to 15 years old. Some died from old age. And, I never QT them. I should go grab a beer (or napalm) with PaulB, with social distancing of course.

So the bottom line is, stress kills. No matter how long the vendor QT the fish.

Think about this way, many fish are “QT “ for years in the ocean, and they still have 90% chance to die in the pet trade. Also, the chance of a fish to catch an infection is far lower in the ocean than in a fish tank, because in the ocean, they practice social distancing...

What I am saying here is: go to your local fish stores. Look at the fish before you buy. If the fish look healthy, it may already get over the shipping stress and as long as you provide a good home for it, nutrition wise, tank size wise, and no freaking jerks like a 6 line wrasse, you will have much better success.
 
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For example, one time I ordered a batch of yellow tangs from a supplier and they shipped the fish in small bags of water to save on shipping, (they were trying to save me money, as a retailer normally pay for shipping). I lost half of them in one week. I asked the supplier to ship another batch and asked them to bag each fish in a gallon of water. It was 100% survival rate and these batch of yellow tangs are still swimming in my tanks today.
 
Thank you everyone. I really appreciate all the advice and recommendations. I do agree that shipping stress kills. I did have one incident that I added one fish I ordered online to a system and all the fish broke out with brooklynella. The whole thing really scarred me from introducing new fish into an established system with healthy fish. I checked out OSA’s new store this weekend and they said they run copper on all their fish systems so I’m sure that helps. Marine collectors seems like a really good option but they aren’t currently taking any orders.
 
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