Online Fish Stores

[Planeden]

I have always bought locally. I want some odder fish for my new setup. Anyone have advice on online retailers?

Thanks in advance.

[Brooks]

Dennis,

I would check out Live Aquaria - Diver's Den. That is an awesome place to buy quality fish and coral.

[Planeden]

Thanks, any others anyone has used?

[+Capt. Obvious]

+1 to liveaquaria (dr fosters and smith)

[jestep]

Is this specifically for fresh water?

In 9/10 of cases, I can't justify buying FW fish online. The exception is if I'm placing a large order or something that truly isn't carried in local shops. Otherwise Aqua dome and Aquatek and River city are my go to places. If you want discus or angels, I would make the trip to Houston Aquarium Warehouse - http://www.houstonaquariumwarehouse.com/ (Website is a bit slow right now).

Aqua bid is a great place for FW fish especially if you're looking for something rare. Live aquaria is excessively expensive for FW IMO.

[Planeden]

thanks jestep. it is for FW, but we are looking for some pretty specific fish. this will take several months if we quarintenne each purschase for weeks, so i will check LFS first as i go along. maybe if i talk to a LFS they will special order me something cheaper than online? i may be going to aquadome this evening, so i will take the list and see what they have/might get.

[Robb in Austin]

What are you looking for?

I'd def ask our sponsors about ordering.

The other option, but it's fairly specific, is Dave's Rare Aquarium fish down in SA; he's big into African cichlids. Tangled up in cichlids is another one, but he is more about Central and South Americans.

[Planeden]

Hey Robb, we went to aqua dome yesterday and talked to them. We will probably order through them if they don't have what we want. We decided we are going with a lot of smaller community fish in our 55 gallon sand bottom tank. Right now we have three silver dollars. The rest of the list is:

3 horseface loaches

1 viper shrimp (after making sure no one will eat him)

3 preacox rainbows (avaiable locally)

3 small rainbows (don't remember the name but also at aquadome)

6 long fin Golden white fin minnows

1 or 2 killifish (variety TBD, we like them all really. sometimes seen locally)

3 blue tetras (local)

I know it is a little over 70 inches of fish, but with our over filtration I am not concerned with bio load. I am a little concerned that we may be putting too many high tank fish in there, but I think they will figure it out. But we can eliminate, or change, fish as we go if we need to if the top is looking too crowded. And maybe swap out with our 20gal if some just don't get along. I think it will be a fun active tank.

The plan is to go to the LFS every few weeks and pick up something from the list. At the end, if there are ones we don't see in the tanks we will have them ordered through the store.

[Robb in Austin]

Disregard the "inch of fish per gallon" thing. A large Jack Dempsey cichlid, by that rule, would fit just fine in a 55 but from a practical standpoint it would have a hard time turning around.

I'm not familiar enough with any of those listed but I suspect they are all on the small size and will probably do just fine. As long as you have enough filtration setup that is. And adding a bit at a time is wise too. I'd start with the tetras and less aggressive ones first.

Post a pic once you're done!

[Planeden]

All of them are supposed to be peaceful. And they are all quite small. The shrimp may be the largest at close to six inches. But, the silver dollars could beat them. So, no one will have trouble maneuvering in this tank. I put the inches in there because many forums respond with that, sometimes rightfully so, but yeah, I know my filter can handle it. It will take a while to stock, though, waiting a couple of weeks per batch, assuming all are healthy. So, look for a picture in the next few months.