Anyone ever bought from Cichlids of the Americas?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
My favorite vendor to deal with. I've always had my orders shipped same day airport to airport. Dan's real easy to deal with and always ships real quick.

I've gotten 20+ fish from him and no casualties yet. always great quality fish.
 
I've had great service from Dan. All the fish I've received have been excellent quality. I just wish he didn't have the $100 minimum, but I understand his reasons for doing so.
 
One of the top guys to order from for sure. I have used him multiple times never been disappointed ever... He works hard to make sure if something happens it gets fixed immediately. He was always responsive and helpful. I would put him on the same level as Rapps or higher.

Drew
 
He's pretty good.
On my last order he even through in a free fish.
The only bad thing I have to say about him is that I ordered a female festae for my old male but I recieved another male that my male killed a week later.
 
Great guy to deal with and fish are good quality. Only issue I've had is that with my order with him, the fish were half the size he described. I basically got fry which was dissapointing.

I ordered 6 Loisellei @ 2", i got 8 at one inch.
I ordered 6 RTM's @ 1", they were like half an inch.

The real issue was that since they were so small, i couldn't even put them in the tank i had in mind because they would get eaten.

That experience makes it hard for me to want to place another order since I can't count on the size listed as being accurate. I'd much rather he told me before taking payment that the fish were small instead of sending me an email after he shipped the fish saying that he gave a few extra since they were a bit smaller than what was listed.

Again, friendly and good quality stock (healthy fish with good blood-lines). But smaller than advertised.

Would I order from him again??? Only if Jeff or Gage didn't have something that I wanted that only he had.
 
Great guy to deal with and fish are good quality. Only issue I've had is that with my order with him, the fish were half the size he described. I basically got fry which was dissapointing.

I ordered 6 Loisellei @ 2", i got 8 at one inch.
I ordered 6 RTM's @ 1", they were like half an inch.

The real issue was that since they were so small, i couldn't even put them in the tank i had in mind because they would get eaten.

That's a really good point, although I've had good experience with COA in that regard. After placing an order recently Dan informed me that the Parachromis I ordered were smaller than what he had listed, and he offered to provide me with several extras to compensate. I was OK with that because I agreed to it in advance and had the space. A similar situation came up with Cichlid Connection a while back, but in that case Gage just sent me three 1.5" P. synspilum instead of the 3-4" fish I ordered (along with other stuff, including a large male freddy when I ordered a female). In the vendor's mind it was a good tradeoff (more fish), but for me it was a problem of finding space for the small ones and not having something large enough to go in the tank I had planned for. When placing orders I now ask for confirmation about size so I can adjust my order if necessary. I'd rather the vendor be upfront if they don't have what advertised rather than send me a solution they think should be acceptable.

I'd give COA another chance because he does sell top-notch fish. Just prompt Dan for confirmation about size so that he knows it is an important part of the sale condition.
 
If your upset about smaller than advertised I don't think there is a vender in the world that can make you happy. I don't think if they came in 5" bigger you would complain. Just food for thought.

Drew
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com