Hey everyone, long time enthusiast (25+ yrs) and first time poster.
I recently woke up to about half of my tank laying on the bottom dead. I really don't feel like getting into details at this time as it was preventable and completely my fault. I don't lose fish very often and when I do I take it hard so needless to say this isn't something setting well with me. I lost some cichlids and botias/loaches that I had for over a decade and many were rare that I hand selected from lfs over the years.
All that being said I now have a need for several fish and due to the recent climate of the economy I'm said to report that most of our lfs are either out of business or have next to no fish available or are now selling video games or something to supplement income instead. I can't just walk in and hand select the fish I want to stock my tank with so I'm left with ordering online. I've browsed lots of sites over the years but never placed an order because I never needed more than one or two fish and I didn't want to pay such a steep price for shipping on a fish or two. Now that I need several I want to find a good supplier that can provide me with some of the fish that I'm looking for. Ideally I can find one source of all my needs so that I can place one order and pay shipping once. I'm in Colorado and I realize that makes things a little more difficult as all the sites I found in years past were in Florida so Overnight shipping was a must. Would be nice to pay for Priority if the supplier was closer but I'm not sure of any close to me. I used to regular the inventory over at Exotic Finds (?) but it sounds like Blue may have gone out of business or something because the url no longer works and I can't seem to find any definitive answers as to what's going on. I also got an email from PetSolutions the day it happened (conspiracy?) with 25% off but unfortunately it seems most of what I would want from them is out of stock. lifishdirect.com had more of the cichlids that I was interested in and not everything and no plecos. riverwonders.com had the plecos that I wanted but that was about it for that.
What I'm hoping is that some members here can give me a few ideas of trusted places to give my business to that I can take a look at. Ideally they would have all I need at one place to save on shipping but this isn't a requirement of someone has a solid selection of fish I like at a good price.
So, where should I look? I still have lots of my plecos so the only must there is royals. I went through a lfs years back trying to get a Royal and they kept getting unhealthy ones from their supplier unfortunately and that remains the only pleco I have never owned that I have wanted for many years so that's a must this go 'round.
Thanks for all your help!
I recently woke up to about half of my tank laying on the bottom dead. I really don't feel like getting into details at this time as it was preventable and completely my fault. I don't lose fish very often and when I do I take it hard so needless to say this isn't something setting well with me. I lost some cichlids and botias/loaches that I had for over a decade and many were rare that I hand selected from lfs over the years.
All that being said I now have a need for several fish and due to the recent climate of the economy I'm said to report that most of our lfs are either out of business or have next to no fish available or are now selling video games or something to supplement income instead. I can't just walk in and hand select the fish I want to stock my tank with so I'm left with ordering online. I've browsed lots of sites over the years but never placed an order because I never needed more than one or two fish and I didn't want to pay such a steep price for shipping on a fish or two. Now that I need several I want to find a good supplier that can provide me with some of the fish that I'm looking for. Ideally I can find one source of all my needs so that I can place one order and pay shipping once. I'm in Colorado and I realize that makes things a little more difficult as all the sites I found in years past were in Florida so Overnight shipping was a must. Would be nice to pay for Priority if the supplier was closer but I'm not sure of any close to me. I used to regular the inventory over at Exotic Finds (?) but it sounds like Blue may have gone out of business or something because the url no longer works and I can't seem to find any definitive answers as to what's going on. I also got an email from PetSolutions the day it happened (conspiracy?) with 25% off but unfortunately it seems most of what I would want from them is out of stock. lifishdirect.com had more of the cichlids that I was interested in and not everything and no plecos. riverwonders.com had the plecos that I wanted but that was about it for that.
What I'm hoping is that some members here can give me a few ideas of trusted places to give my business to that I can take a look at. Ideally they would have all I need at one place to save on shipping but this isn't a requirement of someone has a solid selection of fish I like at a good price.
So, where should I look? I still have lots of my plecos so the only must there is royals. I went through a lfs years back trying to get a Royal and they kept getting unhealthy ones from their supplier unfortunately and that remains the only pleco I have never owned that I have wanted for many years so that's a must this go 'round.
Thanks for all your help!
