My first online order didn't go to good. I order two pea puffers and some frozen food. Food arrived first all thawed out. The puffers were delayed a day for some reason and when they arrived they were both dead. Here's the good thing.. I called and they offered to replace or refund.. I wanted my fish, like I still do. They sent 2 more puffers to me, now here is the bad thing... this time both puffers were alive but not doing good. I followed the directions to get them in the tank, since I could not see what they looked like in the bag, they had some kind of black bag around the bottom.. I got them in the tank, and I was like wth... one is very small and is terribly thin, the other seems fine. So I fed them and they wouldn't eat.. so i gave up and let them get use to their new home. Before bed, i stared looking for the small thin one, no where to be found.. i did finally see him hiding in a fake log. I turned in for the night thinking the next day would be better. Well i feed them, the one is eating, but the very small thin one will not eat and he lays on the bottom of the tank and won't move. I don't think he's going to make it. And on that note I pose this question. Why would you sell unhealthy fish, this took a day to get to me surely you would of seen this when taking him out.. sad, I wanted 2.... The good thing is their customer service. The bad thing is good luck getting healthy fish. I may change this review depending on how they handle this instance and whether the small thin one makes it. Update, unfortunately I won't be able to change my review, he passed away. Update, just talked to Karen and yes even though friendly, she could not help with replacement. Apparently they have a policy that allows only 1 reship. So now I'm stuck with 1 puffer fish and a years supply of food now. These people are owned by PetCo, go figure. The sold and knowingly did so an unhealthy fish... see the below pics. People, I beg you find somewhere else to shop. Now what the hell am I going to do with just one puffer fish... read more

I went with LiveAquaria because of the overnight shipping and guarantee. But what's the point of a guarantee if you have to spend more money with them? I ordered 3 corydoras, one arrived looking sick. The others... had either underdeveloped tails or someone had nipped them off before being delivered. But I hoped for the best. I have a cycled QT and I had already been successful with 2/3 I had ordered somewhere else. 2 died by the next day, the third a few days later. This is not a case of inexperience, these are not good fish they're selling read more

This company sends you sick fish. Hoping you can save them. They also messed up my order twice. In a row. They don't even handle the fish themselves it's a third party. That seems to be why the quality control sucks. read more

DO NOT UNDER CIRCUMSTANCES BUY GOLDFISH FROM DR FOSTER AND SMITH or AKA LIVE AQUARIA! After buying fancy goldfish from them and most dying immediately (some dead on arrival) I have had a very bad "bug" in my completely CLOSED tank system that is slowly killing my fish and making ALL MY STOCK SICKLY! After months of battle I dare say it is a antibiotic RESISTANT STRAIN of bacteria or a foreign virus. (gawd knows where these fish are from) I have bred fish and groomed, raised goldfish for 17 + years and have seen it all but this one is BAD JUJU. I feel like an amateur for buying these fish I should of known and now i pay the price dearly. ps they never backed there free med guarantee. How hard is it to ship me some antibiotics or prazi pro when i keep sending you pictures of dead fish!!!? Beware serious fish keepers and good luck out there. read more

I bought items in the past from them for my 350 gal aquarium. This order of blennies, gobys, jawfish, crabs, and snails. I think the snails were bad and over night crashed my tank killing all of my previous fish, seahorses, corals, etc. that I previous bought from them and the items I just purchased. I called within 24 hours explaining this and how it killed EVERYTHING! They gave me credit for everything on recent purchase except the crabs because I couldn't see them as they went in the rocks! Called today after draining the tank over the weekend. They said I needed to call by yesterday on the crabs even though I told them within 24 hours my ENTIRE TANK CRASHED!! I need to restock, will go elsewhere!!! read more

Under sized and over priced fresh water fish. Misrepresented size on their website. I ordered several fish to restock my 90 gallon tank, I received them just fine however, half were so tiny they got sucked up into my standard filter system. TOTAL RIP OFF and I will never order anything from this place again. read more

Scam, Will send ICK, Dead fish or a bag with only water. The fish they send had horrible ick and all 10 died over 12 hours. Second order was a bag of water in place of 17 fish no response form this company. read more

They sent me a bag of death. The cory cats they sent me were less than 1/4" - most of them died. Waaaaay to young. The shipping was delayed, customer service couldn't give me any information. Read that guarantee carefully. You have to keep the dead fish and they might give you store credit, which you have to pay $40 S&H on. They didn't even respond to my emails. ANIMAL CRUELTY. read more

Well, unfortunately the disease that came with their fish cost me nearly my entire aquarium. The fish that have made it three years without issue succumbed to it and I'm left with a remaining couple aquatic friends. Contacted them again to let them know what happened and heed warning so others don't end up in a similar situation... got no response. Stay away from this place unless you choose genocide for your aquarium and want to turn it into a barren wasteland. read more

Do not order inverts or fish from this dealer. I paid $13/per for 10 red crystal shrimp. 2 were DOA, but more important (1) these are so freshly hatched that they are almost invisible, so you are paying a ridiculous price for equivalent of fry and (2) liveaquaria is really outsourcing the products, so that i received an invoice from "drs. foster P& smith" who themselves have many consumer complaints and (3) my purchase was somehow routed through amazon.com. I also bought pom pom crabs that seem healthy enough, and two asian gold clams that i cannot tell yet whether they are dead or alive. this feels like a bait and switch - you are not really buying from them (yes, i ordered from their website). seems like buying live aquarium creatures online is just a very bad idea, which is a bummer out limited the local pet stores are. read more

I signed up for an item that they were out of. Next thing I know I start getting 2 or more e-mails form this outfit per day. The item that they were out of I was able to purchase from another vendor for a better price. Be careful in giving these people your e-mail being they don't know how to take anyone off their spam list. read more

If I could give no stars I would. This onli store is terrible. I placed an order for an aq stand with expedited shippin on the 21st and still have not heard a peep from thei end. I had to contact their live chat to try and get some answer. wishful thinking I had as Tammy was no help at all. I wanted to see if there was any movement on the order and she said I would get an email when it ships... three days later, no email. So I got in contact with her again and she said " oh it already shipped, it should be del today or tomorrow" while still not providing me with tracking information, so I have no idea how she would come up with that estimate and lie to a customer like that. Then while trying to piece the little information she could provide me, she accuses me of attacking her. Wow what customer service you guys run here. I can say you guys got a gem over there with Tammy interacting with your customers. I can assure you I will never shop from there ever again and I will share this experience with all my fellow enthusiast! Jzape24@gmail.con A4078997 read more

Please be careful if you need to return an item. They don't cover return fees so I spent 30 dollars to send an item back that initially cost me 50 dollars. Very much a waste of money. I'm sure they have good products, as long as you don't need to make a return! read more

I wanted to update - the remaining snail died, as have three of the minnows (using a size comparison) that they sent. On top of that, as others have experienced, the remaining fish I received from them are diseased!!! Now I'm going to have to put all my fish through a week of medication! HORRIBLE-HORRIBLE company that should be run out of business and should be made to repay all the people they have ripped off!!! read more

This is my first one star review given and it was well deserved. Liveaquaria sent me a sick dwarf gourami fish with columnaris disease. This is one of the worst diseases an aquarium can catch, it is highly contagious and can rapidly spread throughout the tank killing other fish. After messaging them about the incident they took well over a week to respond and I to self diagnose and treat all my fish. It's a very hard disease to cure and it killed 2/3s of my tank fish. The fish can get the disease from stress. Live aquaria does not take good care of their fish especially during shipping and they will not take care of the customer when an event like this happens. Go to your local fish store as this was the worst experience you could go through in this hobby. read more

I would probably give a slightly lower rating, but I am going to make up for such negativity against them. I called to see if an order could be held, so I could make sure of availability when the order would arrive. I learned that they could hold an order for up to two weeks from the purchase date. First I ordered $200 worth of decorations, food, etc. everything I ordered was as expected and came in a timely manner and in good condition. 5 stars!! When I called they recommended you quarantine fish for the 2 week warranty period (14 days), not only so you could monitor the fish, but also so you could find them if they happen to die. Fair warning to those who put fish straight into their main tank. Great customer service. When I placed my order, I added notes to not ship the live fish for about a week (gave them an exact date), so I could make sure a friend or I would be available. I never had to double-check, and they followed through per my instructions. I received a shipping email the evening when I told them to send it, and fish were at my door the next morning before 10:30 am. They UPS man carrying the box was carrying the box sideways (out of LiveAquaria's hands as the box was well marked as to which way it should be held), so my friend had to lecture the UPS man whose only excuse was it wasn't his normal route. Apparently he couldn't read either. I came home from work and started acclimating my fish. I purchased 10 Boesemani Rainbows, 10 Giant Danios, 1 Blue Gourami, and 1 Freshwater Neon Blue Goby. All seemed a bit stressed from the move, which was to be expected as that's how the fish would be received at and LFS or pet shop. The Blue Goby seemed stressed in the Small tank I was acclimating and quarantining him in, so I decided to just put him in the main tank. He adjust rather quickly in there and still seems very happy. The Blue Gourami took almost a week to acclimate, get its full color back, but now she seems very happy. The danios have been doing well, but they of course are the hardiest IMO. I'd give all of that 5 stars as well!! 12 fish, 3 species all doing well. Now onto the Boesemani Rainbows. These fish seemed great for the first couple days, and then I noticed some seemed to not be eating and or being their normal schoaling selves, so I kept a close eye. One finally ended up passing, and then I noticed the others were infected with ich. I've had Aquariums every since I was a kid, but had more serious freshwater aquariums for over 12 years (I'm 32), and have never had this issue. I immediately went to the store to get ich medicine and slowly started raising the temperature in the tank to 81°-82° per Information I found online. I got home and started treating the tank hoping to save as many as possible. In a matter of 4 days all of them ended up dying off. It was very sad. With that being said, every time one died (a few died in pairs), I followed the instructions online and I was refunded for all 10 fish when it was said and done. The customer service was above and beyond. The local fish store only guarantees fish for 7 days and you can't get money back, only a credit, so in my opinion this was much better service. All in all, despite the bad experience, which was bound to happen at some point or another whether from a local dealer or online, I give them an A+ for customer service. What many people fail to realize, when keeping fish, is that you truly need multiple tank for quarantining and or helping sick fish. Everyone thinks you just buy fish and throw them into your tank because most fish stores don't want to make it any harder than it already is. 5 stars for the great products and customer service. Bad experiences of fish being stressed by moving should be expected, so people ordering need to be aware of how to properly care for those stressed fish. read more

Hi wanted to commend you after I received my order of 30 various freshwater community fish. The packing was impeccable and all the fish are gorgeous! Thanks again I would order again with no hesitation. read more

My dealings HAD been ok. At least 1 fish died each order.. but ok that happens. My huge issue is that I bought 10 bloody mary shrimp (normally $11.99) on black Friday sale and 5 arrived dead. 1 more died within the next 12 or less hours. I asked for them to be reshipped since buying 6 at regular price would be more than I paid for the 10 and they refuse and are very rude about it! read more

All but two of our guppies purchased here have passed, but we have 3-4 generations of babies that have grown up and reproduced. Our tank is full of beautifully colored and healthy guppies :) The purchase was well worth the added cost of shipping. read more

The prices were great, but high shipping cost! Even worse, I noticed the day after I got them that the Platties they sent me were sick with white patches (not Ich). It began to affect my other fish too, and within a few days, one of their fish died from apparent hemorrhagic septicemia. They assured me that their fish are all healthy and disease-free. I'm a beginner and didn't know to quarantine first. I spent $40-50 on meds for the fish to try to save them. 4 out of 10 died, and the remaining Platy don't look great. Liveaquaria only offered me a refund of $1.50 for the one fish that died during the warranty period. I don't want $1.50! Send me a replacement fish at your cost! I'll be filing a chargeback. Never again. Oh, and the fish didn't look remotely as glorious as they did on the site. I also live in the same state as this company, so fish didn't have long to travel! read more

I buy probably 15-20 times from LiveAquaria and let me tell you. They have the most beautiful and healthy corals, specially from WI Facility. I check everyday because they update there website at 3pm East and the new idem are available at 6pm East. Trust me it's fast, in less than 1 minute idem are sold out because they are huge and sometime unique color that includes Marine Fish, Invertebrates. I always receive my box in time and perfect condition. The only problem is the minimum of $30, I thing that would be good to not ask people a minimum because with the shipping is lot of money so if I want to buy $19 Idem only! I can't because I didn't fit the minimum. Customer service are great specially over the phone but live chat sometime little be rude, they sometime shut down the session without help you most than expected or they just read the exactly description from the idem and if you ask too much question they shut down the session in your face. Thank you Liveaquaria team for all the great idem you sent me and all the help you provide me. I hope you change the minimum require, that would be great. Extremely Recommended! read more

I have been buying from several online retailers for marine life for many years but now I will buy only from Live Aquaria! I just purchased a regal angel from them, took advantage of the 15 percent discount, I called to move the ship date up a week due to a business commitments , spoke with Hunter there, very nice and knowledgable, I just mentioned that discount offered had increased a day later and he did not hesitate to offer me the larger discount. I buy thousands of dollars a year on Marine Life and Products with Live Aquaria and recommend them to any aquarist who wants to buy the highest quality marine life, products and deal with the best warranty and customer service in the business. Thank you Hunter!! A++++ Service David E read more

We have had 2 great experiences with Live Aquaria. When we first got our tank which was 4 years ago we did our first large purchase with them, 4 years later most of the fish are still up and swimming (I call them our OG's of the tank). We have lost some here and there but that was because our own issues we had with our tank. We recently just got another order of about 5 fish. UPS was late on the delivery but the fish were packaged so well and all of them are alive and swimming around already. This fish were shipped from California to New York and it was so cold. I have never had any issues with customer service, if I could not get through to them over the phone, they responded with in the hour to my emails. read more

LiveAquaria - Puff Daddy one of our new additions from Live Aquaria - Pet Stores Near Me - Rhinelander, Wisconsin

I have purchased numerous fish from Live Aquaria, and to this date, not a single fish has lived past 3 months in my aquarium. Every fish that I have, which is alive was purchased elsewhere,and the only fish that have died were purchased from Live Aquaria. Never again. My suggestion is to run, run far away, and after about 13 fish purchases, and all 13 dying within 90 days of purchase, it's becoming quite obvious that Live Aquaria fish are not healthy and won't live very long, and becomes a waste of money. read more

Wow! I bought 100$ worth of fish and 3 of the Botia loaches were seriously diseased. Salvini died same day. Disappointed and will not be using them again. read more

I ordered 4 small Oranda goldfish, one of them was sick right when it got here and died the next day, the other three seemed pretty healthy but 3 days later another one got sick. It's still alive at this moment but I'm not sure it'll make it. Will not order fish from them again. read more

Every fish i've ever purchased from these people has died. They're owned by Petco and it's not the company it was. Terrible experience. They won't honor their warranty after 14 days, even if fish arrived in damaged box. I have a saltwater tank with a beautiful powder blue tang -and you know that's an expert level fish so it's not the quality of my tank or lack of experience (including a one hour drip acclimation, which they direct you do to get the warranty). BUYER BEWARE!!! DO NOT BUY THEIR FISH!!!! read more

Updating my recent review, recently purchased a blue tang and lemon peel angelfish, both dead the second the guarantee ran out, this company is making what's supposed to be a fun hobby, horrible. Do not order at all costs. read more

Garbage customer service. Tammy is a terrible CSR. Would not even respond to my emails. Only get an automated response and totally ignored my requests. The fish were shipped with ick and more half of them died within a week. Do not buy from this company at all cost. They will not refund ever period. They will only offer credit. Do not purchase from them they have sick I'll fish and infected my whole tank had to spend over 100 dollars on meds and treatments for them only to lead to disappointment. I hate that I got scammed by this company. Will never order again. They will take advantage of you every step of the way. I have filed a BBB complaint against them due to their lack of customer service and I'll fish. DO NO SHOP HERE. Spent 100's of dollars at aquatic arts and never had this issue. They are the superior company choose aquatic arts. Lost 30 fish out of the 50 they sent me. Un acceptable. read more

LiveAquaria - Fish acclimating - Pet Stores Near Me - Rhinelander, Wisconsin

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Customer service refuses to resolve issues. I give them a very unhappy, discouraged, and disappointed 0/10 rating. I placed an order and selected expedited shipping on a specific day. I cannot urge you strongly enough...Do NOT buy from here!! I was emailed on the day of arrival it was out of stock when I had selected only "in-stock" fish. I immediately called and emailed to cancel the order as I was scheduled to travel the next week. They ignored all requests after confirming cancellation. The fish arrived dead and improper packing. Never use this website or store. They refused to resolve any problems after multiple attempts. read more

I made a mistake and ordered a fish from them i tried to cancel it but they wouldn't allow me to the fish wasnt shipped yet but they said they couldn't cancel it the fish was 4.99 online but the shipping was 46$ it came with a black spot on top of the head I'm no fish expert so I didn't know that the fish had a problem with it after 2 months of having the fish i realized the black spot on top of her head begin to spread I thought it was because She was growing she was swimming normally until yesterday she didn't come to the top of the tank to eat and I just found it weird so I started doing res and found out they sent me a fish with fin rot I called them and they basically told me it was my fault because I wasn't taking care of my tank i make sure they tank is clean because I am a animal lover so after being told that I they couldn't do anything after the 7 days pass purchase my fish passed away last night DONOT SUPPORT THIS BUSINESS THEY ARE VERY RUDE AND NONCHALANT . read more

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Had a horrible experience with this terrible company. Ordered a midas blenny...first time ordering a fish online. The box arrived and there was nothing inside to cool it (unlike when I ordered corals another time that were carefully packaged with cooling packs). It was so hot...the fish was dead. I feel horrible. When I wrote them they said 'they should have been packed with ice packs." I feel awful. They obviously don't care about the livestock they sell. I'll never be using them again. I would give them zero stars if I could. read more

Fantastic experience with the company. I'd give them 10 more stars if I could. The website is easy to navigate and has a lot of information about each fish / item. Including care, water recommendations, compatibility, etc. They also offer a description about the fish that is very accurate. The ship live animals next day. I placed an order and unfortunately the freight company miss-sorted it and they did not arrive. Most companies make you go thru a waiting period as they sort it out with the freight company and/or other companies make you re-purchase the item and only once they sort it out with the freight company will they refund you. ---- NOT Liveaquaria. They immediately resent a new shipment without any questions at all. Their customer service team was amazing, they were polite, knowledgeable, and real people that actually work for the company - not some place overseas answering a phone. They package their fish to live. I was amazed when my original shipment actually showed up several days later after being abused by the freight line and miss-routed, sitting in the back of a hot trailer, etc. and ALL the fish were still alive and doing well. The ONLY way that could have happened was that they were healthy prior to shipment and packaged extremely well. As far as pricing - their pricing on each item is extremely competitive (less than most local pet stores). If you order enough, they give free overnight shipping, but even if you have to pay for the shipping, it's worth the healthy fish that you receive. read more

Immediately took out money for fish they did not have in stock and no response concerning refund. 90.55 total for fish and shipping I want my refund. read more

Support your local vendor instead! Their customer service is rude and they do not even know their own business. The manager I just spoke to told me specifically that "the shipping day was on my order". I emailed her the order confirmation I received and of course she realized that was a complete lie. If a supervisor doesn't know their own company policy, I would stay away (which I will be doing so from now on). Additionally, as many others have noted, the fish arrive late, stressed and often die within a day or 2, even after proper acclimation. Knowing quite a few people in the "fish industry" and aquarium maintenance/set-up, I have heard that this is pretty much their modus operandi. Icing on the cake- they don't ship on the weekends without an exuberant ADDITIONAL fee. Clearly they are more interested in the money than the health of their fish and happiness of their customers. read more

I ordered ghost shrimp and mosquito fish and they arrived in good condition. Would buy again

I've ordered from Live Aquaria several times in the past decade or so. They used to be pretty great but after my last experience I'll never do business with them again. The shipped sick/ dying fish and fish that were completely different from the description on the website. The 14 day guarantee is a scam to keep your money. You basically have to spend more money with them to get your replacement fish. Why would I order anything else from a company that sent me sick fish? It's ridiculous. Oh and the customer service is a joke. read more

shipped sick fish. an order of over $100 and all but one died within two days. I used to trust them; but no any more. I contact them but have not received any response. read more

Bad customer service, the don't honor their guarantee and most of the stock you order wont last, I'd ordered live stock form them before and I've never had any luck with it. read more

3/11/19 Update of My Review: I was contacted by a very helpful service rep (Eric) who offered to assist with the issue noted in original review. Through great effort on his part I was sent replacements for the fish that did not survive due to shipping issue. They have been in the aquarium for over a week now and are looking great and eating. Giving credit where credit is due...Live Aquaria did step up to address my complaint and make things right. Thanks again Eric! read more