MAIL ORDERING FISH.....?

[Mmathis]

How many of you mail order your fish [koi or goldfish]?

What has been your success rate?

What are some things to look for / look out for?

(Just learned about "Wakin," but there apparently aren't many places to get them -- and they're more expensive than regular goldfish -- so want to be a savvy shopper. This will be a 2013 spring project)

 

[addy1]

i am too cheap to mail order, the petsmart gf and shubbies have given me a bunch of nice fish all colors sizes.

 

[mrsclem]

I just started ordering koi and having them shipped. I use Next Day Koi as they are fairly local and discount shipping- $15 per box. No problems so far except they have way too many nice fish I would love to have!

 

[addy1]

lol mrs clem maybe that should be my reason, not too cheap! lol Too many nice ones to buy them all

 

[Mmathis]

Yeh, I'm cheap, too, but am interested in Wakin [goldfish], and these apparently aren't readily available except by ordering.

 

[addy1]

Yeh, I'm cheap, too, but am interested in Wakin [goldfish], and these apparently aren't readily available except by ordering.

I picked up one in petsmart shubbie tank, 2.20 nice looking on its third summer. Must have gotten mixed in somehow

 

[Mmathis]

I picked up one in petsmart shubbie tank, 2.20 nice looking on its third summer. Must have gotten mixed in somehow

You're kidding, really? Did you know what it was when you picked it out? Hmmm, might have to keep a closer eye to those tanks!

I've gotten all of my fish from Petsmart so far, and have noticed they are sometimes mixed in the tanks. Last ones I got, I thought were Shubies, but one had a fan-tail [Ryukin?] and another had big-eyes -- both were the Shubie colors, so I didn't pay attention other than they looked healthy -- still don't know if they're the ones I thought I picked out, or the employee netted the wrong fish.....

 

[addy1]

looks like it I always watch the tanks for different than they should be fish

 

[mrsclem]

Just realized I had a senior moment. Company I used was Koi To The World located in Pa. They do a lot of auctions on Ebay but also sell-

 

[addy1]

lol happens to us all

 

[lovinglife]

I had a great experience last year buying on Ebay from Next Day Koi. He is nice to work with and his fish are really pretty. I love mine!!

 

[RoyalFeather]

All of my fish have been ebay fish. No problems so far. The key is to look for good seller ratings and reviews.

 

[JohnHuff]

I'm not a big fan of Petsmart koi. I bought 3 koi from them early this summer and all of them started to get fungus on their tails a few weeks in. I had never had fin rot before in my pond (more than 10 years). I just waited to see what happened but after a while the fungus cleared up without any medication. I was really worried that the fungus would spread to the others, but so far, everyone is good.

I've got an aquarium now and I can say that about 15% of the fish I've gotten from Petco/Petsmart have died from fungus. I recently started buying aquarium fish from my LFS and am waiting to see how it turns out.

Regarding koi, I also started buying them from my LFS and there are 7-8 of them around here. If you look around some of them have really great prices.