2 questions :)

Z

ziggyzoo

Well-Known Member
1 involves ordering fish online. Good idea or bad? I spend wayyyy too much time and gas driving to almost all the lfs is the state trying to find special fish. So i thought about online ordering. Has anyone had any bad experiences? Im sure it probablly depends on the type of fish, the store, all that. So do you have any suggestions for where to look online? Or a place i especially shouldnt go? Also i know some fish arent legal here that are elsewhere and they wont tell you that when you buy it. How do i avoid that? Are vampire tetras illegal, thats what i want the most.

Question 2..water change systems, like the one you hook up to the faucet/sink..do they work well? Where can i get them cheap? And which one do you reccomend?

Thanks!! :D
 
Bob

Bob

Well-Known Member
I just had a bad experience. I ordered 6 Paracyprichromis Nigripinnis, my first time having fish shipped to me. Three were DOA and two were floating but still breathing, they later died. The seller shipped me fry that looked to be no older than a week. Cory from the coop advised that these are very fragile fish and should not have been shipped. The seller refunded me the entire purchase except my $45 for overnight shipping. So i paid $45 for one fish.... My advice would only have hardy fish shipped from reputable people/company. Cory also told me their policy is to refund the entire purchase including shipping. So order from him.

For the water changer, i just purchased this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YA ... UTF8&psc=1 a few weeks ago. It might be the greatest thing since sliced bread as far as i am concerned. Super easy, no more carrying buckets, amazon was the cheapest i found at the time. It's so easy to use. The only downfall is, if your tank sits lower than your faucet, you have to keep the water running for the siphon to work. So you may have to waste some water. But its fully adjustable to get however strong or gentle of suction you need. I love it
 
Cory

Cory

Administrator
Staff member
I use a different system for changing water than most. I basically use a normal gravel vac, into a blue laundry tub. Basically a robe tote. Then I have a powerhead connected to the python that is at the sink.

This prevents fish from going down the drain, and also the clogs you can get from plant leaves/snail shells/gravel as well at the sink. Instead it ends up in the bottom of the blue tote.

The added benefit is I change water much more than I gravel vac. I might change water every week but only gravel vac once a month. Or some tanks are bare bottom or have fish that stir it up all the time like goldfish or juruparis.

This is especially useful for low tanks, just drop the powerhead in, plug it in and do your water change that way.
 
Bob

Bob

Well-Known Member
Before i got the aqueon i used a power head to do super fast water changes, it works great too.
Now, i also put a net under the faucet connector so it's over the drain. So it catches just about everything that gets sucked up.
 
Madness

Madness

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Wow u all do it the hard way, lol. I went and bought a 50' garden hose cut the end off and I attached that to my gravel vac tube and throw the other end of the hose out into the yard, to fill up I attach the end that is outside to the faucet and turn it on.

As for buying fish online, Id say that 95% of my fish were bought on line, and that is a lot of fish. I recently received fish from Oregon, Alaska, New York, Minnesota and Florida. To get what u want you need to sometimes go outside the box and pay for shipping. If the shipper knows what the hell they are doing, then all fish should arrive alive. I have purchased at least a few hundred fish online and have probably had less than 12 arrive dead.

Cory has a great deal when he offers to order from Cichlid Exchange in Portland for you and you just pick up at his shop. I would do that if he were closer, but its cheaper for it to ship to me than to drive to his shop. :(
 
Z

ziggyzoo

Well-Known Member
I sorta bought a fish online yesterday! I bought it online.. from the co-op and picked it up! haha And we went to lowes and bought 35ft of tube and a petco faucet adapter for $15 to make our own water change system. Well see how it goes! i'll let you know :)
 
E

Evad

New Member
Madness said:
Wow u all do it the hard way, lol. I went and bought a 50' garden hose cut the end off and I attached that to my gravel vac tube and throw the other end of the hose out into the yard, to fill up I attach the end that is outside to the faucet and turn it on. :(
Click to expand...

Ditto here, although I actually bought the clear tubing from Home Depot that fits my Python vac without a clamp. Its nice to have a door very close to my tank to just throw the hose out of :)

I have never had good luck with shipping fish. Plants yes, fish no. I have been known to drive 20+ hours (one way) to get the fish I was looking for.....
 
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