Orders are shipped in the order that they are placed. Typically, orders are shipped within 2-4 business days (not including weekends). Some potential delays may occur, including weather delays, inventory changes, and variations in the quantity of orders. We will do our best to provide you with details if a delay is encountered.

If you would like a specific delivery date, please place your order at least 3 days in advance of your shipping date and include a note or follow-up email with your requested delivery date.

I paid for "Overnight Delivery" - why does it take 48+ hours to receive the fish?

Delivery methods do not account for handling times. "Overnight Delivery" refers to the time between leaving our facility and arriving at your address. We may not be able to ship the order immediately after receiving it.

We carefully catch each fish and ensure that it is healthy and free of disease or deformity. The fish are placed in bags containing a light dose of stress-reducing medication and a small piece of filter to absorb waste. The bags are oxygenated and tied or rubber-banded, then a second bag is added to reduce the likelihood of spills and leaks. The bags are placed systematically in a box size comfortable enough to house the entire order, and newsprint is used as extra insulation, space-filler, and water absorbent.

For acclimating shipped fish, we recommend float acclimation over drip acclimation. Drip acclimation can be great for fish that have been brought home straight from a local store, but can be deadly for fish that have been shipped to you. This is because the fish has been in the bag for significantly longer and therefore has produced significantly more ammonia and carbon dioxide during transit. The carbon dioxide is forced to dissolve into the water producing carbonic acid that lowers the pH quite a bit. The lower pH is helpful as the lower the pH, the less toxic ammonia is. In fact, due to this contained environment within the bag, it actually is not in the form of free ammonia but rather ammonium which is far less toxic. Once the bag is opened, however, the carbonic acid quickly off-gases causing the pH to spike and the ammonium to convert into toxic ammonia. You want to remove the fish from this now toxic water as soon as possible to avoid ammonia burns and possibly death. Drip acclimation involves leaving the fish in this toxic water for an extended period of time so we highly advise against it. The damage from ammonia poisoning is far more severe than the stress caused from any possible differences in your tank’s parameters. 

Below is a guide on how to perform the simple float acclimation method we recommend.

1. Upon receiving your fish, immediately place the CLOSED bags into the tank they are going to be released in. 

2. Allow the bags to float for approximately 20 minutes to allow the temperature of the water in the bag to match that of the tank.

3. Place a net over a container that can hold water and remove the bag from the tank. This is to ensure none of the toxic bag water enters your tank.

4. Cut open the top of the bag and quickly pour the fish into the net 

5. Quickly transfer the fish into your tank 

We offer local pick-up for any order. Please place your order using the Local Pick-Up shipping option during checkout, then we will send an email asking about your preferred pick-up date. We will finalize the details with you and have them ready for contact-less pick-up.  

Yes, we charge 10% of the total amount of the order as a cancellation fee. All orders placed are automatically processed by our secure merchant processor and sent to the shipping department as they are placed. During this process we incur irreversible fees from the payment providers and additional work by our staff.

The majority of fish on our website will not look like their photos upon their unboxing. Fish change in appearance depending on many factors, including mood, age, gender, and social status. Fish will naturally lose color during shipping and may appear faded upon arrival. Pictures are used as examples only. Pictures may be of mature fish with full color or juvenile fish without color. We encourage you to research the species as much as possible prior to ordering in order to familiarize yourself with the various appearances they may take on. Many species have females that look drastically different to their male counterparts, and many juveniles will not have as much color (or different colors) as their adult forms. If you have questions about how the fish will look, please review their information and email us if you have any questions.

We are also often asked for certain sexes with unsexed fish. Yes, you can request certain sexes in the "NOTES" section at checkout, or via email after ordering. We will do our best to fulfill these requests, HOWEVER, we do not guarantee that these requests will be honored. Due to the overwhelming number of special requests that we receive, we also cannot guarantee that we will contact you regarding your request if it cannot be granted. We can only promise that we will send you the items matching what was listed on the website.