Will never use them again. While I did receive a clam that is doing great, hence the 2 stars, I also ordered a brightly colored coral which instead arrived and stayed quite faded. Received responses from customer service that made it clear that they didn't read my notes at all. Had to rewrite to ask them to do so and/or to repeat what I'd said earlier. Was then told to contact them before the 30 day guarantee period was over, which I then did, and was again refused any compensation for paying for a coral that looked no where like the ad. After more than a half dozen letters to them including the last one from them which repeated that I needed to contact them before the 30 day period and me repeating AGAIN that I had, I was told that this coral was held under very bright lights in their facility. Of course, the ad said it only needed moderate lighting and because it was still alive, despite the bait and switch tactics used here in advertising one thing and then shipping another, they have refused any action. Will also be contacting the BBB. read more

I recently ordered fish and corals from LiveAquaria. It was an absolutely horrible experience. The livestock was shipped in winter in the middle of a cold front in Southern California, without heat packs. All of the fish died, either of exposure or of the resulting ich infestation from stress. One of the corals also died. LiveAquaria touts that it has a 14 day guarantee. But they issued me only a partial credit. Apparently, the telephone representative failed to log the death of the most expensive item (a powder blue tang). Of course, they don't provide you with any e-mail confirmation of what they did on the credit so you cannot catch any mistakes on their part within the 14 day period. Using the credit is also a challenge. They stated that I messed up when I tried to use the credit at their sister store Drs. Foster Smith. Since I paid LiveAquaria with PayPal, it messed things up. Instead, they charged my credit card and didn't notify me that the credit wasn't applied. I asked them to refund my credit card and apply the credit. They refused. read more

I've been burned by a few online fish supply companies in the past. Many advertise beautiful specimens and deliver an animal with bleak resemblance . Live Aquaria is the most professional saltwater livestock supplier I've ever ordered from. I'm a very happy customer. Fish, corals and inverts have all exceeded my expectations in size and quality. Their prices and guarantee are more than fair. I will now only order from them. read more

I ordered twice from them, a year apart. Not again. First time, order arrived COLD due to long travel and inadequate heat packs. Half the fish arrived dead or dying. The remaining animals survived 8 months until I had to decommission the tank. Second time, one of 11 fish arrived dying and some invertebrates were dead. Shipment was scheduled to arrive 10:30 AM by UPS. I waited all day. It came at 8:30 PM. The box spent a full day in the back of a UPS truck. It had been shaken so badly the peanuts were decomposing. A sea cucumber appeared to have everted its stomach, a stress response. Beginning a few days after introduction, the fish began dying off. They would be eating one day, dead the next. No odd behaviors or appearance, even in dead animals I found. There is a lot of coral/shells in my aquarium, and the undergravel filter is old, so dead animals don't affect water quality (No2, No3, ammonia, hardness, pH, temp, and specific gravity were optimal throughout this incident). I don't remove all the coral to find a dead fish because it would disrupt the tank too much. My tank is screened from jumping, and no fish jumped. After 2 weeks, all the liveaquaria fish were dead. Only a damsel I had introduced 2 weeks before ordering the liveaquaria fish was still alive. It is thriving. The invertebrates, including one tiny dancing shrimp, and two camel shrimp, mostly survived, except half the cerith snails. One dancing shrimp looked bad on receipt, probably from trauma during the trip. It disappeared from the hanging basket I kept both in initially. As warned by Liveaquaria staff, I photographed dead animals I found against white backgrounds. On all dead fish I found, skin, gills, eyes, and fins were clear except one angel (fins eaten by hermit crabs) and the last liveaquaria damsel to die, which had a big lesion. In retrospect, the heavily stressed animals were sensitive to a parasite I am not familiar with that has a short, lethal course in all species. I came to believe that this was a parasitic infestation I had not encountered. The intense stress of poor shipping conditions arranged by liveaquaria caused an outbreak that killed all their vertebrates but not one that was already in the tank and continues to thrive after 3 months. Informed of this, Liveaquaria staff recommended removing only sick fish to a hospital tank, which I set up. They said to leave well appearing animals in the community tank. However, it was impossible to remove fish to hospital tank because the first sign of illness was disappearance or death. First line personnel Stephanie and others were knowledgeable but rigid in their adherence to a policy apparently designed to prevent their accommodation to me. Supervisor Dave (?) was similarly unhelpful. He said Liveaquaria doesn't control when UPS delivers its boxes. He said he'd look into the fact the "live animals inside" label was inconspicuous. In my opinion, based on very limited online experience but more than 40 years caring for marine aquaria, this WAS MAINLY THE RESULT OF SHIPPING STRESS. THE DEAD ANIMALS WERE NEXT TO THE HEAT SOURCE AND THEIR CONTAINERS WERE WARM. THE BOX HAD EVIDENTLY BEEN SHAKEN ENOUGH TO DAMAGE THE PEANUTS BUT NOT TO DISTRIBUTE HEAT. On the roughly $175 loss reported to the best of my ability, they offered a $25 store credit. I believe this loss was due entirely to the bad shipping arrangement. I told them they had an unhappy customer. I strongly doubt I will redeem the small credit any time soon. read more

I agree with many other... Warning high chance of ICK. Worse yet is their customer service policy behind their product. After 14 days forget it, no matter how much you spent there. They would rather lose customers rather then issuing small credit for a future order. I was getting passed off until I posted to facebook. After that I got a call back and they wanted to educate me instead of finding a way forward. LiveAquaria aka "Petco" More interested in one time transactions instead of loyal customer base. read more

Terrible experience, I ordered $110 worth of clean-up crew pack and half the stuff arrived dead (meat chunks and the smell of death) I've emailed them twice and 5 days later I still haven't gotten a response. I will never order from them again. read more

I ordered a gold flake maroon clownfish for $49.99. They sent me a Gold Striped maroon clownfish that only cost $24.99. The label on the bag says that it's a gold striped maroon. LOL The order confirmation says I ordered a GoldFlake maroon but they sent a Gold Striped Maroon. I know it is confusing but its their job. They are refusing to refund the $25 when they made the mistake. I'd stay away from them and go Saltwaterfish much better customer service. read more

I can't say enough about how helpful the people in the Pharmacy area AND Customer Service area are. My dog was a diabetic and I kept losing a drop of insulin from the bottle with each injection. I spoke with several of their pharmacists and they were able to instruct me on how to extract the insulin without losing a drop. AWESOME and Very helpful. That same pet recently passed away. I spoke with someone in Customer Service and yesterday I received the most heartwarming and supportive condolence letter from them. Thank you for caring and for all of your support. read more

I was a first time buyer from live aquaria. I have used several other online vendors almost all with great experiences. If I could give less than one star I would. Some of my order was on back order after being offered on the website. Ok, these things happen. I was not notified that the bulk of my order would not be arriving before it shipped. This causes you to be available on multiple days. I was notified 3 consecutive days that the rest of the order would ship that day. Obviously it didn't after being asked to be available. The customer service which is based out of Wisconsin was very polite they offered an apology each day that I called, for what that is worth. The office and supplier out of California seem to have some very big communication issues. I could not be more disappointed with this company and will never use them again. Use saltwaterfish or blue zoo. R.G. read more

I wish I read the yelp reviews before I purchased from the company. 2 out of 3 of the albino cory catfish I order died the first day; 1 was dead on arrival, the other I found upside down in the tank this evening. The third looks lethargic and unhealthy, so I doubt it will survive much longer. It shouldn't have come as a surprise as the bag they came in was almost completely out of oxygen, so they probably suffocated. Next are the 3 black skirt tetras, which appear to be in good shape, but they are really tiny, like I've never seen black skirt tetras sold that small in a fish store. Whatever, they seem healthy so hopefully they live long enough to actually grow. I originally ordered 3 guppy's, but when the package arrived, there were no guppies to be found. I found that they were inexplicably removed from my order. No call or email telling me that the guppies wouldn't be shipped giving me an opportunity to purchase something else, it was just not sent. When I told customer service about them never arriving they gave me some BS about it possibly not passing a health inspection or whatever, but when I check the site, the guppy's I ordered are still listed as available. The only reason I ordered from this company is because my state is essentially quarantined due to COVID. Never again. I will be waiting until the local aquatics stores are doing business again, or will order from somewhere else, AFTER READING THE REVIEWS, never Liveaquaria. This company is terrible. read more

This is the worst fish company i have ever dealt with. we ordered 8 platinum angelfish, Cardinal tetra's, and neon tetra's The cardinals were shipped but arrived half dead, a few of them were dead in the bag. The rest died a day after. the neon's died off pretty much on arrival. The platinum's were a total different story. Live Aquaria stated they were out of stock, so we waited one week for our back order shipment. to hear, for some reason the back order wasn't shipped. So we wait another week, I call on Thursday they say everything is alright! expect them this weekend, I call on Friday after we were supposed to receive a shipping label, and well well, they didn't ship the fish, again. So we wait another week, and they didn't ship them again. So this Monday we decided to revise the order and have them ship new cardinals. I asked please make sure they are in stock, I was assured they were. and now here we are, no shipment. Not even an explanation. This company is not worth the time invested. We were assured they would investigate why the supplier didn't ship us the platinum's, i was assured to get a call for 2 weeks. The fish even went back onto sale during this entire 3 week period, we never got any explanation about why they weren't shipped. I'm leaving this review to hopefully ward future customers from this company. We will not be doing further business with them. (We ordered platinum's elsewhere, they arrived within a day and are doing very well) read more

Terrible purchase. I ordered 5 weather loaches and 12 snails. Three of the five loaches arrived dead, and a fourth is swimming upside down erratically. Will never order fish online again, but I wanted to explicitly warn people from purchasing from Live Aquaria. read more

Good product. The worst customer service I have experienced. I placed an order March 2015. The 'order' shipped the next day. It was someone else's order. All the livestock where happy and healthy - but nothing that I ordered or could use. Emailed, called - 'Can I get my order', 'Can you credit my account?' - NOTHING. Never respondent to emails, the phone hacks where less that helpful and promised that it will be corrected, even faxed a written letter. Over a month later - nothing. Lot's of better places on the Internet without the huge gouge of 'shipping charges'. Will not do business with them or their shill - Dr's Foster and Smith. Use at your own risk. read more

WARNING-DO NOT BUY 5-23-15 I ordered a medium bubble tip anemone. They shipped me a small one that was so stressed out it died same day. It arrived with its mouth hanging outward. I emailed them a photo and they gave me store credit. I ate the 39.99 shipping. A few days later I thought perhaps they actually feel sympathetic and will do a better job the second time around. I would use the store credit and order another medium bubble tip. '' This second one arrived and larger then the first ''but its water had mostly leaked out of the bag causing it so much stress that's its mouth ( just like the first) is also out. The bag also smelled like dead fish. While it is alive and going a eight hours it will not survive. They seem to think they can use a metal tie on the bag and that will hold the little amount of water they give the animal. The metal tie was not tight. I would never ship an animal that way. Even local pet stores do a better job and they know you don't have that long a travel with it. One bag is supposed to be placed with its opening downward and tied off and then an elastic band. The outside bags opening should be opposite the internal bag and again tied off and an elastic band or metal tie. The most important thing is enough water. ""People"" baboons could do a better job then live aquaria /DEAD aquaria They only care about your money. They boast about hiring the top notch employees. What a joke. To Petco.--You did your customers a great disservice buy using live/dead aquaria. One final note. One would think when shipping from California to New Hampshire which is quite literally across the continent that at least some care would go into the packaging. However I guess once they have the money they don't care wether the animals die I would give zero stars if it were an option ... Do yourself a favor people. Go to your local or nearest pet store and have them order what you want !!!!! I JUST DID. Now I know the animal will live when I get it. Update: Anemone lost its internal organs at 01:22 That makes two dead bubble tip anemones dead-aquaria killed. I will file a paypal dispute. I don't hink anyone should have to tolerate there level of stupidity towards unsuspecting customers and the animals they kill. read more

The worst delivery shipping ever. I order a domestic koi and they said ur order has been canceled. And due to the weather they wouldnt even ship my order until next week. read more

I've been buying fish from them since Sep. 2017. Out of 52 fish purchased 38 of them have died within 1 day to 3 weeks after receiving them. Most of the fish come with damaged fins and tails. I just lost 12 fish in 11 days due to the rainbowfish I ordered from them arriving sick. I started medicating right away and feeding medicated food but unfortunately it didn't help. I have literally lost close to $1000 worth of fish. Everytime I suffer a big loss in my tank the one common factor is that it's always after I purchase fish from them. Their quality of fish is horrible. My local petco and petsmart has much better quality fish than them. I'm DONE with liveaquaria. Because of their poor quality fish I'm heart broken right now. I lost a bunch of fish that I've had for quite a while. Now I'm doing everything I can to save the rest of my fish. I cannot in good faith recommend this company to anyone looking to buy fish online. I've been keeping fish for the past 24 years, my tanks are very well taken care of, water parameters remain perfect and stable. read more

For the second time in 3 days I have received all dead fish, and the last woman I talked to at the company thought this was just a funny comedy of errors. I will never buy from them again, 15 dead fish. The company, their fish vendor and UPS are all horrible. I will go with Pet Solutions in the future. read more

I have purchased quite a few fish here. Theee of which have died a few days after I received. I will say the refund policy was very easy process. One problem I did have was I had waited a couple weeks to purchase my next fish as I was on vacation I the day before we came back I ordered my next fish with next day delivery. paid extra for Saturday delivery. There were two different options For countries I could pick my Bi color Angel from and many sizes to choose from. I picked large sized from Figi I believe it didn't relieve matter to me. The money deducted out of my bank but I never received confirmation email or tracking info and ups never arrived. When I called company I was told they were having problems with emails getting to folks and my order was on back order. When I said website said it showed available operator said well it could have not passed health check for travel. I'm confused if that's the case why I was not contacted that I would not get fish today or given option to go with another size or perhaps the one out of Indonesia?? Very disappointed as I had been sitting waiting for 2 hours read more

this is the worst customer service and horrbile comnay i have ever dealt this...they make you jump thru a million hoops to not have to pay you back for their mistakes...i order over $300 in fish and got nothing near what i ordered and paid for, i ordered a 1 1/2 size passer angel and got a 1/8 inch tiny queen angel, ordered a mediume 3 1/2 inch harlequin tusk and got a 3/4 inch tusk almost dead....they asked me for a million pictures i sent them and they now refuse to correct their mistakes, they want em to take the fish out put them in white background lighting and re take all pcitures, soemthing absurd t just not have to do the right thing....buyer beware at its most read more

I used to shop here quite often and make decent orders. when I had an issue they would fix it with no problem. I recently placed an order and 2 fish died, and one of which I received we're the incorrect size. I sent in the pictures of what I could get of a tiny clownfish in comparison to a quarter. (extremely hard to do by the way when they are zipping around in the bag or acclimation box). I was told they were 1 1/2 inches. Really? a quarter is not that size. I sent in pictures of my other dead fish and put them in the freezer with salt as they instructed me to do (waiting for the verdict on that). even though in the past they have sent me wrong items I've never fretted over it as they would fix their mistake. Now it's like jumping through hoops and back forth emails. No they do not appreciate our business as they say, however, I'm getting the impression that this recent policy change is due to dishonest people. A shame, they have lost my business as well. read more

WOW, I orderd 36 Rummy nose tetas and the packaging was amazing. All 36 arrived alive. Only one was having touble and I did not put that one in my tank. Very impessive, as rummys usually do not ship well. I have purchased rummys online 2 other times from other companies and the fist had a 50% sucsess rate and the other 17 out of 30 lived. I will use liveaquaia again. read more

I have 3 thriving reef aquariums with inhabitants I have had for years. I have spent definitely over a $1000 at liveaquaria/diver's den but yet have very little to show for it. If you keep a reef liveaquaria keeps their fish at 1.018 sg so be prepared for a 2 hour acclimation and hope the best. Somehow the coral from dd arrive nicely but never make it. Looking for that specific size, forget about it: I've ordered a fish listed at 2" from dd to arrive barely at 1". I've ordered fish listed as 2-3" and requested the smallest possible from liveaquaria, and it arrived a full grown 5". As much as I want what I want and get frustrated when my lfs doesn't deliver; I will never order from this place again. read more

I purchased live fish, live plants, and frozen foods from Liveaquaria recently. I got all of the packages the next day after ordering them. The packages shipped well and were packed alright. They gave most fish too big of a bag, which caused them to slosh around quite a bit. There were a large amount of DOAs. A lot of the shrimp were stuck to the top of the bag, dead, from the sloshing. A lot of fish also did not arrive alive. I acclimated them all in each their own seperate, and cycled, tanks. After releasing them and taking out the deceased fish, I noticed how extemely malnourished they looked. They were very boney looking. Within a few days, almost all of them died. I was preforming water tests, constantly checking perameters and the temperature, and preformed consistent water changes. Everything was completely fine, and they kept dying. After taking pictures and providing evidence, they did refund the dead fish. I did appreciate how soon their customer service replied, but I'm left with barely any living fish at all. What they shipped me was completely unacceptable. Nobody should have to pay a lot of money for dead or malnourished fish. After seeing the recent reviews of this year, it is clear that numerous people are having the same issue. I suggest staying away from liveaquaria until they better their livestock. read more

Let me start by saying no matter what steps a company takes some fish are going to die in transport or after transport because they get stressed. I actually ordered more fish than I needed because I expected to lose one or two since they were being shipped all the way to Alaska! To my surprise all came in alive. One of my female guppies had given birth in the shipping bag. So take note if you are ordering guppies they will come to you pregnant and will give birth within a week (all 4 of mine did)! Due to the stress of the shipping and birth the female guppy succumbed to columnaris and promptly died within 1 day in the tank. Unfortunately she had already infected the other adults so they slowly died off one by one. At the time I was not aware that it was columnaris and had no idea how to treat what was going on. By the time I got the antibiotics in the tank I was down to two fish. I will say that my other fish, snails and shrimp that I ordered (and house separately from the guppies) are doing great. The reason I am giving this company a good review is because of their customer service. At no point have they tried to blame the guppies dying from a disease on me. They have promptly replied to my emails and refunded me the price of each and every fish that I have lost (no refund on shipping of course). They even extended the warranty to ensure that I was able to save the remaining two guppies and if they do not make it they will refund me for them as well. On a positive note all of the females were able to give birth before dying and left me with a bunch of little guppy fry so if the fry make it I will have more fish than I originally ordered :) read more

well a week ago i ordered 2 dozen turbo snails and 2 dozen trochus snails . normaly i would not order anything live online and have it deliverd but were only talking snails not fragile coral or delicate fish. well i should have followed my gut . i paid for it and so did the snails all of the turbo snails were dead so i called right away to let them know and they said they could credit me or send me another order of snails . sense all the other snails were fine and survived i thought it was probaly not a problem maybe it was just a fluke that one batch died so they sent me another batch of turbo snails and two days latter i got the order and half of that order was dead 11 turbo snails were dead. i called them and agian they offerd to credit me or send me more . in the best intrest of the snails i choose to be credited and not be sent more snails . the bags were leaking and the water was really dark and dirty not sure if they have a quality dept, but overall it was not exceptable at all. never agian. read more