how safe are online coral vendors?

I understand this is kind of a loaded question but How often do you guys orders livestock offline from say Liveaquaria.com? I will be purchasing my first corals soon and i have always been a fan pf keeping it local. However these sights have a really awesome selections. I suppose my question is what is the success rate for mailing live corals being as sensitive as they are?

 

I bought countless corals, fish and other inverts from Liveaquaria, with only a few rare instances did I have to contact customer service.

Reefcorner is another favorite of mine, great shipper, nice nice guy.

 

It varies from store to store. I've read awesome things about a store in one or few reviews then another horrible things. I usually go by who has the best reviews and best guarantees.

 

Liveaquaria and bluezooaquatics always seem to give me much larger pieces than advertised. Just received a peach digitata from LA today actually, sold as 1"-2" and this sucker is huge. At least 5" tall with 6 branches.

Past sps orders from BZA have came with Acro crabs in the pieces. Pretty cool. I'd recommend both those vendors.

 

The ones I tend to stay away from are the ones that don't have a doa policy, don't have positive reviews and are not sponsors on the forums. I have found that the ones that are sponsors are more likely to come to some sort of agreement when it comes to doa and or unhealthy animals.

 

Usually I go directly to auquaculture facilities like Pacific East (Maryland) or Tropicorium (Michigan). I live in VA and my in-laws are in MI. But last night I decided to take a shot at online and I ordered some frags from aqua-sd on ebay. I'll let you know what I think when they arrive tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

 

Good luck!

 

AquaSD is a very known place in San Diego. Very reputable and great service. I do not think you would have issues with them.

 

Just ordered from aqua-sd as well. Extremely pleased. They even gave me some freebies. Good Luck!

 

cool thanks for the advice