Does anyone have experiences with aquatic-store?

carbon etc · Post by **carbon etc** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 6:13 pm

I'm curious about the quality of aquatic-store.

I have about an $80 purchase I'd like to make at their store (my main priority is pearl shrimp, and these are the only people I can find besides the infamous azgardens that carry them), but naturally I'd prefer not to if they have a bad rep.

Has anyone ordered shrimp from them before? Did they arrive alive and healthy? Packaged well? Was the shipment timely? I'm also trying to plan it so the shrimp get here on a day that's not forecasted to be 90deg... but if they'll ship whenever they feel like it that isn't going to work...

Shrimp&Snails · Post by **Shrimp&Snails** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 3:55 pm

I'm in the UK and know better than to ask on here.....even though we poor Brits are practically shrimpless compared to other shrimp happy nations.

If you see anyone on this shrimp site that lives locally to you then feel free to PM them to ask where they got their shrimp....or wait until Mustafa gets the shrimp you're after in stock.

Best of luck.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 4:23 pm

Positive or negative dealer reviews are OK as long as they are factual.. What isn't allowed is asking where to buy or offering to sell. Knowing both good & bad dealers is important.

What isn't welcome is links to websites for the purposes of selling or buying, or asking where to buy products or shrimp.

If you check the board often you can pretty easily figure out who has what and PM them. Mustafa is also pretty good about turning you on to good people too and is good about answering PM's.

Hey, you can't have much of a shrimp board if you can't get shrimp in people's hands, can you? The point is we don't want this to degrade to a bazzar.

carbon etc · Post by **carbon etc** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:13 pm

I picked a thread where the store in question was already asked about, figuring that since it wasn't locked or criticized, it might be kosher. A search for the store in question yielded no posts where someone mentioned firsthand experience with them, so how I'm supposed to guess who to PM, I have no clue.

I would absolutely love to buy all my future shrimp from Mustafa, but his selection just isn't under my control.

Until then, it's crucial to both us and to the hobby as a whole that we know who not to buy from. I don't want to just keep a bad shrimp store in business for one more day.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:56 pm

The worst offender is AZ Gardens. They get negative press all over the place. Read the fine print on any of the websites. Places that don't give a live arrival guarantee, even with express shipping, are to be suspect. Ones that ask you to pay shipping if they screw up should be avoided as well.

People I've dealt with and can recommend are Mustafa (of course) and Frank's Aquarium. I have mixed reviews for aquariumfish.net. Got live shrimp, expensive shipping, no customer support. I have not ordered from them since.

If you google a store on the web you are bound to find someone saying something about them. If there are a lot of unhappy people, you'll know what to expect. The fact that they have no "buz" on the net at all seems very odd.

carbon etc · Post by **carbon etc** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 6:48 pm

Hmm, googling them doesn't get me anywhere either... maybe no news is good news?

Ok, since there isn't any experience with them here, I guess I should be the one to take the plunge and report back to the forum on how it goes, if you guys are interested.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 4:35 am

As far as who to pm, search on the shrimp species you are interested in, not the store. Whoever keeps these shrimp got them someplace.

If you decide to go the ebay or aquabid route, be carefull and read the feedbacks. Be sure there is feedback on the shrimp you want and that they aren't just dumping inferior shrimp. I got some RCS from an ebay seller that were a mix of wild and hybrid wild, and not red at all. No way to tell with the juvies.