LiveAquaria
reviews and complaints

As someone deeply passionate about aquariums and marine life, I understand the importance of reliable suppliers. LiveAquaria has garnered mixed reviews from customers, reflecting a range of experiences. While some have praised the quality of the fish and timely delivery, others have faced challenges such as receiving dead items, poor customer service, and issues with store credit expiration. It's evident that LiveAquaria needs to address these concerns to ensure a consistently positive experience for all customers. As you consider purchasing from LiveAquaria, it's essential to weigh these varied experiences and make an informed decision based on your specific needs and expectations.

I've used Liveaquaria site for two years now. I am an avid aquarium hobbyist. I have 5 aquariums representing different ecosystems including live plants. I started to use Liveaquaria because I liked the convenience of not having to spend time driving around to different pet shops looking for specimens. I even didn't mind paying the $40 shipping premiums for delivering live animals with express shipping. I would say that about 60% of my orders actually arrived alive. Of that 60%, 100% of the animals were sick in some way. Some eventually died and some I was able to save in my hospital tank. Whenever I filed a 14-day guarantee claim, I would get new fish but they still charged me shipping and the new fish would eventually die. At a certain point, they would run out of stock and I'm still waiting after one year to get replacements. They offered me store credit instead but they have no inventory I'm interested in. The most recent incident, I ordered some mollies for my wife's tank. 9 mollies. 1 arrived alive and the bag smelled like death and sewage. I entered a claim and waited two weeks. I figured give them time due to Covid. Two weeks no answer. I emailed them. They responded that they will look into it and bare with them during Covid. I finally just ordered 9 more to make my wife happy. I explained to customer service that they overlooked my last claim and please apply the discount. They did not respond. They simply shipped the fish. The website says you must be home to receive the live animals. I was home. I was waiting. My deliveries always came like clockwork between 10:30am- 11AM. I waited until 11:30. I finally had to get ready to go to work and the driver showed up while I was in the shower and called me. I didn't answer so he left claiming he could not get access. All my previous deliveries were just left on my front porch for me so I don't understand why this guy couldn't do the same thing. They said I could go across town and pick it up after 6pm (While I am at work). I couldn't do that. So I called out sick the next day to be home to receive. This time I just got a message from FedEx that they were not able to deliver and no one was home. No phone call or knock on the door. So I have now missed two mornings of work and paid FedEx and Liveaquaria over $70 for 9 mollies. And I was home for both delivery times. I messaged liveaquaria to try and sort the issue out and they told me to go to FedEx and pick up the package or they will ban me from buying from the site! It is now 3 days later! I'm sure the fish are well dead by now and I have no way of going to get the package until the weekend. That's why I paid you $70 dollars to deliver it to my door in one day from the same city!

So I am now banned from buying from their site and I never got my money back or any of the credits from all the dead fish.

Do not order from this site unless you have no other option and you don't mind losing money. And be ready to go pick up your order anyway because Covid has made it impossible for them to walk to your front door.

I ordered BLONDE tux guppies. They are orange and white. See attached picture. I was sent RED tux guppies. The item number for the Blonde Tux Guppies is Item: CN-89822. I've included the bag label and the item number for the fish sent. Also the picture from their web site for the RED tux guppies. This isn't rocket science. Someone messed up. BUT Liveaquaria won't step up. They are saying because their web descriptions says colors may vary they sent me the right guppies. Its just guppies folks. Its not a kidney transplant. But come on, step up. We ALL make mistakes. Making mistakes isn't the problem. NOT accepting responsibility is unacceptable.

3/11/19 Update of My Review:
I was contacted by a very helpful service rep (Eric) who offered to assist with the issue noted in original review. Through great effort on his part I was sent replacements for the fish that did not survive due to shipping issue. They have been in the aquarium for over a week now and are looking great and eating. Giving credit where credit is due... Live Aquaria did step up to address my complaint and make things right. Thanks again Eric!

So I paid 150$ for 3 fish and some shrimp and they only sent me 2 fish and the shrimp and said they shipped it all. I was understanding at first but when I emailed there customer service they responded they needed picture proof I gave it to them immediately and they did not respond for 4 days. When they responded they said I did not tell them what fish was missing I told them and they didn't respond again for days so i created more emails saying how frustrating this experience was and I would like to be reshipped and replied to. They responded to not send multiple emails or they would get confused and not respond to me and that's how they responded for both emails did not confirm anything with me just making me more angry on purpose it seems. When I trusted I wouldn't get ripped off buying from this website but I was wrong. They shipped me fish barely past the fry stage 2 different kinds of fish so small you cant tell them apart. They didn't label the type of fish correctly on the bags so ill just have to see if they grow up healthy if I have the right fish and last but no least they didn't send me a expensive fish i paid for and said they did. It was a absolute terrible experience buying from liveaquaria.com

This review is for Live Aquaria on-line...
Shipping bags arrived leaking... lost most of the water from one bag. Due to this leak the saturated shipping box was opened for inspection at the airport... resulting in further stress to the fish. 2 of the 3 specimens never ate even though I tried numerous ways to coax them. I am working to keep the 3rd alive. The 2 fish that died managed to survive for 18 days... the guarantee period is 14 days. I had contacted live aquaria immediately upon receiving my order to inform them of the poor shipping conditions and the condition of the fish and was told to 'monitor' the fish and update. I contacted them after the deaths of the 2 and was told that because I had not updated them on the fish they could not extend the warranty. Apparently the problem with the fish wasn't the very poor shipping preparation and the severely leaking bags but the fact that I hadn't emailed them to tell them that the fish were stressed and just languishing... so that was their excuse. Emails from them were nothing more but the standard 'sorry, can't help ya but we value as a customer blah, blah, blah'. I will never even consider purchasing from Live Aquaria again. Neither will anyone else I talk to.

Do not buy fish from here! I purchased 5 fish from here. Experienced aquarist. Fish were quarintined.2 fish died within 7 days. Sent in the forms for the guarantee and never got a response. Another 2 died soon after. Only have 1 left after spending so much money on fish and the insane shipping cost. Also, website clearly states a size range. We purchased bigger fish because if not they would be eaten by the other fish and we received all tiny tiny baby fish forcing them to be quarintined for years had they not all died anyway. Buyer beware!

My first order from them was for 2 fish. When the shipment came there was only one fish that had a bad case of ich. I called the and they shipped out the 2nd one the following week. I paid for a medium sized fish and received a small saltwater butterfly fish that would never eat and eventually died...goodby $70!

I had put a notification request for an Australian Harlequin Tusk fish. i had been wanting to get one for a while and had a hard time finding one. So...I thought I'd give them another chance. I ordered a Juvenile/Medium which was advertised as 2 1/2" - 4 1/2" for $225. When it came in as a 2" fish I called and complained. This was the response:

"Thank you for the photos with measurement. As the item was a Juvenile Medium it is under the small Adult size stated of 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 inches for the adult small it would be more 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 inches for the Juvenile medium. We have submitted to update the page showing the juvenile sizes. our apologies it is the correct size."

So...they get away with changing the advertised size after the fact? And I should be OK with it!

The fish developed popeye 2 days later, and barely eats. I asked them to extend the warranty. I received it on 7/22/20222 and the 7 day warranty covered it to 7/13/2022. Here's the response:

"We have extended your warranty through 07/14/22"

An extension of 1 day! How generous!

I will copy and paste this everywhere I can!

I cancelled an order after it did not ship on time. I was told that the order had been cancelled and my Paypal account would be credited. I made a replacement order. 6 hours later I get a shipment notification on the original. I called back and was given a completely different story.

These folks are either incompetent, dishonest, or both.

Avoid them like the plague.

Beware - scam!
Liveaquaria site is very very deceptive. First, they offer free shipping of orders over $144.00. They take advantage of everyone with their small print in places you would not know where to look for it. I purchased fish and two aquarium products. The products cost me approx $20.00. I qualified for the free shipping but no where did it designate that they will ship the products and fish in separate invoices. The amounts of the order did not even calculate according to the information provided. The figures were off! They tagged me for shipping of approx. $26.99 for overnight delivery of only the two inexpensive products and not the fish but the fish is what qualifies for the free shipping. Beware of this unscrupulous companyi the products and fish did not even leave their warehouse when I tried to cancel but they did not honor that either. They say they have a policy that everything must be ordered/done by 9:30a central time if you can find the tiny tiny * on home page under the large free shipping!