Fish and Aquatic Pets for Sale
Browse freshwater and saltwater fish, shrimp and other aquatic pets from breeders across the United States.
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Buying fish & aquatics: what to look at
You cannot pick a fish up, so everything you can learn comes from watching the tank it is in and from asking about the water. Spend the first few minutes on the tank and ignore the fish you came for.
Judge the tank before the fish
A dead fish anywhere in the tank ends the visit, because whatever killed it has already reached the one you want. Otherwise look for fish hanging at the surface and gulping, fins clamped to the body, white salt-grain spots on the fins or flanks, cloudy eyes, frayed fin edges, or a fish rubbing itself against the decor. Any one of those in any fish is a tank-wide problem, not an individual one.
Ask how long it has been in that tank
A fish that arrived from a wholesaler this week is still stressed from the journey and will show whatever it is carrying about a week from now, in your tank. A seller who has held it for two weeks or more has done your quarantine for you. Then ask to see it eat. A fish that comes to the front and takes food is in better shape than any amount of colour suggests.
Ask about the water, in numbers
Temperature, pH and hardness, and salinity for a marine fish. What matters on the day is not the ideal in a book but how far the seller's water is from yours, because a fish dropped from one into the other without a slow acclimation is the fish that dies overnight for no visible reason. Ask whether it has been raised in tap water or reverse osmosis water, and match that.
Ask what it eats, and whether it actually eats it
Wild-caught fish and a few specialists refuse flake and pellet entirely. A mandarin will starve in a tank without live copepods, and plenty of wild-caught tetras and loaches never learn to take dry food. A seller who has it eating frozen or prepared food has solved your biggest problem already, so ask for that specifically.
Get the species name and the adult size
Common names are loose, so ask for the scientific name and check it. A common pleco, a pacu, an iridescent shark or a redtail catfish is sold at two inches and grows to something no ordinary tank can hold, and the seller may not mention that. For shoaling species ask how many are available, because six or more of the same fish is the number that keeps them settled. If it is being shipped, ask how it is packed and what the seller's own arrival terms are before you pay.
More on choosing a seller and reading a listing on the PetListings blog.