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Places to Buy Cardinal Sulawesi Shrimp


JSak

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Hi all,

 

I started another thread on how to ship Cardinal shrimp and the methods experienced keepers of these shrimp recommend or prefer to get a better idea of how to find a good seller, and how I can possibly ship them in the future. I decided to make a new thread documenting my experiences with sellers/breeders of these shrimp since they seem very popular, very hard to find, fairly expensive, and require strict shipping conditions more or less. I’ve scoured through all the shrimp websites I could find (probably around 10), and although I could find sellers who sold Cardinals, most of them were sold out. Aquatic Arts is by far 1 of my 2 favorite vendors of shrimp, snails and fish (Flip Aquatics being the other), and they actually sell the Cardinals, but they were sold out and I assume they won’t stay up on the site for long once they restock. They follow excellent shipping protocol and display genuine care and concern for their animals and the customers. If you’re willing to wait, I would highly recommend them above anyone else. Another good vendor that sells these shrimp, but is currently sold out, is Blue Crown Aquatic. Most of their shrimp are imports (not sure about Cardinals), but so far I have been very impressed with them.

 

That aside, I’m impatient and wanted to get the shrimp settled before it gets to cold here in the Midwest, and before exams start (I’ll have at least 1 exam a week so getting lots of time-sensitive packages would add additional stress). I tried out 3 different vendors so far: an Aquabid seller by the name of Invertz Factory, a website called BreedInUSA.com, and an EBay seller by the name of Aquariumprofessionalcare0. 

 

To keep this short, all the Cardinals from Invertz Factory came in DOA. He provided overnight shipping and a heat pack; packaging was good imo, but I felt the package and volume of water in the bags were too small and the package may have heated up too quickly (just my thoughts). Seller was difficult to communicate with, but ultimately gave me a partial refund and told me he won’t be shipping any animals out until he researches and finds the problem (very good practice as a seller). I offered to provide info or feedback to help him figure it out, but he never replied.

 

BreedinUSA.com shipped only priority USPS, which worried me, so I only ordered a few to test how they fared with their shipping method after learning that Cardinals need at least 80 degrees F water temp and preferably overnight shipping because they’re very sensitive and difficult to ship. 2 days later, all the shrimp +1 extra arrived alive and very healthy. Seller provided at least double the water volume in the bag as the last seller and put lots of java moss. I may order more from this seller and I was told he has at least 50-80 shrimp still in stock, but probably more because they’re always hiding, so he still has a very good sized stock. He said his shrimp are hardy because he adds new shrimp every year to strengthen the genetic pool (really liked that).

 

Aquariumprofessionalcare0 had a 97% review rating with overnight Fedex shipping, but he required a signature, so I bought 20 from him. I asked if he could either hold the package for pickup if he shipped them out during the week, or if he could plan for a Saturday delivery. Long story short, he barely communicated with me and several days later, told me at the end of the day on Saturday that he had shipped the shrimp yesterday (Friday) and to make sure I was home to sign for the package. I freaked out because I had left for a couple hours to run errands and to get a new tank as one of mine decided to spring a leak overnight. I basically had to do everything myself by calling Fedex to find my package, and found out it wouldn’t be delivered until Monday (3 days in transit). Told the seller that he put restrictions on the package that wouldn’t allow me to change the delivery option and he told me he’d call Monday morning to get them to hold it for pickup since I knew I wouldn’t be home Monday morning to sign for it. I didn’t trust the seller, so I put a signature release form on my door and the shrimp were delivered this morning. Fortunately, only 5 seemed to have come in DOA but they looked like they were dead for a while and the water reeked, so I immediately put the 15 shrimp that were alive in the tank. Honestly, the packaging was very good, and the shrimp look nice considering they’re probably very stressed out, but the lack of communication is huge for me, considering I spent over $200 on these shrimp and since they’re extremely sensitive. 

 

Overall, I wouldn’t say that the sellers I tried were absolutely terrible (there were positives for each one), but I wouldn’t recommend the 1st or 3rd sellers as they didn’t communicate very well and didn’t seem very empathetic of my concerns. Ironically, the seller who shipped priority without a heat pack proved to be the most reliable. If you’re looking for Cardinals right now, I’d recommend BreedInUSA.com. Seller seemed very nice and genuinely engaged in the email conversations I had about the shrimp. Sorry for the long post, I went through a lot to get the Cardinals I have now (more so than any other type of shrimp I’ve received) and I left out a lot of the process. Hope this helps somebody!

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