It is our upmost concern that our fishy friends travel is safe for them. Nothing vexes us more than finding out one of our Betta arrived unwell or worse. When we moved to a tank based system in our original small Tampa warehouse it drastically decreased our ability to long term house fish due to our contractual obligation on incoming shipments. In order to maintain the low prices we have we are required to have regular shipments of fish and this means we could not house fish past their last available date or the next shipping date. Our final contract requiring a certain number of fish to be imported expired this Nov and we will not be signing another one for 2024 since we intend to start breeding the majority of the fish we sell ourselves and we will no longer be importing as frequently. Coupled with out now 4x larger space for tanks we believe that we can stop being so strict about ship dates.

From Jan 1st 2024 forward ALL outgoing shipments will be checked on the day before their ship date. If the temperature on the route OR at the final destination will be under 40 degrees or over 90 degrees at ANYTIME during the 1-3 day period following the ship date we will NOT ship your fish UNLESS it is being shipped overnight. If there is any sort of winter storm warning, hurricane warning, or tornado warning in the area of delivery or on the route we will NOT ship your fish EVEN if it is being shipped overnight. If the temperature on the route or at the final destination is going to be over 100 degrees or under 35 degrees we will NOT ship your fish EVEN if it is being shipped overnight. We will no longer require hold for pickup as an option we will simply NOT ship as hold for pickup requires the cooperation of the carrier and that cannot be guaranteed and their inability to read/follow direction can lead to the suffering of the fish needlessly. We can no longer trust them to follow this request and therefore we have to change our policy in the best interest of the fish.

If we decide not to ship your fish because of weather you will be alerted via email and may choose any of the ship dates in the next 2 weeks instead. If you do not respond to the email with a specific date we will ship your fish on the next ship date where the tempo are in the safe range. We will only skip up to 2 ship dates, after the 2nd ship date we will email you letting you know your option to cancel for store credit to order at better time when your climate is safer or you may elect to have us board for your fish for $4 a week until it is safe if you really want that specific fish. If you decide for some reason you need us to hold your fish for you longer than 2 weeks or YOU decide we need to skip the ship date you agreed to when ordering there will be a $4 a week boarding charge due at the start of Monday of each week that the fish cannot be shipped. We will suspend all shipments to Hawaii and Alaska from Nov 1st to March 1st each year due to transit time delays and climate control issues presented when shipping to these states at this time of year.

The $4 a week is per fish or $12 a week for up to 10 fish whichever is less. This covers the cost of labor and food to care for your fish whilst here as well as the loss of usable tanks while we wait for safer shipping weather. We do not warranty your fish against tail or fin damage whilst here nor sudden marble gene changes in color and should your fish pass away while being boarded you will only be due STORE credit.

Due to eBay NOT allowing us to hold shipments without an account strike we will simply cancel all eBay purchases if the weather is outside the safe threshold. We apologize for any inconvenience however the fish being able to arrive safely should be everyone’s primary concern.

For 2024 we will ONLY be shipping with UPS. There will be no USPS option. Our confidence in USPS is at an all time low and when they do drop the ball they have zero accountability for it. They simply do not care. They have little to no customer service to speak of and if something happens they take days at best to address it. Coupled with the fact our local post office is literally open 3 days a week for 4 hours and it makes using them untenable. The only exceptions are shipments to the isles due to UPS considering them international shipments and shipments to AK/HI.

From Jan 1st 2024 forward ALL refunds will be refunded as store credit only with VERY rare exceptions. 2023 saw a large rash of people ordering and then wanting refunds before their orders shipped. This gets very expensive as most processing fees charged to take your payment methods to us are not refunded even when we refund you. Therefore we are only allowing refunds to payment methods in extraordinary circumstances to be determined entirely and solely by us. Please be sure you are ready for your fish and are sure about buying one BEFORE ORDERING. There will be a 25% restocking fee for all orders refunded to original payment method PRIOR to shipping.