Aquarium Fish Depot

If I could give zero stars, I would. Avoid this store at all cost!!! I placed an order with Aquarium Fish Depot on April 8th, and it turned into one of the worst customer service and livestock experiences I’ve ever had. Before ordering, I emailed them to ask if I could place an order but delay shipping until April 17th. They responded and said yes, and told me to include the request in the order comments, which I did. Right after placing the order, I also replied to their confirmation email (which instructed me to reply if I wanted to add Route shipping protection) and asked them to add Route. They never responded. I emailed again on April 15th asking for an update and again requested Route protection. Still no reply. I called on April 15th — no answer. I called again on April 16th and left a voicemail. No one ever called me back. Then, the evening of April 16th, I suddenly received a shipping confirmation. They had shipped the order without responding to any of my messages, and had quietly refunded one item — the Captive-Bred Orchid Dottyback — without explanation. Worse, the order was incomplete, and several fish arrived dead or in critical condition. --- What Arrived Alive: Coral Beauty Angelfish Firefish Goby Royal Gramma Cleaner Shrimp Pistol Shrimp 1 of 2 Fromia Starfish --- What Never Arrived: Hector’s Goby Yellow Watchman Goby --- What Was Refunded Before Shipping: Captive-Bred Orchid Dottyback --- What Arrived DOA or Died Within an Hour: 2 Lyretail Anthias – Dead on arrival 1 Lyretail Anthias – Arrived half-dead, died within the hour Midas Blenny – Dead on arrival 1 of 2 Fromia Starfish – Dead on arrival --- That’s 7 animals either dead or never sent. I followed all acclimation instructions exactly and documented everything with photos and timestamps. The worst part is that they completely ghosted me after confirming delayed shipping would be fine. I gave them multiple opportunities to respond and resolve things — they chose not to. Avoid Aquarium Fish Depot. They do not stand behind their orders, they do not respond to customer concerns, and they clearly do not care about customer experience.

On January 29th,25 at 4:01pm. Baby Common Dojo Loach arrived. Speechless I have no words but amazing. This was my first time ordering from Aquarium fish depot ended up ordering two common dojo loach. I must say just beautiful the package was top notch. It really show the amount of care they put in making sure that the fishes are protected based on where ever they are shipped to. I love the emails update even when I had questions about what to feed my fishes they got back to me the same day or the next following day. As well as not rushing to ship them out they really care and pay attention to the weather in making sure that the fishes are safe before shipping out in bad weather. All I would say is I recommend if you’re a fish mom or dad I would order here. Make sure to do an overnight which is something they would recommend and I would as well. The packaging you won’t regret. 😘😘😘

Fish all died within 2 1/2 days. I bought 10 Chili rasboras. Was lured by the moving sale. But it doesn't save money if they all die. They did look healthy in the store. I had walked around the store once before. Both times, the staff was polite, but barely engaged. Other stores in the area have staff that ask if you need anything and seem passionate about the hobby and interested in helping you out. Those stores are busy, this store was empty both times. yet still had the least engaged staff. Not a welcoming environment, especially for a person new to the hobby. I had fully cycled my Quarantine tank and the water parameters (were and still are) great throught this time in this review. No signs of illness, but they all just died quickly. I now know it wasn't my tank because in addition to great water parameters, a week later I have other fish quarantining in the same tank. Not even a water change and they are doing great! I will stick to another local store that has friendly helpful engaged staff and fish that do great after bringing them home. Also, this store is more expensive overall, so it turns out the sale just brought them just under the regular price of the store that I mainly go to. There are three other stores in San Diego that are not big box stores, This should be last on your list in my opinion. Disinterested staff, poor quality fish, and overpriced.

DO NOT waste your time or money with this business. Three weeks ago, I placed an order after discussing specifics with Patrick, who assured me the items would ship the following week. Not only did this fail to happen, but the company then proceeded to ghost me entirely. Despite repeated calls and emails over the next week, there was **ZERO RESPONSE** until I escalated my inquiries. Only then did they casually reply, claiming the order would finally ship. This week, however, I received a cold, one-word email: **“Canceled.”** No explanation. No apology. No accountability. This is not merely poor service—it’s a blatant demonstration of dishonesty and incompetence. Patrick’s misleading assurances, coupled with the company’s refusal to communicate transparently or honor commitments, reflect a shocking lack of professionalism. How a business can operate with such disregard for basic customer decency is beyond comprehension. This experience has been a frustrating waste of time, and I strongly urge others to steer clear. A company that lies to clients, ignores inquiries, and cancels orders without justification does not deserve your trust—or your money. **Save yourself the headache.** Look elsewhere for a business that respects its customers. I SHOULD HAVE RELIED ON THE LATEST REVIEW PRIOR TO MINE BY GREG. BE WARNED.

Ordered fish back on Feb 15th, and their website said they would start shipping the following Monday. After I had to send an email to them a few weeks later asking why it hadn't shipped, they said it was too cold to ship still. Fine, I can live with that, to protect the fish. However, I had to send them another email 2 weeks ago, stating I would be out of town, and not to send my fish while I was gone, or I wouldn't be around to accept them, and their return policy having to film yourself opening the box within 30 minutes of receiving them wasn't going to happen. Took a bit, but they said they would wait til I got back from my trip. During my trip I got an email stating they were shipping them - and I wouldn't be around to accept - so I really laid into how poor their communication and customer service was, after they said they would wait til I got back home. They stopped the shipping, and said shipping hadn't received the message. I got back on Friday, sent an email stating I was back and to ship. It's now Monday (they only close on Thursday) and I had to resend another email telling them I would have rather drove 2 hours north to a local shop instead of dealing with their crappy customer service had I known. I just received an email stating they shipped - can't wait to see what condition they are in. Do yourself a favor - don't buy from this place with their poor communication and lack of customer service. Just imagine how it's going to be if one or more of them died during transportation.... What a joke they are! EDIT: Fish arrived - 5 were dead upon arrival, and my 10 Chili Rasboras that I ordered were something completely different - definitely not the Chili Rasboras that I ordered! After complaining to them about it - they refunded me the price of the Chili's, but not the other fish that had died, and their response was "shipping confirmed it was what I ordered". What a complete joke of a company with no customer service. DO NOT BUY FROM THEM! They won't even refund your money completely. Horrible all the way around - go elsewhere!