Hi! I live in Sweden and Dans Fish is like going to Germany or ordering from there (the only country in Europe that ship to Sweden after UK left EU) and we all know Germany is THE place in the western world to get fish and other stuff while Holland rocks the plant section ahead of Germany. Here in Sweden the hobby is dying 90% of the stores closed during Covid-19 and also the ban to ship fish nationally, Sweden is in a very sad state at the moment, but I used to supply the stores in Stockholm during the 90s with Apistos and now after 20 years working abroad around the world I am back and will start again with breeding certain fish. TY for such a good site/channel man, Cheers from Sweden
Whoa! Keep the hobby alive. Time for fish black market lol 😆. Nothing cold water friendly of course. But im going to do a video soon on how the soviet union caused differences we still see today in angel and apisto lines
He pays the suppliers to lower the numbers in the bags too. Definitely the tops when it comes to ethics. Also, bags individually even rummynose tetras. The platinums are phenomenal. He is cheaper than my LFS, took 6 rummynose to become cheaper with the shipping.
The prices at Dan's fish are ridiculous, and the shipping cost is even worse. It's not just rare fish that are overpriced either. For example, he is charging 5.99 for an Ember tetra. So let's just say you want to get a school of 20 of them, that would be $119.80 plus 49.99 shipping for a total of 169.79 plus tax for 20 Embers Lol! Contrast Dan's with Aquahuna. At Aquahuna Ember tetras are $2.00 each, so for 20 it would be 40 dollars plus $12.99 flat rate shipping for a total of $52.99 plus tax. So Dan's Ember tetras are over three times the cost for the same fish in the same quantity. It takes Aquahuna orders two days to travel the entire length of the country and to my door. Order on a Sunday, they ship Monday, and I have them by Wednesday. I have ordered over 50 fish from them in the last couple months with only 1 DOA. Why pay $49.99 shipping as opposed to $12.99 to get fish one day sooner? So as I mentioned in the beginning, not only is Dan's fish overcharging for fish, he is also ripping you off on shipping too. No thanks.
As someone who knows both business well ( Aquahuna is based in my home town). And you get what you pay for. There are fish i wouldnt pay 6 bucks for... ember tetras for example. But ill pay 20 for them if im breeding them and it means i have gaurentees on the best colors, no inbred defects, and no illness or parasites. Aquahuna is generally okay, but their fish are all sourced from asia and grown in outdoor giant ponds where parasites run wild, they sell very young and or small fish usually and they tollerate a lot of death and just refund and reship stuff if need be. ( also as a washington resident, they only sell to us locally with a business or wholesale license or account). Dan has built a whole facility designed around nuetral water... he aclimates the fish, he feeds them live food and quality food for at least several weeks, if not several months in some cases. He ships next day and uses 2x the packing material so that they have nearly no loss of life. His sources are either vetted and parasite and disease free....or if wild caught, he treats 3 or 4 founds of vet grade medications...he actually had a specialist ichthyologists on call and sometimes working in house. Also paying employees fairly and having top not tracking and customer service... thats why i pay a premium. Some things are definitely more than a Tiny online shop like red fish blue fish.... he has probably the best prices for quality lines...but has no overhead of a store or employees...so he can definitely shave off the costs. Yet again shipping is similar prices though.... its not cheap to do the ethical thing and not stress the fish twice as much.... with 2 or 3 day priority, which is 3 days for much of the country. But if you know its 2 days locally for yourself and the weather is compatible, i totally understand going with 20 dollar shipping instead. Bottom line is he has species no one else does and at premium quality. I wont buy the common fish there...i buy my spotlight species, my breeders and biotope fish from him
@@Fishtory Well said. It's a pricey option but when you watch his Livestream it's obvious he's incredibly knowledgeable and is actually doing everything he can to sell healthy fish. I'd rather pay up front and get healthy stock than rip my hair out later buying meds and setting up hospital tanks.
@@Fishtory Hey thanks for your response. To each his own... I am 42 and have been keeping fish in some capacity since I was 8. At the moment I have a 75 gal South American community tank and a 30 gal native tank. I wouldn't even recommend Dan's fish to a noob. I'd recommend they buy local, and if they are going to buy online, don't buy from places online that overcharge on shipping; and overcharge for performing basic fishkeeping skills that they will need to learn anyway. Start with cheap, small, young fish. Understock the tank. Learn how to care for them. Lose a few fish here and there, learn from your mistakes. You'll get satisfaction in watching them grow into adults.
Dan medicates, and fattens up the fish before shipping. He won't ship a sick, skinny fish. No need to worry about parasites or receiving starving fish. He packs the fish for shipping to where they will be less stressed. I'd rather pay the extra knowing I'm receiving a healthy fish that I won't have to worry about parasites. I don't have to medicate/worm them myself. He also ensures the fish he receives is ethically caught and cared for. That means something to people who care about fish.
Seeing a few things of interest on his site... and I have to say that for me, online ordering is very attractive because the nearest fish store to me is about 100 miles away, so whenever I look at shipping costs, I balance them with costs of gas & my physical strains, along with the fact that while most species I'd like live in the wild closer than the fish stores, that additional quarantine time & precautions are needed with my catching from the wild to bring to my home.
I’ve started following his channel recently, and his dedication for ethical shipping and sourcing has made me a fan. Definitely going to be a go to source for me from now on
I just ordered 2 female golden killifish both were indeed female and came happy and healthy as mates to my male killifish. They have some growing to do but they are healthy and they were packed with amazing care ❤ sure beat searching and hoping around my 3 lfs around me. Each came in their own rounded bag clear water and are thriving ❤ worth the extra money for the shipping for sure!
Dan’s fish is de bomb! You truly get what you pay for. Ethically sourced, stringent protocols and procedures ie: acclimated/quarantine/medication/packing/shipping/communication thru emails. Dan and his team are passionate about fish and their care and it shows. Dan’s sets the standard on all fronts. Shipping is crazy expensive but what isn’t anymore? Unfortunately the LFS in my area have dismal, unhealthy stock and no quarantine protocols in place. Fish can be bought same day they arrive. No thanks. I’ll pay for the premium care knowing all the above. I don’t order fish often, but when I do it’s like being a kid again on Christmas morning when it’s a Dan’s fish delivery! Thank you Alex for partnering /affiliating with Dan’s, you’re both good eggs😁😊☮❤🐠🦐🪴
I saw I saw the life the live “back At It” that is 1:21:59 long & of course loved it as much is 💯% of everything you do on his perfect channel but something about that being a life thing did not allow me to leave a comment, so I’m just leaving a comment about that video in this video since they’re both very recent. I have an idea that may or may not be helpful. In my experience even with a fully heavily planted tank with lots of wood 🪵 my leopard 🐆 danio’s are so extremely aggressive. There is no way I would put them with anything else they may as well be cichlids. I do believe I can put C.P.D.’s in with my white cloud minnows. I believe both of these fish are extremely peaceful. I got a mob of Molly’s but they’re not cleaning the Hydra off of the glass like I hoped. I was not feeding them for a few days but then I started giving them fruit flies which they loved but even though I only gave them no more than one or two each that’s what I noticed is immediately explosion of hydra so I guess I just have to not feed them anything absolutely nothing at all so they can just live off of the Hydra. What do you think about all of this my friend Alex. You seemed in slight better health after having the surgery of your teeth removed. Keep up on your health the best you can & I’ll do the same.
Yeah theyll learn to eat the hydra... i think they sting or taste bad...because a lot of nano fish kinda spit them out and then reswallow hydra or planaria... but remember...if you have hydra you have 10 to 20 other small organisms most likely... you have bio film and algae, and as long as the mollys arent skinny, theyre nibbling on all of those things. As for danios... yeah the mid to large sized danios are kinda jerks... but white clouds, tinwini danio, choprae danios and Erythromycon danios are all super peaceful
Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge ❤❤❤❤if I live in northern Wisconsin where we have hard water and high ph, which fish source other than locally bought should I order from if I want something that’s not available locally?
I understand its pricey. But i just buy less often and when i order its usually stuff im going to hope spawns and earns me my initial investment back at least heh
Hi Alex hope your well my friend. I've been wondering if you could answer this question I have please. Is neon tetra disease only something that affects neon tetras . I thought you may know 😊
We have to purchase a special permit to import live fish or plants to Hawaii. It's $40 for a one time order or $100 for a year. Which I guess isn't too crazy but only worth it if you do it frequently or REALLY want something.
@@Fishtory the hobby is huge here. There are local breeders and some hobbyists like me who trade amongst each other. I recently got an offer to grow jungle Val for a lfs so if you make connections and have the time and space to dedicate to it you can make some money. I wouldn't consider myself a breeder so much as a guy that just has a ton of fish and has to occasionally sell some. 😂 I actually sell way more plants than fish currently and that's what the lfs and hobbyists want to buy from me so I'm more focused on expanding that than breeding fish at the moment although I do have some guppies, green lantern platys, green tiger barbs, and King Yama medakas in the works. And my mbunas breed a few times a year in my pond. Lol
Curious, what does the special licensing aim to achieve? I'm considering a project with live unusual food plants and been wondering about what type of plants imports they tend to restrict.
I order Dan's fish every time I want new fish I always keep up on his stock though. Bought probably close to 40-50 fish and ever single fish had thrived for me. The blue phantoms are beautiful.
Alex, every time I've tried to order from Dan's fish, they're always out of stock. So I started checking the whole genus for the fish I wanted, same thing for all......out of stock. So the last time I started checking from the beginning AND everything showed up as out of stock. EVERYTHING. I spent a long day doing this. But what are the odds that he didn't have not one fish in stock?
You have to remember that he always has stock, but not all stock is for sale, mostly due to quarantine, and I’m sure he has some of his own breeding colonies
What fish? Thats very odd. They usually have 300 or 400 species on hand. Maybe you are in canada or somewhere it wont let you see whats for sale (vpn perhaps?)
Hi! I live in Sweden and Dans Fish is like going to Germany or ordering from there (the only country in Europe that ship to Sweden after UK left EU) and we all know Germany is THE place in the western world to get fish and other stuff while Holland rocks the plant section ahead of Germany. Here in Sweden the hobby is dying 90% of the stores closed during Covid-19 and also the ban to ship fish nationally, Sweden is in a very sad state at the moment, but I used to supply the stores in Stockholm during the 90s with Apistos and now after 20 years working abroad around the world I am back and will start again with breeding certain fish. TY for such a good site/channel man, Cheers from Sweden
Whoa! Keep the hobby alive. Time for fish black market lol 😆. Nothing cold water friendly of course. But im going to do a video soon on how the soviet union caused differences we still see today in angel and apisto lines
So you can't ship fish breed and raised in Sweden within Sweden? Whoa, that's sad and a bit extreme 😢
He pays the suppliers to lower the numbers in the bags too. Definitely the tops when it comes to ethics. Also, bags individually even rummynose tetras. The platinums are phenomenal. He is cheaper than my LFS, took 6 rummynose to become cheaper with the shipping.
The prices at Dan's fish are ridiculous, and the shipping cost is even worse. It's not just rare fish that are overpriced either. For example, he is charging 5.99 for an Ember tetra. So let's just say you want to get a school of 20 of them, that would be $119.80 plus 49.99 shipping for a total of 169.79 plus tax for 20 Embers Lol!
Contrast Dan's with Aquahuna. At Aquahuna Ember tetras are $2.00 each, so for 20 it would be 40 dollars plus $12.99 flat rate shipping for a total of $52.99 plus tax. So Dan's Ember tetras are over three times the cost for the same fish in the same quantity.
It takes Aquahuna orders two days to travel the entire length of the country and to my door. Order on a Sunday, they ship Monday, and I have them by Wednesday. I have ordered over 50 fish from them in the last couple months with only 1 DOA. Why pay $49.99 shipping as opposed to $12.99 to get fish one day sooner?
So as I mentioned in the beginning, not only is Dan's fish overcharging for fish, he is also ripping you off on shipping too. No thanks.
Agreed
As someone who knows both business well ( Aquahuna is based in my home town). And you get what you pay for. There are fish i wouldnt pay 6 bucks for... ember tetras for example. But ill pay 20 for them if im breeding them and it means i have gaurentees on the best colors, no inbred defects, and no illness or parasites. Aquahuna is generally okay, but their fish are all sourced from asia and grown in outdoor giant ponds where parasites run wild, they sell very young and or small fish usually and they tollerate a lot of death and just refund and reship stuff if need be. ( also as a washington resident, they only sell to us locally with a business or wholesale license or account).
Dan has built a whole facility designed around nuetral water... he aclimates the fish, he feeds them live food and quality food for at least several weeks, if not several months in some cases. He ships next day and uses 2x the packing material so that they have nearly no loss of life. His sources are either vetted and parasite and disease free....or if wild caught, he treats 3 or 4 founds of vet grade medications...he actually had a specialist ichthyologists on call and sometimes working in house. Also paying employees fairly and having top not tracking and customer service... thats why i pay a premium. Some things are definitely more than a Tiny online shop like red fish blue fish.... he has probably the best prices for quality lines...but has no overhead of a store or employees...so he can definitely shave off the costs. Yet again shipping is similar prices though.... its not cheap to do the ethical thing and not stress the fish twice as much.... with 2 or 3 day priority, which is 3 days for much of the country. But if you know its 2 days locally for yourself and the weather is compatible, i totally understand going with 20 dollar shipping instead.
Bottom line is he has species no one else does and at premium quality. I wont buy the common fish there...i buy my spotlight species, my breeders and biotope fish from him
@@Fishtory Well said. It's a pricey option but when you watch his Livestream it's obvious he's incredibly knowledgeable and is actually doing everything he can to sell healthy fish. I'd rather pay up front and get healthy stock than rip my hair out later buying meds and setting up hospital tanks.
@@Fishtory Hey thanks for your response. To each his own...
I am 42 and have been keeping fish in some capacity since I was 8. At the moment I have a 75 gal South American community tank and a 30 gal native tank.
I wouldn't even recommend Dan's fish to a noob.
I'd recommend they buy local, and if they are going to buy online, don't buy from places online that overcharge on shipping; and overcharge for performing basic fishkeeping skills that they will need to learn anyway. Start with cheap, small, young fish. Understock the tank. Learn how to care for them. Lose a few fish here and there, learn from your mistakes. You'll get satisfaction in watching them grow into adults.
Dan medicates, and fattens up the fish before shipping. He won't ship a sick, skinny fish. No need to worry about parasites or receiving starving fish. He packs the fish for shipping to where they will be less stressed. I'd rather pay the extra knowing I'm receiving a healthy fish that I won't have to worry about parasites. I don't have to medicate/worm them myself. He also ensures the fish he receives is ethically caught and cared for. That means something to people who care about fish.
Thanks for this! You make some incredible content. Your knowledge of the hobby is unmatched here on RUclips. Subscribed!
Well thank you so kindly. And welcome to the community here! 🙏
Seeing a few things of interest on his site... and I have to say that for me, online ordering is very attractive because the nearest fish store to me is about 100 miles away, so whenever I look at shipping costs, I balance them with costs of gas & my physical strains, along with the fact that while most species I'd like live in the wild closer than the fish stores, that additional quarantine time & precautions are needed with my catching from the wild to bring to my home.
I have bought easily over $1,500 and I always use code ALEX 😊
You are amazing. Thank you! It really does help the channel and will funf some species spotlights and tank builds coming up this spring
I’ve started following his channel recently, and his dedication for ethical shipping and sourcing has made me a fan. Definitely going to be a go to source for me from now on
Right on. Me too if i dont find it locally. I gotta save up for shipping or find a friend who wants to split the cost though lol
I am willing to pay more for ethic, quality, and good care. Thanks
Meee too! Especially when breeding rare and or emdangered lines of fish
Really considering Jonah's or Dan's to get some fish for a native set up. Just gotta convince my wife to let me lol
For native USA species definitely Jonahs is the better selection. Anything dansfish has will be aclimated to aquarium type temps and parameters
Awesome Content Alex!
Dansfish = Quality
I just ordered 2 female golden killifish both were indeed female and came happy and healthy as mates to my male killifish. They have some growing to do but they are healthy and they were packed with amazing care ❤ sure beat searching and hoping around my 3 lfs around me. Each came in their own rounded bag clear water and are thriving ❤ worth the extra money for the shipping for sure!
Thanks for sharing Mel!
Dan’s fish is de bomb! You truly get what you pay for. Ethically sourced, stringent protocols and procedures ie: acclimated/quarantine/medication/packing/shipping/communication thru emails. Dan and his team are passionate about fish and their care and it shows. Dan’s sets the standard on all fronts. Shipping is crazy expensive but what isn’t anymore? Unfortunately the LFS in my area have dismal, unhealthy stock and no quarantine protocols in place. Fish can be bought same day they arrive. No thanks. I’ll pay for the premium care knowing all the above. I don’t order fish often, but when I do it’s like being a kid again on Christmas morning when it’s a Dan’s fish delivery! Thank you Alex for partnering /affiliating with Dan’s, you’re both good eggs😁😊☮❤🐠🦐🪴
Thank you and I agree with your assertions and the values you mentioned... and obviously love having you here in the community
My pleasure! Always look forward to your streams and “hanging out” with fellow nature lovers and fish nerds. 😁❤@@Fishtory
I saw I saw the life the live “back At It” that is 1:21:59 long & of course loved it as much is 💯% of everything you do on his perfect channel but something about that being a life thing did not allow me to leave a comment, so I’m just leaving a comment about that video in this video since they’re both very recent.
I have an idea that may or may not be helpful. In my experience even with a fully heavily planted tank with lots of wood 🪵 my leopard 🐆 danio’s are so extremely aggressive. There is no way I would put them with anything else they may as well be cichlids. I do believe I can put C.P.D.’s in with my white cloud minnows. I believe both of these fish are extremely peaceful. I got a mob of Molly’s but they’re not cleaning the Hydra off of the glass like I hoped. I was not feeding them for a few days but then I started giving them fruit flies which they loved but even though I only gave them no more than one or two each that’s what I noticed is immediately explosion of hydra so I guess I just have to not feed them anything absolutely nothing at all so they can just live off of the Hydra.
What do you think about all of this my friend Alex. You seemed in slight better health after having the surgery of your teeth removed. Keep up on your health the best you can & I’ll do the same.
Yeah theyll learn to eat the hydra... i think they sting or taste bad...because a lot of nano fish kinda spit them out and then reswallow hydra or planaria... but remember...if you have hydra you have 10 to 20 other small organisms most likely... you have bio film and algae, and as long as the mollys arent skinny, theyre nibbling on all of those things.
As for danios... yeah the mid to large sized danios are kinda jerks... but white clouds, tinwini danio, choprae danios and Erythromycon danios are all super peaceful
@@Fishtory Thank you so much for your most valuable information my friend. You’re the best.
Nobody can beat Dans
Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge ❤❤❤❤if I live in northern Wisconsin where we have hard water and high ph, which fish source other than locally bought should I order from if I want something that’s not available locally?
Alex what did u buy from dans fish
Ive bought wild livebearers sevral times, and rainbows... but i always wait for my 2 friends to want something also, so we split shipping
I've been wanting to order through Dan's Fish for a long time now. One of these days I am going to pull the trigger
I understand its pricey. But i just buy less often and when i order its usually stuff im going to hope spawns and earns me my initial investment back at least heh
I agree with your point of view Alex@@Fishtory
Dans is the best
I was hoping to learn about something more than just Dan's Fish.
The title mentions dansfish
Lol the one video where i dont get nerdy about something, and someone notices immediately haha. Blast!
I can only dream from New Zealand.We have tight restrictions here.
Aye. That is rough, mate.
I’m a bit intimidated ordering fish online.
Is there anything specific to know about ordering or handling the fish once it arrives?
Just get it in 70- 80 degree house asap. The. Float the bag in a tank...and if its a sensitive species drip aclimate it
Hi Alex hope your well my friend. I've been wondering if you could answer this question I have please. Is neon tetra disease only something that affects neon tetras . I thought you may know 😊
Yes and likely viral
Thanks buddy@@Fishtory
We have to purchase a special permit to import live fish or plants to Hawaii. It's $40 for a one time order or $100 for a year. Which I guess isn't too crazy but only worth it if you do it frequently or REALLY want something.
Yeah whoa! So do fish sell for good profit then hand to hand as hobbyists?
@@Fishtory the hobby is huge here. There are local breeders and some hobbyists like me who trade amongst each other. I recently got an offer to grow jungle Val for a lfs so if you make connections and have the time and space to dedicate to it you can make some money. I wouldn't consider myself a breeder so much as a guy that just has a ton of fish and has to occasionally sell some. 😂 I actually sell way more plants than fish currently and that's what the lfs and hobbyists want to buy from me so I'm more focused on expanding that than breeding fish at the moment although I do have some guppies, green lantern platys, green tiger barbs, and King Yama medakas in the works. And my mbunas breed a few times a year in my pond. Lol
Curious, what does the special licensing aim to achieve? I'm considering a project with live unusual food plants and been wondering about what type of plants imports they tend to restrict.
Omg this came the the perfect time as I’m going to buy more fish for my tanks.
Meee too haha i get friends to buy too so we split shipping 3 ways on a big box since shipping has gone insane the last 3 years
@@Fishtory That’s so lucky to have friends that love fish as much as you do to lower the cost.
I order Dan's fish every time I want new fish I always keep up on his stock though. Bought probably close to 40-50 fish and ever single fish had thrived for me. The blue phantoms are beautiful.
Alex, every time I've tried to order from Dan's fish, they're always out of stock. So I started checking the whole genus for the fish I wanted, same thing for all......out of stock. So the last time I started checking from the beginning AND everything showed up as out of stock. EVERYTHING. I spent a long day doing this. But what are the odds that he didn't have not one fish in stock?
You have to remember that he always has stock, but not all stock is for sale, mostly due to quarantine, and I’m sure he has some of his own breeding colonies
What fish? Thats very odd. They usually have 300 or 400 species on hand. Maybe you are in canada or somewhere it wont let you see whats for sale (vpn perhaps?)