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Buying fish on Aquabid

42K views 35 replies 23 participants last post by  Betta_addict36 
#1 ·
Some people may be wondering how to do this. It can be confusing and taunting.

For starters:
The thought of getting your fish from another part of the country or the WORLD for that matter may be scary. The thought of your betta beauties going through the mail is even scarier. Trust me it's 100% safe. Sure there's a few DOAs but bettas are very good travelers. In fact your bettas got to the store buy getting shipped from Thailand!

Signing up for Aquabid:

*You will need a PayPal account, very few sellers will accept a different method of payment.

First go to www.aquabid.com. Click on "Register". Fill out all required fields. YOU CANNOT CHOOSE YOUR PASSWORD SO REMEMBER THE ONE YOU GET!

Choosing a seller:
This is VERY important. Look for a seller with many good reviews and low DOA policy. Here's a very good page with information on choosing a seller:

http://bettatalk.com/selecting_a_seller.htm


Buy It Now VS Bidding:
I prefer only to buy auctions labeled Buy It Now because I have bidding wars. In fact I've only bidded on one auction and that was my amazing purple DT boy from Martinismommy.

Buying from someone in your country:
Ok so you found someone selling a betta in your country? Now Buy It Now or bid (instructions below). When you Buy It Now you'll get a message saying to contact the seller about payment and shipping. For US sellers they offer $15 Priority shipping or $35 Express shipping...personally I never use Priority because I don't want my new fish in the mail longer than they need to be. So you pay and arrange shipping dates. Ask any questions you have at this point. Keep in touch with the seller, they like to keep up with how the fish are doing. Remember to honor the DOA policy should you recieve a dead fish.

Buying from Asia:
Most of the time they're from Thailand. It's easier than it sounds (well for me hehe :twisted:). So like above bid or buy the aution. Contact the seller for shipping and payment.

Here's a list of costs for ordering from Thailand:

*Price of fish
*Price of overnight shipping to transhipper ($5 per fish)
*Price of handling (to be payed to transhipper, $2 per fish)
*Price of shipping from transhipper ($15 Priority or $35 Express)

The above is just basic....prices vary from transhipper to transhipper.

Picking the right transhipper:
Location is important. I pick my fish up from Linda Olson and she's a very nice and helpful person. If you have a local transhipper try to arrange a pickup date. If not pick a good transhipper, from what I've heard Linda Olson and Jenn Vivieros are the best. I've heard ok things about Julie Tran, bad things about Pegasus, and nothing about Kevin.

If you don't live in the US research your local transhippers.

My reccomendations:

Here are some good sellers who I highly reccomend buying from:

*the_K
*Martinismommy
*Chaba

I hope this helped anyone confused about buying bettas from Aquabid.
 
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#30 ·
Not sure-just got my first mail order Bettas last month. It could be debatable-since sometimes there is a lot of inbreeding involved (sometimes not). I'm sure keeping Bettas in cups can cause some internal and sometimes external damage-in that case, yes from breeders they're healthier. But they're definitely higher quality from breeders.

If your temperatures where you live aren't extreme, they should be fine, but it is a good decision to stay home the day they're supposed to arrive.
 
#31 ·
AquaBid & Linda

I am brand-new to the Aquabid experience. My seller was Macbatta. I've been on pins and needles because I had just missed the regular shipment from Thailand to transshipper Linda Olson, so it took him two weeks for the next shipment to get to her. He didn't respond to emails until he finally sent one with pictures that they shipped. I got an email from Linda by the third week. She let me know that my fish are fine and after paying her, that they will go out tomorrow to me. I hope that I did not tick either of them off as I was a bit of a pest. I will keep everyone posted.;-)
 
#32 ·
Most of the betta today from aquabid look the same to me. A bunch of koi betta fishes that all the Thai sellers posted. I only buy betta from aquabid for the purpose to breed and searching for new color. Unfortunately, few most known breeders are not selling their fish anymore in aquabid. I am talking about aquastar71, nicebettas and ram91. Those 3 plus bangleanbetta are the best breeders from aquabid to me. They have the most colorful betta that you can imagine. Now, when i am looking at aquabid betta, it is so boring, it is just me.
 
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