We only ship on Monday and Tuesday. Although we usually expect orders to be delivered within two or three days, due to labor shortages, shippers sometimes fail to meet there own deadlines. By only shipping in the early part of the week, we avoid shipments being held in a shippers facility over the weekend. We will ship on Wednesday for “Next day” or “two day air” shipments.
We apply a fixed charge of $12.50, for shipping, packing and handling on all orders under $65.00. This charge increases to $13.50 during colder weather to contribute to the cost of a heater. Orders over $65 (excluding tax) are not charged for shipping, except where overnight or two day air is requested. Then we will quote a charge based on the shipper’s price plus packing cost, less $12.50 for orders over $65.
Most shipping is by USPS Priority Mail or comparable UPS or FedEx service. We do not make a separate box charge, so shipping includes the actual shipping cost, and the cost of packing (box, cool pack, heater, oxygen and insulation etc.) according to the season and the expected transit time. Our shipping prices go up in the late fall as we start to need to put heaters in our shipments, because heaters are expensive (over $2 each). Small orders for snails only are shipped by First Class package mail, so that the shipping charge will still cover the cost of small order handling.
We price our fish at a price per school, usually 3, 4 or 5 fish. Some of our specialty fish and snails are priced individually. We believe we sell at a fair price taking into account the time and effort needed to keep and breed the fish.
If you order two or more different species or sexes, we will separate them in the box. Generally snails ship by first class mail and fish by Priority Mail. If you order fish and snails together they will all ship together by Priority Mail.
Some fish such as catfish, pleco and Kuhli Loaches, do not survive well alone and we will not ship individual fish of those varieties.
We can ship by overnight or two day air. Please email for a price before ordering.