#There's just that many that are DOA that there has to be a clause?????? Dude :/

[creepyscritches]

For fishkeeping, the mail is legitimately the best way to do it That's how the fish are already sent from distributor to distributor, So buying them at any particular store is pretty much no different. I know it's weird to think about and I get your concern for other animals, but for fish and aquatic inverts, the process is very reliable. Most places even have a DOA clause, because if the animal arrives dead, they were already sick or somebody fucked up very badly. A lot of people do overnight shipping, too. But if you're looking for a particular species, you can reach out to your local fish store. If one of their distributors has it they'll order it with the rest of their shipment and often you won't have to pay the shipping.

tl;dr getting fish mailed to you is no different than buying them from somwhere they were already mailed to

Axolotls can only survive 24hrs in a shipping bag before they die from oxygen depleted, waste-filled water. I've checked several online breeders shipping policies and they do not require overnight shipping and allow their animals to be in the mail 2-3 days (if they don't get lost, which happens....frequently dude)

General answer for fish survivability is an average of 3 days, but much less for expert level species. Fish arrive DOA to stores frequently, and I assure you those shipments were handled with more priority than someone's private fish shipment. Distributors have more resources to employ than the average buyer when transporting fish. The same goes for stores receiving mammal shipments as well--they still have frequent deaths or sicknesses.

The online shopper does not and cannot have the same confidence in their personal shipments that a store or distributor would have in their inventory shipments.

If that's the best way to do it, then it sounds like the personal online fish shopper is not the most ethical option, bud. Maybe you shouldn't put that fish in the cart. 🤷‍♂️