# Buying Bettas: Breeder vs. Aquabid



## Cattitude (Apr 19, 2012)

> (Originally Posted by Hallyx)
> I'm sorry. Am I missing something? Why not just buy a fish from one of the show-quality breeders who are members of this forum.
> 
> Get some pics, make a choice. Send check. Get fish. Sounds a lot simpler than all that falderall with transhippers and what-not.


Having done both I will weigh in here. There are pros and cons to both methods. 

Breeders aren't that easy to find around here, at least that's been my experience. I found one breeder in Canada, in the Maritimes. Surely there must be more! I live in Ontario, the most populated province, and no breeders here?? 

Then when you find a breeder, do they have stock available for sale? Not always. I have also found that breeders often sell their best stock via Aquabid, so less stock is available to buy from them directly. 

Overall, I had an excellent experience with the breeder I dealt with and I do plan on buying from her again (sibling females for a sorority anyone?). 

Aquabid always has a vast selection of stock available. But there's the transhipper business to worry about. The site itself is remiss in that it doesn't contain an FAQ about transhipping for newbies. No price ballpark figures and no warning that some transhippers only ship once a month, or that some transhippers need to be contacted BEFORE a bid is placed!

I bought a fish from a seller who didn't even list his transhippers in his ad, and then found out AFTER paying him that the transhipper in my area isn't shipping for another month. I still have no idea how much shipping will cost but I'm starting to worry about that. I'm also worrying if I'll even get the same fish I bought, and what condition he'll be in. 

I'd still buy from a local breeder again as opposed to using Aquabid and transhippers. But we really need a couple of upgrades on this board to address the above issues to our members:

- Sticky thread where breeders can list themselves and stock for sale.

- Seller review thread where members can review their experiences with sellers (both local and intenational) and transhippers

- Sticky thread with FAQ's and/or pros and cons of dealing with Aquabid and overseas sellers and transhippers

In fact it might be an idea to have a whole new section of this board for buying and selling. Just a thought. I wish I had had access to the info I've written here, BEFORE I bought from Aquabid!


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## Yaoilover12397 (Aug 12, 2011)

I second your points on new threads/possible new section.


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## ZackyBear (Dec 1, 2011)

You mean a buying/selling thread for the breeders, right?


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## Cattitude (Apr 19, 2012)

ZackyBear said:


> You mean a buying/selling thread for the breeders, right?


Yes, the breeders could sell their stock and buy stock from other breeders. The non-breeders (like me) could buy our fish from breeders instead of having to buy from pet stores because we can't find a breeder. I'd rather buy from someone on my own continent and avoid the middle man transhipper and all the complications.

Also if someone has extra equipment or live cultures or plants they could sell those as well. 

I have a pretty good set of vendor posting rules from another forum (these rules work well for them). If a mod is interested in setting up a section for buy/sell here they can pm me and I will send them the example rules for them to look at.


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## Junglist (Feb 23, 2012)

They do have a classified section in this forums main page but from what I've seen thread surfing their fry's are not ready yet at this time, maybe in a few weeks? but I may be wrong just ask around and maybe sure enough you'll be lucky

Don't know much about buying betta fish from Aquabid cause I never buy from there beside equipment & supplies or Arowana's


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