UPDATED 9/28/26: In the previous post, I listed my portfolio of cichlids. Now that you know what species I keep, where did I get them? Fortunately, I’ve acquired some good quality fish from several places. All of my cichlids came from one of these five vendors (Updated 3/2/24):
Cichlid Lovers (Alan Bliven) in Tuscon, Arizona
Mike’s Cichlids (Mike Szumigala) in New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Staten Island Cichlids (Anthony Stissi) in Staten Island, New York
Dave’s Rare Aquarium Fish (Dave Schumacher) in San Antonio, Texas
Imperial Tropicals (Mike Drawdy) in Lakeland, Florida
Aquarium Knoxville in Knoxville, Tennessee
They all have reasonable prices and do a great job bagging their fish. When I order fish online, I try to get them shipped same day rather than overnight. I have only ever had one problem and it was with an overnight shipment. I lost two juvenile L. signatus, a small shell dwelling species from Lake Taganyika in Africa.
There are many vendors out there with quality fish, some of whom offer a variety of shipping methods. However, because I’m in a small market, my same day air freight options are limited. If you have Southwest service at your nearby airport, consider yourself lucky with respect to air freight. Their prices are the best, and most vendors I’ve talked to use them.
If you’ve never ordered fish online, you should consider doing so. I would encourage you to support your LFS when you can, but sometimes your options there may be too limited.