Fish Shipping & Policies

Living things require a little fine print.

I put a frankly unreasonable amount of care into the fish I breed, raise, prepare, and ship. My goal is simple: healthy fish, accurately represented, carefully packed, and sent to you in a way that gives them the best possible start in their new home.

Shipping live fish is, however, inherently more complicated than shipping ordinary merchandise.

Weather changes. Carriers occasionally have adventures I did not authorize. Fish experience normal shipping stress. And once a fish arrives, its environment and care are no longer things I can control.

These policies are here to make sure we're both working from the same expectations before a fish leaves Critical Mass Biophilia. By purchasing live fish from Critical Mass Biophilia, you agree to the policies below.

01Shipping

Shipping schedule

Live fish are normally shipped Monday and Tuesday via UPS Next Day Air or UPS Next Day Air Saver.

Ordering fish does not necessarily mean they will ship on the next available shipping day.

Every group is evaluated and prepared for travel before shipment. I reserve the right to delay an order if I don't believe the fish are ready to ship, or if weather, holidays, carrier disruptions, or other conditions make shipping unnecessarily risky.

The fish ship when I believe they're ready for the trip - not simply because the calendar says Monday.

You'll receive tracking information when your order ships.

Shipping method

Live fish are shipped via UPS Next Day Air or UPS Next Day Air Saver only. I do not ship live fish using ground or multi-day services.

Available services and rates are calculated at checkout based on the destination and order.

Your shipping address

Please check your shipping address carefully before placing your order.

Customers are responsible for providing a complete and accurate delivery address. I cannot be responsible for delays, failed delivery, returned packages, losses, or fish affected by an incorrect or incomplete address provided with the order.

If you notice an error before shipment, contact me immediately and I'll do my best to correct it. Once a shipment has been transferred to UPS, an address change may not be possible and may disrupt the guaranteed delivery service.

Someone needs to receive the fish

Live fish cannot spend the afternoon sitting on a porch waiting for someone to get home.

For Live Arrival Guarantee eligibility, the shipment must either:

• be successfully received at the delivery address on the first delivery attempt, or
• if arranged for UPS Hold for Pickup, be retrieved within two hours of becoming available for pickup.

Please monitor your tracking and make arrangements accordingly.

A missed delivery attempt, delayed pickup, customer-requested delivery change, or other delay after UPS has attempted or made the shipment available may void Live Arrival Guarantee coverage.

Tracking

Tracking information will be provided when your fish ship. Please monitor it closely on delivery day.

For purposes of these policies, the carrier's tracking information is used to establish delivery time, delivery attempts, availability for pickup, and whether a shipment arrived on its scheduled delivery date.

Carrier delays

The Live Arrival Guarantee applies only to eligible shipments that arrive on their originally scheduled delivery date.

Once a package has been accepted by UPS, routing, handling, weather disruptions, mechanical problems, missed connections, and other carrier delays are outside my control. I cannot guarantee or reimburse losses caused by carrier delay.

If a delayed shipment arrives with a problem, please still contact me immediately. I will help with information or documentation reasonably needed for a carrier claim when applicable, but a carrier-delayed shipment is not covered by the Critical Mass Biophilia Live Arrival Guarantee.

Returned & undeliverable shipments

Shipments returned, refused, or made undeliverable because of an incorrect address, failed delivery, failure to retrieve a held package, customer-requested delivery change, or another circumstance outside my control are not covered by the Live Arrival Guarantee.

Because these are live animals, reshipping a returned shipment generally will not be possible without first assessing the condition of the fish.

Any additional shipping expense resulting from a customer-caused delivery problem is the customer's responsibility.

Combining orders

Separate orders are not automatically combined.

If you place multiple orders that have not yet been prepared for shipment, you're welcome to contact me and ask whether they can be combined. I will do so when practical, but I cannot guarantee it.

If combining orders results in a meaningful shipping difference, I may issue an appropriate shipping credit or refund.

Shipping restrictions

Live fish will only be shipped where I can legally and responsibly send them.

I reserve the right to cancel or modify an order if a species cannot legally be shipped to the destination provided or if another regulatory restriction prevents shipment. If I cannot legally fulfill an item you purchased, the affected purchase will be refunded.

02Live Arrival Guarantee

Eligible live-fish shipments are covered by the Critical Mass Biophilia Live Arrival Guarantee.

Normal shipping stress

Fish do not necessarily look their best immediately after spending the night in a dark box. Normal shipping stress can include:

• temporary paling or color loss
• hiding or subdued behavior
• clamped fins

These things alone do not mean a fish is unhealthy or constitute a DOA. Give newly arrived fish a quiet, appropriately prepared environment and time to recover.

If a fish arrives DOA

If a fish is deceased on arrival, I'm genuinely sorry.

These requirements are not intended to make a bad situation harder. They allow me to verify what happened and provide documentation if a carrier claim is appropriate.

Please document before opening the bag

For a DOA claim, the fish must be photographed in the original unopened shipping bag before acclimation or transfer. Once the bag is opened and the fish is removed, I can no longer reliably assess the condition in which it arrived.

If there are surviving fish in the same bag that need immediate attention, document the deceased fish clearly and promptly, then proceed with appropriate acclimation.

The welfare of the living fish comes first.

After the two-hour window

The Live Arrival Guarantee covers arrival. It is not a 24-hour, 48-hour, seven-day, or ongoing survival guarantee.

Once fish have been delivered, acclimated, and introduced to a customer's system, water chemistry, temperature, oxygenation, tankmates, disease exposure, handling, acclimation practices, and husbandry are outside my control.

You're still welcome to contact me if you're concerned about a fish after arrival. I want animals I bred to thrive. I just may not be able to treat a later problem as a live-arrival claim.

03Resolutions, refunds & cancellations

Making it right

If something covered by these policies genuinely goes wrong, I will make a reasonable effort to make it right.

Because I breed and sell living animals - and because an identical replacement may not be available - the appropriate resolution depends on the circumstances.

Store credit is my preferred resolution for approved Live Arrival Guarantee claims. Depending on the situation and available stock, I may instead offer a replacement, partial credit, refund, prorated shipping credit, or another reasonable resolution.

Submitting a claim does not automatically guarantee a particular resolution.

Partial DOA claims

If only part of a shipment is affected, the resolution will apply to the affected fish rather than automatically to the entire order.

For example, the loss of one fish from a group does not make the healthy surviving fish refundable.

Shipping credits

Shipping is a service that has already been purchased and used once an order has shipped. Original shipping charges are therefore generally non-refundable.

When a shipping credit is appropriate as part of an approved claim, it will generally be prorated to the affected portion of the order rather than automatically crediting the entire shipping charge.

Fulfillment errors

Live Arrival Guarantee exclusions do not excuse an error on my part.

If I send the wrong fish, omit an item, or otherwise make a fulfillment mistake, please contact me promptly. I'll make it right.

Returns & exchanges

Live fish cannot be returned or exchanged.

Aside from the obvious welfare concerns involved in sending an animal back through the carrier network, accepting fish back into my systems would create an unacceptable biosecurity risk to the breeding collection.

All live-fish sales are final, subject to the Live Arrival Guarantee and fulfillment-error provisions above.

Cancellations

Orders may be cancelled until I begin actively preparing the order for shipment. Once fish have entered the shipping-preparation process, cancellation is at my discretion.

Orders that have already shipped cannot be cancelled.

04Weather & shipping conditions

Weather holds

I monitor weather at the origin, destination, and along the route as reasonably possible.

Live-fish shipments may be held when forecast temperatures are below 40°F or above 90°F, or when severe weather, carrier disruptions, holidays, or other conditions make shipping unnecessarily risky.

I reserve the right to hold an order even if the customer would prefer immediate shipment. The fish's welfare wins that argument.

Shipping against my recommendation

If conditions are marginal rather than clearly unsafe, I may contact you to discuss timing or other options.

If you specifically request shipment despite a recommendation to wait, I may decline to ship until I believe conditions are reasonably suitable. I am not willing to knowingly put an animal at unreasonable risk simply to meet a preferred shipping date.

Seasonal & holiday delays

Shipping schedules may be adjusted around major holidays, periods of unusually high carrier volume, severe weather events, or other circumstances likely to disrupt overnight service.

Any such delay is intended to protect the fish, not to make you stare sadly at your empty aquarium for an additional week.

05Local pickup

Local pickup is available by appointment for eligible orders.

Pickup instructions and location details will be provided directly after your order is ready. Please do not arrive without a confirmed pickup arrangement.

Fish will be packed appropriately for transport at the agreed pickup time. Please arrive reasonably close to that time so the fish are not sitting bagged longer than necessary.

Once a local-pickup order has been accepted and leaves my care, its transportation, temperature exposure, handling, acclimation, and subsequent environment become the customer's responsibility.

If you see a problem at pickup, please tell me then so I can address it with you.

06Acclimation

Shipping water and aquarium water are different environments, and fish should be acclimated promptly after arrival.

Before your fish arrive, please have their destination aquarium fully prepared, cycled, appropriately heated, and ready to receive them.

Do not begin setting up the tank when UPS turns onto your street.

When your fish arrive

1. Bring the package indoors promptly and open the shipping box.
2. Keep lighting subdued while the fish recover from transit.
3. Inspect the fish before opening their bags. If there is a DOA, photograph it in the unopened bag as described above before proceeding with acclimation.
4. For healthy arrivals, acclimate promptly using an appropriate method for shipped fish and the species received. Avoid unnecessarily prolonged acclimation in opened shipping water.
5. Once acclimation is complete, transfer the fish into their prepared aquarium without adding shipping water to the tank.

Give them time to settle. Newly shipped fish may hide, appear pale, or take some time before behaving normally.

07Living animals

Individual variation

Fish are living animals, not manufactured products.

Unless a listing is explicitly for an individually photographed animal, photographs may be representative of the species, locality, line, or breeding group being offered.

Individual fish may vary naturally in coloration, pattern, markings, finnage, body shape, size, and developmental stage. Juvenile fish in particular may look quite different as they mature.

Size

Any size provided in a listing should be understood as an approximate size or range unless specifically stated otherwise.

Fish grow. Occasionally they even do so after I photograph them, despite having received no authorization.

Sex

Unless a listing explicitly states that an individual fish has been sexed or that a specific sex or pair is being sold, sex is not guaranteed.

Juvenile fish may not yet show reliable sexual characteristics, and even adults of some species are difficult to sex with certainty.

Breeding

Purchasing a pair, group, or breeding-age fish does not guarantee spawning, fertilization, compatibility, successful fry production, or any particular reproductive outcome.

I can sell you good fish. Convincing them to fall in love is between you and the fish.

08Health & biosecurity

I maintain and observe my fish carefully and will not knowingly ship an animal that I believe is unfit for travel. That does not make any live animal biologically sterile.

Responsible aquarium keeping includes quarantining new livestock before introducing it to an established collection, particularly when valuable or sensitive animals are involved.

I recommend appropriate quarantine practices for all incoming fish, including fish from Critical Mass Biophilia.

Once a fish has entered another aquarium system, I cannot control its exposure to pathogens, parasites, medications, tankmates, water conditions, or other environmental factors.

09Care after arrival

Once fish have been successfully delivered or picked up, their environment changes completely.

Water chemistry, temperature, oxygenation, filtration, feeding, tankmates, acclimation, medications, maintenance, and general husbandry are outside my control. I therefore cannot guarantee continued health, growth, coloration, breeding, or survival after the applicable Live Arrival Guarantee period.

If you're unsure about the care of something you bought from me, though, please ask.

I breed these fish because I like them an unreasonable amount. I would much rather help troubleshoot something early than hear about a preventable problem later.

10A few final things

I reserve the right to delay or cancel an order if I discover an inventory error, a fish becomes unsuitable for shipment, weather or carrier conditions create unreasonable risk, the destination presents a legal restriction, or another circumstance prevents me from responsibly completing the order.

If I cannot fulfill something you purchased, you will receive an appropriate refund for the unfulfilled item and, where applicable, an appropriate adjustment to shipping.

Prices, inventory, availability, shipping schedules, and these policies may change as Critical Mass Biophilia grows. The policies in effect when your order is placed will apply to that order.

Above all, these policies exist because I am shipping living animals.

I will represent them as accurately as I can, care for them properly while they're here, prepare and pack them thoughtfully, and deal fairly with you if something goes wrong.

In return, I ask customers to provide an accurate shipping address, monitor their tracking, receive their fish promptly, document genuine arrival problems quickly, have an appropriate aquarium ready, and provide responsible care once the fish are theirs.

Last updated: October 2026