On all of our products, fish, coral, or
live rock, you will be paying the domestic freight
directly to the airline when you pick up your shipment.
The airlines accept check, any major credit card,
and most take cash, although American Airlines
has recently quit accepting U.S. dollars
(cash) as a payment method.
In general, air freight has a minimum charge
and once the weight is over 100 pounds, it's
charged by the pound. Per pound rates do not
start until you are over one hundred pounds
as a rule. So, for lower weights,
such as a single box of fish, live rock,
or corals, which weigh around 50 pounds,
the minimum flat rate is charged.
When you order one box, you pay the minimum
whether it's 44 lbs. or 65 lbs. (it will
be the same charge) ... a per pound rate
only applies to shipments of 75-100 pounds.
For instance, to ship two boxes, it's often not
much more than for one box. Coast to coast air
freight shipping runs about $100 for a box,
and maybe $120 for two boxes. If you are
closer to west coast, it may be only $60-75
for a single box, and $100 for two.
To estimate shipping for fish, you can usually
figure that three boxes are approximately
equal to two boxes of coral or live rock - 100 lbs.
When you are ordering three or more boxes of live rock,
figure about $1 per pound for the domestic
air freight shipping part of it. Some airlines
a little more, some less.
We ship live rock general freight because it
will not affect it if you pick up the next day
if it gets in on a late flight, or the next day
due to heavy cargo loads. It moves on a space
available basis, and is usually on the next flight.
Guaranteed-Rush and similar services are much more
expensive, and most of the time they would have
travelled on the same plane. For most locales
we DO use that when shipping corals, not live rock.
Note ... if your live rock shipment gets in late at night,
it will be fine if you get it the next day and it will
not affect it (know that a bunch from the same shipment
is likely sitting on warehouse floors in L.A. still
waiting to be sold.) BUT, for FISH or CORALS, you
NEED to get them no matter how late it is, as long as
your cargo station is open ... most are open until
midnight. Fish or corals should not sit overnight ...
they need to get in new clean water with circulation ASAP!
Fish need to be acclimated of course, and corals
dipped at the very least, and always quarantine
both if at all possible.
There seems to be a relationship between when a
shipment arrives and if you took off work, doing so makes
cargo move slower somehow, and so we strongly
recommend you do not do so. It will not hurt live
rock to pick up late at night, and put it in
water the next day (but bring it in to keep it
warm if in the winter). You are still getting
it faster than 90% or more of the stores out there.
However, with fish or corals, you have to be ready to go,
even if it comes in late that evening.
They can't sit overnight like live rock can.
Most flights out of LAX leave in the a.m.
and get to you in the afternoon or early evening,
so the average after work pickup works great.
Below is a list of many of the available airports,
although it is not a complete list, these are simply
examples. If the airline has a cargo office at the
destination, we can surely get there!
With the downsizing and joining of many airlines, often
cargo departments were removed from countless secondary
market airports, though many can take a box or two
as baggage, some might be a little higher than it
used to be. Let us know your destination airport and we'll
check it out for you.
The list below includes some of the major airports
with cargo shipping services ...
Akron, OH
Albany, NY
Albuquerque, NM
Amarillo, TX
Anchorage, AK (seasonal)
Atlanta, GA
Augusta, GA
Austin, TX
Baltimore, MD
Baton Rouge, LA
Birmingham, AL
Boise, ID
Boston, MA
Bozeman, MT
Buffalo, NY
Charlotte, NC
Charleston, SC
Chattanooga, TN
Chicago, IL
Cincinnati, OH
Cleveland, OH
Columbus, GA
Columbus, OH
Corpus Christi, TX
Dallas, TX - (DFW, DAL)
Denver, CO
Detroit, MI
El Paso, TX
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Fort Myers, FL
Grand Junction, CO
Grand Rapids, MI
Greenville-Spartanburg, SC
Gulfport, MS
Harrisburg, PA
Hartford, CT
Houston, TX - (IAH or HOU)
Huntsville, AL
Indianapolis, IN
Jackson, MS
Jacksonville, FL
Kansas City, MO
Las Vegas, NV
Little Rock, AR
Long Island, NY
Louisville, KY
Lubbock-Midland, TX
Manchester, NH
Memphis, TN
Miami, FL
Milwaukee, WI
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
Moline, IL
Montgomery, AL
Nashville, TN
Newark, NJ
New Orleans, LA
New York, NY (JFK, LGA)
Norfolk, VA
Oakland, CA
Oklahoma City, OK
Omaha, NE
Orlando, FL
Pensacola, FL
Philadelphia, PA
Phoenix, AZ
Peoria, IL
Pittsburgh, PA
Portland, OR
Providence, RI
Raleigh-Durham, NC
Reno, NV
Rochester, NY
Sacramento, CA
Salt Lake City, UT
San Antonio, TX
San Diego, CA
San Francisco, CA
San Jose, CA
Savannah, GA
Seattle-Tacoma, WA
Shreveport, LA
Sioux Falls, SD
South Bend, IN
Spokane, WA
St. Louis, MO
Tampa, FL
Tucson, AZ
Tulsa, OK
Washington, DC (IAD or DCA)
West Palm Beach, FL
Wichita, KS
Sorry ... we do not ship internationally.
LAX pick-ups are not available.