Delivery & Live Arrival Guarantee
Here’s exactly how we’ve built delivery to be the safest way for your fish to travel.
From your basket to your tank
Five steps, one weekly rhythm. Everything is hand-packed by our team and delivered on your confirmed Wednesday or Thursday date by a licensed live-animal courier.
- Any time
Order online
Pick your fish, sizes, shoals — checkout in minutes.
- Before delivery
Our team prepares your pack
Hand-bagged in pure oxygen, insulated poly box, heat pack when the weather calls for it. Packed by people trained on live-fish handling.
- By email
Tracking & delivery date sent
We email you the tracking number and the confirmed Wednesday or Thursday delivery date — so you know exactly when to be in.
- Tracked courier
Licensed courier carries your parcel
Tracked live-animal courier service with a carrier legally licensed to carry live fish. Follow the parcel once tracking is active.
- Wed or Thu
Your fish arrive
Delivered to your door on Wednesday or Thursday. Acclimatise slowly and you're set.
Delivery days
Wednesday or Thursday
You’ll be notified by email with your tracking number and the confirmed delivery date so you know exactly when to be in — and you can follow the parcel live every step of the way.
Before you place your order, please check the delivery window shown at checkout and only continue if someone can be home for that window.
If those days won’t work for you, please send us a quick message before we dispatch and we’ll happily move your delivery to the next available slot. Live animals can’t be left at the door, with a neighbour, or in a “safe place” — so a moment of communication from you is what lets us keep every fish safe in our care. Thank you for looking after them with us.
£20.00 flat rate
Free over £200.00
Licensed Courier
Tracked courier licensed to carry live animals
Specialist Packaging
Oxygen bags, poly boxes, heat packs
Live Arrival Guarantee
Covered even when things go wrong
What happens after you place an order
Once your order lands with us, our team get to work preparing your pack. Every fish is bagged individually with pure oxygen, the bag is wrapped in newspaper to stop it shifting, and the whole thing goes into an insulated polystyrene box with a heat pack when the weather calls for it. The outer cardboard box is clearly labelled “LIVE FISH — THIS WAY UP” for the courier.
You’ll then be notified by email with your tracking number and the confirmed delivery date so you can follow the parcel from collection through to your door. The courier sends live updates once the parcel is scanned, so you can keep an eye on the journey.
Delivery days: Wednesday or Thursday
Live fish travel on a single, dedicated weekly rhythm. We dispatch on Tuesdays and Wednesdays via a tracked courier licensed to carry live animals, so your parcel arrives on Wednesday or Thursday on the confirmed delivery date. We avoid Friday/weekend transit on purpose: a fish held at a depot over Saturday-Sunday is a fish we don’t want to send. The exact day for your order is confirmed in your tracking email.
Licensed couriers, trained handlers
Not every UK parcel carrier is legally permitted to transport live animals. Under the Welfare of Animals (Transport) (England) Order 2006 and its devolved equivalents, only couriers holding the correct DEFRA authorisations may move live fish commercially. We only ship with those carriers — no exceptions, no cost-cutting on weeks the courier bill is high.
Their drivers are briefed on how to handle a live-fish parcel: kept upright, never stacked, kept cool but never cold, and away from engine vents and direct sun at the depot.
- Carriers licensed to commercially transport live animals in the UK
- Drivers briefed on live-fish handling — upright, insulated, cool
- Tracked specialist live-fish service as standard
- Every box clearly labelled “LIVE FISH — THIS WAY UP”
- Direct line into the depot for anything that looks off on the tracking
How we pack your fish
- Each fish individually bagged with pure oxygen
- Water volume sized to species and shipping duration
- Insulated polystyrene boxes that hold temperature for 40+ hours
- Heat packs included October–April and whenever the forecast drops
- Newspaper padding to stop bags moving in transit
- Outer cardboard box clearly labelled “LIVE FISH”
The Live Arrival Guarantee, in plain English
What it covers
Every live animal in every order, every season. Fish, shrimp, snails — all of it.
What triggers it
Any fish that arrives dead, dying, or in clearly compromised condition on the day of delivery.
How to claim — quick evidence helps us act fast
Contact us the same day your fish arrive via WhatsApp (fastest). If anything has gone wrong, attach a short unboxing video along with your order number. The video should show:
- The parcel still sealed, outer box visible
- You opening it, in one continuous take
- The fish still inside the sealed bag, so we can see their condition before anything is disturbed
Please include a short unboxing video with any DOA claim. It gives us the clearest record of the sealed parcel, the packing, and the fish as they arrived, so we can sort a replacement or refund without delay.
Why a short unboxing video helps
This one’s direct from Kevin: the video policy is there to make claims quicker, clearer, and fair for genuine customers:
- 1.A clear starting point. A continuous video shows the parcel was still sealed and the fish were checked straight away. That gives us a clear record so we can approve genuine DOA claims quickly.
- 2.Root-cause documentation. I personally review every DOA video. If a heat pack failed, a bag leaked, or the courier left the parcel in the sun, the video shows it — and I fix the process so the next customer doesn’t face the same thing.
- 3.Courier claim support. Our licensed live-animal courier may ask us for continuous unboxing evidence when we raise a claim. Having it from the start helps us resolve the problem without coming back to you for extra details.
- 4.Speed for you. With a clear video, I approve replacements or refunds the same day you send it. Without one, we’d be back-and-forth on messages for days trying to work out what happened — and neither of us wants that.
Our promise
Replacement on the next shipment or full refundto your original payment method. Once the video confirms a DOA, we don’t ask for receipts, we don’t make you prove fault, and we don’t argue about whose problem it is. If it arrived wrong, it’s on us.
Small print: the guarantee requires someone to have been at the delivery address to receive the parcel (see next section), the parcel to be opened and inspected the same day it arrives, and a continuous unboxing video showing the parcel still sealed. Live fish that are left sitting unopened overnight, or parcels opened off-camera, fall outside cover because we cannot verify the cold chain or the state at arrival.
Communication & tracking from the moment we dispatch
- Tracking number and confirmed delivery date by email — you’ll know exactly when your fish arrive
- Live updates from the courier through the afternoon and evening
- Kevin on WhatsApp — a real person, same-day replies during opening hours
Someone must be at the delivery address
This is a hard requirement. Couriers will not leave a parcel of live animals on a doorstep, with a neighbour, or in a “safe place” because live fish need a person to receive them safely. If nobody is home, the parcel returns to the depot, the cold chain breaks, and the Live Arrival Guarantee cannot cover what happens next.
Please only order for days when you know you’ll be in. If your plans change, message us on WhatsApp before dispatch and we’ll hold the order for the next dispatch slot (Tuesday or Wednesday).
Cost & dispatch schedule
Shipping is a flat rate of £20 regardless of how many fish are in your basket. We combine all items into a single shipment and don’t profit from delivery — the fee covers the courier, insulated box, oxygen, heat packs, and packing materials.
We dispatch live fish on Tuesdays and Wednesdays via a tracked live-animal courier — your fish arrive on Wednesday or Thursday. We never ship for weekend transit; the exact day for your order is confirmed in your tracking email.
Orders placed Wednesday – Friday (before 5pm)
- Dispatched in the following week’s window (Tuesday or Wednesday)
- Delivered on Wednesday or Thursday
Orders placed Friday (after 5pm), Saturday, Sunday, or Monday
- Dispatched in that week’s window (Tuesday or Wednesday)
- Delivered on Wednesday or Thursday
Tracking:your tracking number updates after 6–7pm on the dispatch day.
Customer service that actually answers
If anything about your order worries you — before, during, or after delivery — talk to us. Real humans, same day.
- WhatsApp: message Kevin directly — fastest route, same-day replies in working hours
- Email: hello@tropicalfishco.co.uk — great for photos, order numbers, longer questions
Pre-purchase compatibility questions, acclimation help after the box lands, parameter advice for a new tank — all on the table. If it’s about fish, we’ll help.
Buy now, pay later — spread the cost
Stocking a full community tank in one go is a real spend. If you’d rather spread the cost, our checkout supports the same credit-based partners the big UK retailers use — no extra fees from us, and the price stays exactly the same.
- Klarna— pay in 3 interest-free instalments, or pay in 30 days
- PayPal Pay in 3 and PayPal Monthly — instalments through your existing PayPal account
Klarna and PayPal credit are provided by those companies, not by Tropical Fish Co. All terms, eligibility checks, and repayments are handled by them. Availability at checkout is subject to your provider’s criteria.
Adding fish to an existing order
Want to add more fish to an order you’ve already placed without paying extra shipping? Place a new order and pick the ‘collection’ option at checkout. Then message us on WhatsApp and we’ll combine both orders into a single shipment.
Important notes
- Someone must be at the delivery address to receive the parcel — live fish cannot be left unattended
- Acclimatise your fish slowly — float the bag for 20–30 minutes before releasing
- For any Live Arrival Guarantee claim, a short unboxing video is needed (parcel still sealed → opened → fish still in bag) so we can resolve the issue quickly
- Delivery is available across the UK mainland
Where we can and can’t deliver live fish
I’d love to ship everywhere in the UK, but I can’t. There are two kinds of places we can’t safely send live fish — and both are about keeping the fish alive, not about the sale.
1. Postcodes our licensed courier does not serve
Not every UK courier is legally licensed to carry live animals, and the ones that are don’t serve every postcode. A handful of remote mainland areas, some of the Scottish islands, and the offshore territories (Isle of Man, Channel Islands) are outside our carrier’s live-animal network entirely. If that’s you, your order cannot be dispatched — not a policy choice, a physical reality of who will carry the box.
2. Postcodes that need 2+ days in transit
Our licensed live-animal courier covers most of the UK mainland, but parts of the Highlands and far North Scotland, parts of rural Wales, and Northern Ireland are a minimum two-day transit with the live-animal carriers that will go there. Fish mortality climbs sharply past 30 hours in transit, especially in cold months when water temperature drops even with a heat pack. We’ve seen too many sad outcomes from sending to these regions, and I’d rather decline the sale than ship fish I don’t think will arrive alive.
If you’re in one of these areas and still want to try, message me on WhatsApp before you order. For hardier species (shrimp, snails, some coldwater stock) and during warmer months I can sometimes make it work — but the Live Arrival Guarantee may not apply, and we’ll agree that in writing before I dispatch.
Not sure if you’re affected? Drop your postcode on WhatsApp before placing an order and I’ll confirm whether we can dispatch safely. It takes a minute and it’s always worth checking first.
Delivery questions, answered
How much does live fish delivery cost in the UK?
Live-arrival delivery is £20.00 flat, and free on orders over £200.00. The exact total always shows at checkout before you pay.
Which days do you deliver live fish?
Fish arrive on a Wednesday or Thursday, so no animal is ever in transit over a weekend. You get tracking and your delivery date by email once your order is booked with the courier.
Do I need to be home for the delivery?
Yes — someone must be at the delivery address to receive the parcel, because live fish cannot be left unattended on a doorstep. If your plans change after ordering, message us and we'll rearrange.
What happens if a fish arrives dead or unwell?
Every live animal is covered by our Live Arrival Guarantee. Contact us the same day your fish arrive — WhatsApp is fastest — with your order number and a short unboxing video showing the sealed parcel being opened, and we'll arrange a replacement or refund.
How are live fish packed for transport?
Fish travel in oxygen-filled bags inside insulated boxes, with heat packs added whenever the weather calls for them, and are carried by a licensed live-animal courier on a tracked service.
When do I need to order for this week's delivery?
Orders placed Friday after 5pm, Saturday, Sunday or Monday roll into the next dispatch cycle. The delivery window you'll actually get is always shown at checkout before you confirm.