Our company selects the farms that follow only the highest level of exportation and quality control required by the government. We have government contracts that allow us to buy from only authorized companies that follow these stringent policies of fish importation. The fish is grown and treated in these certified farms and then made available to us. We then put together this special selection of fish and make it available to you. Once the fish is purchased the farm is notified and they go through their final quarantine process to ensure the fish is healthy and safe to ship.This process takes approximately 10-21 days for Goldfish and about 5-10 days for other fish. Every single fish is quarantined before it arrives in the US. But once this process is done this will ensure the fish is healthy and disease free before we ship it out.
Our shipping cost is based on weight. As bigger fish require more water meaning more weight. Our shipping cost start at $21.00 and scale up depending on the item. You can ship multiple small fish for $21.00. But once you have multiple big fish in your order our shipping cost can go up to $40.00. If you ship overnight this service starts at $58.00 but also scales up on weight. For large orders of big fish shipping overnight maxes out at $90.00. If you have any doubts about how much you will pay in shipping if you include all the items you're interested in and start to checkout once you include your address it will give you a quote on how much shipping will cost for your particular order. If you have any further questions regarding shipping costs please feel free to contact us.
Once you place your order you are now in que to have your order ship out. We ship out on a first come first serve basis with older orders going out first. When your order is ready to go out we bag your fish using pure oxygen to ensure it survives. The bags are then placed in an appropriately sized box. All of our boxes include live fish stickers on at least two sides. Inside the box is Styrofoam padded to ensure the bags safety as well as to control temperature. The temperature for your destination is checked before shipping out to ensure the fish can arrive in your destination. We have certain temperature parameters we have to meet before shipping out. If the temperature is somewhat in question, we will include a heat or ice pack to help regulate the temperature inside the box. Once all these steps have been met, we then proceed to create the shipping label for your box. The service used will be dependent upon the service paid for prior. If you have any further questions about our shipping process, please feel free to contact us.
We ship only certain days of the week to avoid having any orders sit in any warehouse over the weekend. Our shipping cycle starts on Monday and ends on Wednesday. In certain instances, we may ship on Thursdays.
To ship fish into Hawaii, an import permit is required. The permit is issued by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture Plant Quarantine Office. We do require the import permit to be completed and sent over to us either in the form of a scanned PDF file or just a very clear photo taken with your phone or digital camera. Send over all required paperwork once completed and/or approved via email to contact@coastgemusa.com. For those residing in Hawaii, you can apply and find all the info regarding allowable fish to be sent from the mainland US to Hawaii here: https://hdoa.hawaii.gov/pi/pq/travel-shipping-information/importing-animals-to-hawai%CA%BBi-from-the-u-s-mainland/ Link to apply for Import Permit: https://hdoa.hawaii.gov/pi/pq/import-program/plant-quarantine-application-for-permits/ There is a fee for the Import Permit, Conditionally Approved Animals* (pet birds, rats, guinea pigs, etc. Single shipment $20.00 Multiple shipments in 1 year $100.00