Shipping
Ripple Effect Aquatics is an online-only store – we do not offer local pickup or in-person visits. All Live fish orders are carefully hand-picked and shipped by us directly to your door from our location.
Order Processing:
Live Fish: Orders for live fish are shipped on Mondays and Tuesdays only, this is to minimise transit time and ensure live arrival. Orders received after 11 PM (AEST) on Saturday will be scheduled for shipment on the following Monday after (held for an extra week).
Aquarium Products: Non-living products are sent to our trusted suppliers on the same day if ordered before 5 PM (AEST) on weekdays. Orders received after this time will be sent on the following weekday.
Please note: Our dry goods such as equipment, accessories, and food are shipped directly from our trusted Aussie suppliers. This allows us to offer a wider range of products without holding physical stock in-store. Because of this, delivery times may vary slightly from our live fish orders.
We always aim to ensure your order arrives safely and as quickly as possible!
Holiday Schedule:
Public Holidays: Live fish orders placed on a public holiday will be scheduled for shipment on the next available Monday or Tuesday. Non-living product orders will be sent off on the next business day following the holiday.
Shipping Methods:
Dry Goods: Shipped from our suppliers at a flat rate of $9.95.
This excludes live animals and plants.
Live Animals and Plants: Shipped express via Australia Post at a flat rate of $30. This ensures fast delivery and the best chance of safe arrival.
Purchasing Both Dry Goods and Live Items: We use split shipping, so if your order includes both types of items, they’ll be shipped separately.
The combined shipping total will be $39.95.
$9.95 for dry goods.
$30 for live animals and/or plants.
We’ve done our best to keep shipping costs as low and fair as possible, while ensuring your fish and products arrive quickly and safely.
All Live Fish Orders: Have been set for authority to leave at property so please make sure someone is home to collect your order in a timely manner. Live fish are only delivered to residential or business addresses and will not ship live fish to P.O boxes.
How we pack our fish:
We take great care to ensure your fish arrive happy and healthy.
We carefully select the best-looking, healthiest specimens from our stock. When possible, we purge (dont feed) them overnight in a separate tank to minimise waste in the shipping bag during transit.
On the day of shipping, each fish is gently scooped and placed into a bag filled with medical-grade oxygen to keep them comfortable and safe. To be environmentally friendly, we heat-seal our bags instead of using rubber bands, reducing plastic waste and ensuring a secure seal.
The bags are then placed into a foam box and packed snugly with recycled newspaper to keep them warm and stable, preventing movement during transport. During colder months, we include heat packs on the lid to maintain a safe, warm temperature for your fish throughout their journey.
Dead on arrival (DOA) Guarantee:
We work hard to breed and ship the happiest, healthiest fish possible. However, sometimes the unexpected can happen during transit, and a fish may sadly arrive deceased.
Please know that all fish orders are covered by our Dead on Arrival Policy, giving you peace of mind when ordering live fish from us.
Click here to read our full DOA Policy.
Exclusions:
Customers From: NT, TAS, and WA are unable to purchase live plants or fish from our website due to local import regulations. If you have a permit and wish to import live stock, please feel free to contact us by the chat box in the bottom right or by directly emailing us, we can help you!
Returns and Refunds:
Please Visit: our Returns and Refunds page and sections 5 and 6 on our Terms and Conditions page for all information on returns and refunds for all non living products.
If in need of any help please feel free to reach out by filling out a contact form or utilising the chat bubble on the bottom right of the screen we're happy to help!