Liquid vitamins

[DukeOfYabon]

Here's what I did to obtain some liquid vitamin's for my Oscar (and for my future Betta's ). I am not wanting to recommend this method to anyone as it may be the case that I just got lucky with customs, so I am posting this information as an FYI only - if you are thinking of doing this please contact customs first. Please let me know if there is a better way to obtain this or a similar product.

I imported 2 16OZ bottles of Boyd's Vita-Chem Freshwater Liquid Vitamins which is a product designed for fish. This was recommended to me over Centrum's liquid vitamin product (designed for humans) which is also available in the US.

There were a number of retailers in the US, but none shipped to Oz. What to do?

I used a service called vPost Australia which provides a US address for me to use on any order from retailers who do not ship outside of the US. When I make such an order I let vPost know that an order is on the way and when they receive the item they forward it to me at an extra charge. You need to make sure that the company you are buying the product from allows you to specify different billing and shipping adresses. The shipping address is vPost's address but the billing address needs to be the address that the credit card is registered to. For that reason I used Big Al's Online as they allowed me to do that. Their product cost was a little higher than other retailers, but that didn't really worry me.

Here's the product:

http://www.bigalsonline.com/StoreCatalog/c...e=0&offset=

Here's the link to vPost:

https://www.vpostasia.com/australia/index.html

Costs:

USD$49.98 for 2 16OZ bottles of the Boyd Vita-Chem (USD$24.99 each).

USD$8.45 for the shipping charge from Big Al's to the vPost address in the US.

USD$21.58 for the shipping charge I paid to vPost for forwarding the product from their US address to my home. I think that I had a discount voucher as part of an opening special (until 9th Dec 07, PayPal users get a 20% discount when shipping with vPost).

Pretty expensive in the end, but I am really glad that I have it now.

Cheers,

Jason

[Callatya]

That is really interesting! I didn't know such a service existed!

There is a product by Sera called Fishtamins which is readily available, that might be worth looking into. I think perhaps Kent might do one too, but that might be specifically targetted to marine fish.

[Celeste84]

there's actually 4 or 5 aussie liquid vitamins available as well as MV tablets. i'm pretty sure it is now illegal to import the MV as another US supplier I was getting them off has sent an email to me saying that customs won't allow them through anymore.

there's another thread around these boards somewhere that lists all the aussie MV's available :)

[Callatya]

That is odd, maybe they are classing it as a fish food or pet medication? It should get through as a water treatment I think. *goes looking for the customs form*

[Bettarazzi]

Hey Celeste, can you please find that thread and bump it for me? Maybe we can get it pinned.

[khachdatinh]

do these liquid make your fish happy, healthy or what? why can't US retailers ship these products?

[Bettarazzi]

Hi Tan. Welcome to the forum. The vitamins are seized by Customs when they enter the country.

[Fishchick]

thanks for the heads up on the on-posting arrangement.

I just use pentavite though. Available at any Chemist and mega cheap.

Cheer, J

[Celeste84]

thanks for that someone! i'll have to remember that one next time i need vitamins

and yup! the vitamins keep my fish very healthy and happy, and help the fry grow as well! it's also for MY personal peace of mind - this way i know my fish are getting what they need and won't suffer from deficiencies.

cal i dunno, i think it's classed as a medication maybe? and that's why it can't get into the country??

and mike, this is the other thread i was thinking of

http://ausaqua.net/forum/index.php?showtop...amp;hl=vitamins