Shipping information for December 2021

In 2021 we shipped over 5,000 boxes of live tilapia and nearly 7,500 boxes of dry goods to retail customers like you who made their purchases online. On top of that, our couriers delivered over one hundred thousand tilapia to commercial growers all over the country. We know what we're doing! Promise.

Lakeway Tilapia invented the technology to grade fish according to their rates of growth while they are still able to be shipped safely. Our processes are proprietary, our equipment is patent-pending and our grades are all trademarked. We do not sell to any online resellers regardless of their claims. You simply cannot get our genuine aquaculture livestock anywhere else.

The logistics work behind shipping thousands of boxes per year requires a full-time employee. Unfortunately, there simply aren't enough hours in the day for this person to research individual orders to answer shipping questions. Time spent talking on the phone and typing emails to answer questions that are already addressed on our website has a huge impact on our prices.

The purpose of this page is to provide you with the insights that will help to answer the most common shipping-related questions. Please help us stay on track and keep our prices the lowest in the industry by reading all of the available information.
Thank you very much.

National service alerts

Every morning we check for USPS service alerts. Service alerts are how the US Postal Service lets us know when live animals are not allow on FedEx's air cargo network due to weather-related events like heavy snow, extreme cold, hurricanes or flooding. We are all connected by the weather and when a disaster strikes in one part of the country, it causes shipping bottlenecks everywhere else. Is your order subject to a national service alert? Touch or click here to view the USPS Service Alert pages that we review every day and find out.

Local service alert map

In addition to the national service alerts, we also have to study the localized service alerts. Tornados for example don't stop the Air Cargo Network, but may still shut down an entire region. Postal hubs known as "plants" can shut down mail to an entire region whenever problems arise and can add days to a live fish delivery. There are literally hundreds of trouble spots that come and go all day long. Is the postal hub serving your community re-routing live fish and causing deadly delays? Touch or click here to view the live interactive map that shows all the trouble spots that we have to avoid and find out.

Temperature limitations

Most species of tilapia will die if their water temperature drops below 60 degrees. Blue tilapia can survive down to 47 degrees, but they start taking damage from the cold before they reach their death point. We are not in the business of shipping dead or damaged fish. During the winter your order may be delayed due to the ambient temperatures either in your delivery area or in-route to you.
Please touch or click here to view our Winter Shipping FAQ page to find out if your order will be affected.

Micro-management is not necessary

We have been doing this for a very long time. We are masters of our craft. We know how to pack live fish to survive for up to nine days in their box undamaged. Our live arrival success rate is more than .9999%. We do not need assistance getting your fish to you. Remember, the fish belong to us until you open the box and accept them. Do not worry about our fish while they still belong to us. We will take every measure to get them to you in excellent condition. You focus on raising them.

Holiday Shipping Warning

In 2020 Fedex and the US Postal Service began pausing the acceptance of live animals, fish and insects for flights during the busiest shipping days of the year. This was due to the loss of hundreds of thousands of agricultural animals, primarily chickens, that died in shipping facilities waiting for their turn to fly. This holiday is already shaping up to be even busier. Last year our hatchery staff came to work every morning just to be sent home early. This deprived them the opportunity to properly enjoy the holidays with their families. This year will be different.

OUR HATCHERIES WILL BE CLOSED FOR TWO WEEKS FROM DECEMBER 20TH THROUGH DECEMBER 31ST. Orders for LIVE TILAPIA placed after 9am eastern time on December 17th WILL NOT be processed for shipping until after December 31st. In all likelihood every order for LIVE TILAPIA placed during this time will be shipped the first week of January.

Beginning January 3rd, we will resume shipping all LIVE TILAPIA orders within one to five business days. This only affects LIVE TILAPIA from our hatcheries, our feed store will continue to ship in one day or less.

All TILAPIA FOOD orders placed before 9 am eastern on Monday through Friday are shipped on the same day. Tilapia food orders placed after 9 am eastern on Sunday through Thursday are shipped in less than 24 hours. Tilapia food orders placed after 9 am eastern on Friday and Saturday will ship on Monday. If the day that your order is supposed to ship falls on a holiday then your order will ship on the next business day. Please note that if you order tilapia food and live fish in the same order, we will ship the food on the same day that the fish are shipped.

SHIPPING QUESTIONS concerning orders placed fewer than five business days ago might go unanswered depending on how busy we are when asked. Customers with shipping questions about orders that were on hold due to cold temperatures are welcome to email us at info@lakewaytilapia.com .

GENERAL QUESTIONS that are not related to shipping are always welcome. Email us at info@lakewaytilapia.com

PHONE SUPPORT is available for people who leave voicemail only. Call 865-262-8289. This is an old-school landline so it doesn't know what to do with text messages. Voicemails are being listened to and returned in the late afternoons and evenings. Again, shipping questions about orders under five business days old may go unanswered.

TEXT SUPPORT can be obtained by texting 865-441-3883.