Help: Why can I not sell live fish but others can?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

A seller’s store was restricted for selling live fish, despite many online fish retailers appearing to use Shopify.

Key explanations provided:

  • Most fish retailers don’t use Shopify’s native checkout for live animals. Instead, they employ third-party fulfillment services or custom checkout systems that operate separately from the standard Shopify storefront.

  • Live animal sales conflict with Shopify’s standard policies due to animal welfare and regulatory concerns.

Suggested solutions:

  1. Request a special exception from Shopify support by providing documentation of proper licenses, approved live-shipment packaging, carrier agreements, and insurance proving legal and safe shipping capabilities.

  2. Use a hybrid approach: sell aquarium supplies (tanks, food, accessories) through Shopify’s standard checkout, while handling live fish transactions through a separate “Reserve Your Fish” button linking to an external fulfillment provider or custom form.

  3. Contact existing fish retailers to learn their specific workarounds.

The restriction likely stems from product listing methods or regional compliance issues rather than an absolute ban, as live animal sales are technically possible with proper documentation and adherence to acceptable use policies.

Summarized with AI on October 28. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
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I had a store that was restricted because im selling live fish. Every single online fish retailer uses shopify, why can’t I?

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Hello @Mashur ,

Even though you see other retailers selling fish “on Shopify,” most of them actually use a third‑party fulfillment or a custom checkout that sits off the standard Shopify storefront. In other words, they aren’t using Shopify’s native shipping and checkout flow for the live fish portion of their business.

But if you still want to sell live fish through Shopify, here’s what you can do:

First, if you have a fully compliant operation—proper licenses, approved live‑shipment packaging and carriers, insurance, etc.—you can reach out to support and request a special exception. You’ll need to provide documentation that proves you can safely and legally ship live fish without risk of animal harm or regulatory violations.

If Shopify still isn’t able to accommodate, your next best bet is to decouple the live‑fish transaction from the Shopify checkout. You could use Shopify to sell tanks, food and accessories, then add a “Reserve Your Fish” button that links to a separate fulfillment provider or custom form outside of Shopify where you handle the live shipment. That keeps you in compliance while still driving customers through your Shopify site.

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Hey there Mashur @Mashur To the best of my knowledge, selling live animals “directly” is not exactly in line with Shopify policies. Those other stores you might have noticed are most likely going through some kind of third party medium or app making it acceptable. I suggest maybe reaching out to one of them to find out if they’d be generous enough to let you know how they go about it.