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Ebay Bans Live Coral Sales
Last updated on February 23rd, 2025
A New World For Coral Buying
One of, if not THE most popular way to buy coral has been through Ebay. Now, that officially comes to an end! Ebay joins Google, Meta, and a number of other online marketplace options that do not allow the sale of live animal, including coral!
Official Statement from Ebay
Read the statement on Ebay's website: HERE
Most live animals, including pets and vertebrate feeder animals, aren't allowed on eBay. Those that can be listed must follow our policy.
Some live animals are allowed, as long as sellers follow our guidelines below.
What is the policy?
Sellers may sell only the following live animals:
- Bees and ladybugs that aren't
endangered or threatened species - opens in new window or tab or species listed on CITES Appendix I - opens in new window or tab - Feeder insects, for example, crickets, dubia cockroaches, earthworms, or mealworms
- Fertilized eggs, when the name of the species is included in the listing
- Sea monkeys
Sellers need to ensure that they have the necessary government permits and also guarantee safe, overnight shipping. Pets and other live animals not described above aren’t allowed on eBay.
Activity on eBay is required to follow this policy, the eBay
Why does eBay have this policy?
This policy helps ensure that important government regulations are followed.
What Does This Mean?
Well, right off the bat, it makes selling coral to hobbyists a bit tougher. You'll have to use websites intended for this such as Reef2Reef. The positive side is that it will lead to more sales for legitimate online retailers and likely better success rate and coral shipping materials. This is because many ebay sellers didn't package coral correctly for shipping. The downside is that it does lead to price to be a bit higher since it will be businesses and not hobbyist prices. No matter how you look at it, this will lead to a new world of coral buying!
About the Author
John Krenzer
John is a Software Engineer with a passion for saltwater aquariums, as well as the founder and president of Reef Stable. He started in the aquarium hobby as a child with a 20 gallon freshwater aquarium. His interest in aquarium life grew and in 2008, John set up his first saltwater aquarium.
Today, John maintains an over 300 gallon reef tank system, consisting of a 120g reef and a 210g reef. These large tanks are contained within the same system, sharing a sump as a means to reduce total maintenance and increase total water volume.
John writes articles for the blog as a means to learn about more reef aquarium topics. These articles act as a reference for the readers as well as himself. John updates these articles frequently to provide additional information or make corrections as new information becomes available.
If you would like to request an article, tank tour article, or to collaborate, let me know via the
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