I fear your observation about shipping to Canada is correct. It is hard. The only time I shipped fish to a Canadian gentleman, they arrived weeks later and dead. Some Canadian aquarists will go across the border and maintain a postbox in a post office. Americans on the border will drive across and mail their fish in Canada.

It is easier going to Canada than going to the U.S. with fish these days, if one has more than a pair or two of guppies or whatever. A number of Americans who belonged to one of the two Montreal Aquarium Societies have let their memberships slide because of the avarice of U.S. Fish and Wildlife. (They’d like to charge for an import license ($100) and an inspection fee at a port of entry ($50). If people are up front and only have a pair or two, they may be recognized as small time hobbyists and waved through.

Even Montreal is a very long haul for you. There is a Montreal Aquarium Society which seems especially strong in killies and livebearers. (That according to a correspondent on the ALA livebearers mailing list.)
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/6977/

There is also the Quebec group: Association Regionale des Aquariophiles de Quebec
http://www.oricom.ca/pierdes/

And the Soc. D'Aquariophilie de Montreal, which is long on cichlids. 2450 Workman, Montreal, QUE, Canada H3J 1L8

There is also a form to be filled out for fish entering the US. It is available in PDF at F&WL’s website. I do not think Canada has similar requirements.

Having mentioned all of the bother taking fish over the border, it probably isn’t worth your bother investigating the big NE Council show coming up. I include the April 7-9 event for the benefit of lurkers. http://northeastcouncil.org/

In the Toronto area your have:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tasociety/
Toronto A.S.

There is also a Toronto Extreme Fishlovers’ list. Certainly not trying to get rid of you, but if you also check with them you might be able to make requests and cut a deal.
http://www.extremehub.com/phpbb/index.php?pf=27&h=1&start=0

Doug White, the guppy guy also lives in “the greater Toronto area.”
http://www.deltaguppies.com/index.html

I hope the shop has some sort of return policy on fish. I know that is tricky, because sometimes shops make blunders. However, after listening to war stories from a friend who had a shop, a lot of aquarists get in their licks too.

Resubmit that response you didn’t see. It is easy to save it to preview and then forget to submit a comment. Sometimes, as you know, things just disappear while typing on-line.

I’m typing this in Word and saving before every third phone call. That preserves what is being typed a little more. In my case it spots some of the many typos and miss-spellings I generate too.

The only problem with cutting from Word and pasting into Guppylog (unless I remember to save first to text only) is that a lot of punctuation shows up as goofy code, which then needs to be corrected.

I am grateful for that delete button under a story or comment. I will highlight and save, then delete (hitting the initial request and the do you really want to delete? button). Pasting in gives one a fresh start.

Watch out though if others have made comments after you. If you then delete your comment, you delete what ever came after you as well. Then I have to live with my blunders. ;)

Ah! Enough administrivia! I hope you beat that storm to the shop and got a new female swordtail.