These Terms of Use govern your use of OneShoal.com. OneShoal is operated by DWH Venture Works Limited (company number 17390937), registered office 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom.
Version 1.0 — effective 6 September 2026
By creating or using an account, listing, messaging, selling, buying, rehoming, reviewing or using other account features, you agree to the current version of these Terms where acceptance is requested.
1. What OneShoal is
OneShoal is a marketplace and fishkeeping platform for tropical, marine and pond fish, aquatic plants, equipment and related services and information.
Unless a separate OneShoal service expressly says otherwise, OneShoal is not the buyer, seller, owner, keeper, breeder, inspector, quarantine provider, packer, carrier, transporter or agent for a transaction between users. A contract to buy, sell, gift, exchange or rehome an animal or item is between the buyer and seller or other users involved.
OneShoal does not guarantee a user, business, listing, animal, plant, item, service or transaction merely because it appears on the platform.
A species or item appearing in our catalogue, search results, country pages, compatibility tools, AI output or a user listing does not mean it is lawful to own, keep, breed, sell, buy, import, export or transport in your location.
2. Eligibility and accounts
You must be 18 or over to create an account or enter into marketplace transactions through OneShoal.
You must provide accurate information, keep your account reasonably secure and not impersonate another person or business. You are responsible for activity carried out through your account unless the law provides otherwise.
We may require verification or additional information where reasonably necessary for safety, fraud prevention, business verification or legal compliance.
3. Private sellers and business sellers
If you list on OneShoal, you must accurately indicate whether you are acting as a private/hobby seller or in the course of a business or trade. Choosing a label on OneShoal does not change your legal status if the facts show that you are acting as a trader or business.
Business sellers must provide any identity, contact, registration, licence or other information the law requires and must comply with applicable consumer-protection, trading, tax and animal-activity rules.
Where UK consumer law applies to a transaction between a trader and a consumer, the buyer may have statutory rights that do not apply in the same way to a private-to-private transaction. Nothing in these Terms removes or limits statutory consumer rights.
A OneShoal verification badge or check means only that we checked the specific fact described by that badge at a particular time. It is not a guarantee of the user, business, continuing legal compliance, animal health, listing accuracy or transaction.
4. Seller responsibilities
By listing an animal, plant, item or service, you confirm that:
- you have the legal right and authority to sell, transfer, rehome or provide it;
- your listing is accurate, current and not misleading;
- you clearly distinguish photographs of the actual animal or item from example or representative photographs;
- you describe material health, condition, size, age, origin or welfare information that a reasonable buyer should know, where known and relevant;
- you hold and maintain any licence, registration, permit, authorisation or certification required for your activity; and
- you comply with all laws that apply to you, your activity and the transaction.
That responsibility may include animal welfare and licensing law, consumer and trading law, tax, disease controls, biosecurity, invasive or non-native species restrictions, wildlife and CITES rules, import/export and customs rules, carrier restrictions and country, state, regional or local requirements.
For example, a person commercially selling animals as pets in England must determine whether the statutory animal-activity licensing regime applies to their activity and, where it does, obtain and maintain the required licence. OneShoal does not assume that every hobby keeper requires such a licence.
We may ask for evidence of compliance and may restrict or remove a listing or account where evidence is not provided or where we reasonably identify a legal, welfare, fraud or safety risk. This does not mean we pre-approve every listing or continuously verify every user.
5. Buyer responsibilities
Before obtaining an animal or plant, you are responsible for checking:
- whether it is lawful for you to obtain, keep or move it in your location;
- whether any permit, licence or other authorisation is required;
- whether you have suitable, appropriately sized and properly established housing and can provide long-term care;
- the seller's information and the animal's or item's condition, provenance and suitability; and
- how the handover can be carried out safely and lawfully.
You should ask sensible questions and inspect an animal or item where appropriate before completing a transaction. These responsibilities do not remove any statutory rights you have against a business seller.
6. Live animals, welfare, collection and transport
Animal welfare comes before completing a transaction.
Users must not list, sell, obtain, move or transfer an animal where doing so would be unlawful or inconsistent with applicable welfare or disease-control requirements. Animals must never be released into the wild, a watercourse or drainage system unless the release is expressly lawful and properly authorised.
OneShoal is designed primarily around local discovery and an agreed handover between users. OneShoal does not itself arrange or endorse live-animal carriage. If users separately choose to arrange delivery or transport, they are responsible for determining whether it is lawful and suitable and for complying with welfare, packaging, carrier, temperature, timing, permit and other applicable requirements.
Cross-border transactions should not proceed unless the users involved have established that all applicable import/export, customs, animal-health, biosecurity and wildlife rules can be met.
7. Prohibited listings and conduct
You must not use OneShoal to list, advertise, request, sell, buy, transfer or facilitate anything that is unlawful, unsafe, stolen, counterfeit, fraudulent, materially misleading, associated with animal cruelty, or prohibited or restricted by applicable wildlife, invasive-species or other law.
You must not:
- use OneShoal to facilitate crime, fraud or illegal content;
- harass, threaten, abuse, exploit or discriminate against another user;
- impersonate another person or business;
- send spam, scams, malicious links or deceptive payment requests;
- scrape, harvest or misuse personal information;
- attempt to bypass security, moderation, rate limits or account restrictions;
- publish another person's private information without a lawful reason; or
- manipulate listings, rankings, reviews, reports or platform features dishonestly.
Our Marketplace Safety and responsible-selling guidance forms additional practical guidance but does not replace these Terms or applicable law.
8. Messaging, reporting and moderation
Messages are provided to help users discuss legitimate OneShoal transactions and fishkeeping matters. Keep communications respectful and relevant.
Users can report listings, profiles, messages or other content through available reporting routes or by contacting support@oneshoal.com.
We may use proportionate automated signals and human review to detect spam, fraud, illegal content, prohibited listings and other safety concerns. We may remove or restrict content, warn users, limit features, suspend or close accounts, preserve evidence and refer serious matters to appropriate authorities where reasonably necessary or required by law.
Where appropriate, we aim to explain significant enforcement decisions and provide a reasonable complaint or appeal route. Immediate action may be taken where necessary for safety, legal compliance, fraud prevention or platform security.
9. Reviews and reputation
Reviews must reflect a genuine experience or transaction and must be honest, relevant and not misleading.
Fake reviews, commissioned fake reviews, review manipulation, coordinated review abuse and undisclosed incentivised reviews are prohibited. Unless OneShoal provides a controlled feature that expressly permits and labels an incentive, users must not offer or accept an incentive in exchange for a marketplace review.
We may use transaction context or other signals to investigate a review, remove or label reviews that breach our rules and restrict accounts involved in repeated manipulation. A review appearing on OneShoal is not a promise that we have independently verified every statement in it.
10. Your content and intellectual property
You retain ownership of content you submit, subject to any rights owned by third parties.
You give DWH Venture Works Limited a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, format, display and distribute your content only as reasonably necessary to operate, secure and moderate OneShoal and, for content you deliberately make public such as a public listing, business profile or public tank showcase, to promote that public content and OneShoal.
This licence does not give us a general right to use private messages or private tank content for external marketing or to train third-party general-purpose AI models. The licence normally ends when the relevant content is deleted, except where temporary backups, legal obligations, safety records or technically necessary copies of content already lawfully shared require limited continued retention.
You must have the rights needed to upload the content you submit and must not infringe another person's copyright, trade mark, privacy or other rights.
11. Fishkeeping, catalogue, AI and compatibility information
Species profiles, compatibility information, Fish Scan, Tank Scan, care suggestions and other informational tools are intended to support decision-making, not replace it. Information may be incomplete, outdated or wrong and circumstances vary between individual animals, tanks and jurisdictions.
You remain responsible for husbandry, welfare and legal decisions. OneShoal does not provide veterinary diagnosis or treatment. Seek an appropriately qualified professional where an animal's health or welfare requires professional advice.
12. Paid, featured and sponsored services
OneShoal may offer optional subscriptions, featured listings, sponsored placements, business services or other paid features. The current price, billing period, included features and any renewal or cancellation terms will be shown before you agree to pay.
We will not charge you for a paid feature without a clear price and an affirmative agreement to purchase it. Where consumer cancellation, renewal or other statutory rights apply, those rights remain unaffected. Separate payment-provider terms may also apply.
A featured or sponsored placement buys visibility. It is not an endorsement, certification or guarantee by OneShoal.
The availability or pricing of free and paid features may change prospectively. Nothing in these Terms promises that a particular feature will remain free forever or prevents OneShoal from introducing transaction, subscription or other fees in future, provided applicable notice and consumer-law requirements are met.
13. Service availability and changes
We aim to operate OneShoal reliably but do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free availability. We may maintain, secure, repair, improve, replace or discontinue features.
Where a change materially disadvantages users of a paid service, we will handle the change fairly and provide notice, cancellation or other remedies where the law requires them.
14. Our responsibility and liability
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
Consumers
If you are using OneShoal as a consumer, DWH Venture Works Limited remains responsible for foreseeable loss or damage caused by our breach of these Terms or our failure to use reasonable care and skill where the law requires us to be responsible.
However, because OneShoal is normally not a party to user-to-user transactions, we are not responsible merely because another user makes an inaccurate statement, fails to perform a transaction, acts unlawfully, or because an animal or item is unhealthy, unsuitable, unlawful or does not survive, except to the extent the loss is caused by OneShoal's own breach of a legal duty.
We do not exclude your statutory consumer rights and we do not require consumers to give OneShoal a broad indemnity for ordinary use of the service.
Business users
If you use OneShoal wholly or mainly for business purposes, then, to the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss or for loss of profit, revenue, business, opportunity, goodwill or data that was not caused by our breach of a non-excludable legal duty.
Subject to the liabilities that cannot lawfully be limited, our aggregate liability to a business user arising out of or in connection with OneShoal in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of £500 and the total fees that business user paid directly to DWH Venture Works Limited for OneShoal services in the preceding 12 months.
A business user will indemnify DWH Venture Works Limited against third-party claims, losses and reasonable costs to the extent caused by that business user's unlawful listing or content, infringement of third-party intellectual-property rights, or material breach of applicable law or these Terms. This indemnity does not cover losses caused by OneShoal's own negligence or breach.
15. Suspension and account closure
We may restrict, suspend or close an account or remove content where reasonably necessary because of a serious or repeated Terms breach, suspected fraud, illegality, animal-welfare risk, safety risk, platform-security risk or legal requirement.
Where appropriate, we will provide a reason and an opportunity to appeal. We may act immediately where delay could create legal, welfare, fraud, security or safety risk.
You may close your account using available account controls or by contacting support. Some information may be retained after closure as explained in our Privacy Notice.
16. Changes to these Terms
We may change these Terms prospectively as the service or law develops. We will identify the current version and effective date. We will notify users of material changes and, where appropriate, require acceptance of the new version before protected account features can continue to be used.
We will not use a Terms update to remove rights retrospectively where the law does not permit that.
17. Governing law and disputes
These Terms and your use of OneShoal are governed by the law of England and Wales, subject to any mandatory consumer protections that apply to you.
If you are a consumer, nothing in these Terms prevents you from using courts available to you under applicable law, and consumers outside England and Wales retain mandatory local rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.
If you are a business user, the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, except where applicable law requires otherwise.
Please contact support@oneshoal.com first if a problem can reasonably be resolved directly.
18. General terms
If any part of these Terms is unlawful or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to apply. A delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver of that right.
We may transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms as part of a genuine business reorganisation, financing, sale or transfer, provided this does not unlawfully reduce a consumer's rights. You may not transfer an account or contractual right where doing so would undermine account security or legal obligations without our consent, except where the law gives you that right.
A person who is not a party to these Terms has no right to enforce them under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 unless these Terms expressly say otherwise.
These Terms, together with any specific paid-service terms that apply to a purchase, set the contractual rules for your use of OneShoal. They do not override rights that the law says cannot be excluded.
19. Contact
Support: support@oneshoal.com Operator: DWH Venture Works Limited trading as OneShoal.com Registered office: 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom Company number: 17390937