Looking to make a small profit with a fishkeeping project. Thoughts and advice?

[I Like Rare Fish]

I also know people who have bred paradise fish, rosy barbs, rosy red minnows, Cory catfish, and plecos.

 

[OliveFish05]

I have not been following this thread, and am only going off the title.

I have a fish species called Gymnogeophagus Terrapurpura. They are cold water cichlids. I originally bought them for quite an expense, and I set up a tank and built a stand. They are outside. They will breed in spring, and can have up to 600 babies. I have a 42g tub for when they pair up, and an empty 55g to raise them. I will most likely sell them to members of forums, and exotic fish shops. They are very easy to take care of. If you want, I can hook you up with some when there are fry. They are outside, and the outside drops to temperatures of 50 degrees.

Along with that, they will make you a profit. I can also collect driftwood from my relatives ‘farm’. Manzanita wood.

Wow! That would be awesome! We'll see where I'm at come spring, but that sounds awesome! How much do they typically sell for?

 

[I Like Rare Fish]

Wow! That would be awesome! We'll see where I'm at come spring, but that sounds awesome! How much do they typically sell for?

I bought my 6 juvies for 45 bucks, but that is VERY cheap for them. 20 bucks a pop is common. Most of the Gymnogeophagus Terrapurpura’s are ‘rio San Juan’ version.

 

[Colin_T]

Here is a photo of what I am talking about

Yes you can use those but bigger tubs are better. My tubs were 100-250 gallon each. The more water, the more stable the temperature, and the faster the fish grow.

 

[itiwhetu]

Just slow down a little, this project is about making a profit.
To make a profit, you need to look at all your set-up costs, all your running costs. You also need to make sure that you can produce a product which will be able to be sold.
Are you sure you can breed these fish to the standard required? Remember that the people that have bred the fish you have purchased have all sorts of secrets to get them to that standard, have you that expertise?

 

[OliveFish05]

Just slow down a little, this project is about making a profit.
To make a profit, you need to look at all your set-up costs, all your running costs. You also need to make sure that you can produce a product which will be able to be sold.

Thats what I’m looking around for, throwing out multiple ideas, seeing what the cost would be, how well you guys think it would work, etc. This is how I plan although right now I’m collecting ideas, gathering my thoughts. I had like 8 really important tabs open on my laptop, with notes, calculations, products, and such and my sister deleted them all when I let her borrow my laptop

 

[Colin_T]

Fish are easy to breed and grow up. Learn how to culture foods for the babies and adults. You know how to do water changes and look after fish already so that is half the battle over.

To grow baby fish fast,
have the water temperature around 28C

feed the babies 3-5 times a day and feed them so they look like pregnant guppies.

do big daily water changes and gravel cleans.

That's basically it. I reared my fish in 2 foot tanks and had the temp at 28C, fed them heaps, did big daily water changes. And I sold them at 2-3 months of age and they were sexually mature at that time. Most of the fish were rainbowfish and were 2-3 inches long at 2-3 months of age.

If you have ponds outside and it is a little cool, put some bubble wrap on the surface of the ponds. Cover about 90% of the surface with bubble wrap and it will help warm the water, reduce evaporation, and insulate the water at night.

The following link is about breeding fish but also has a fair bit of info on culturing live food for baby fish. @AbbeysDad has similar info on his website too so you should check that out. Start playing around with live food cultures now so you have them going well when you get baby fish.

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

 

[AbbeysDad]

Here's a deep dive into Breeding Fish and another into Culturing and Collecting Live Foods.
And while we're at it, here's the deep dive into Filtration and Water Quality which is key to breeding fish and raising strong, healthy fry!

 

[connorlindeman]

Is it really necessary to have a filter in a tub with just plants? or is a heater enough.

 

[Colin_T]

I like an air operated sponge filter in ponds and tubs just to help circulate the water and keep the oxygen levels high. If you just have a pond full of plants, the oxygen levels can drop at night and the pH can also drop. Then during the day the pH can go up. This is due to the plants photosynthesising and removing CO2 from the water during the day.

By having an air operated filter or even just aeration, you reduce or prevent massive fluctuations in pH during the day and night.

 

[connorlindeman]

I like an air operated sponge filter in ponds and tubs just to help circulate the water and keep the oxygen levels high. If you just have a pond full of plants, the oxygen levels can drop at night and the pH can also drop. Then during the day the pH can go up. This is due to the plants photosynthesising and removing CO2 from the water during the day.

By having an air operated filter or even just aeration, you reduce or prevent massive fluctuations in pH during the day and night.

Ok thanks!

 

[xxBarneyxx]

There is lots of great info and advice in this thread.

With the risk of sounding like a party pooper though I would say actually making a profit from anything aquatics related is fairly difficult. Anything you buy from a fish shop is being bought by them for next to nothing and has various guarantees and stuff attached to it that you wont be able to offer.

Depending on where you live and what your weather is like growing certain plants outdoors if you have the space can be profitable. Again though most of the commonly available fast growers have plenty of competition out there already so you really need to do it at as close to zero cost as you can or do it on scale (which takes money/time and lots of space). I know locally to me I struggle to even give plants away a lot of the time.

You need to factor in running costs, setup and labour time to really see if you are making a profit. Sadly the answer a lot of the times is that you will barely break even on a lot of projects.

Live bearers generally are what people want to breed. However they are also the hardest to make money from. Unless you are breeding something really special and are active in the communities that appreciate that then its a hard sell.

The best options are generally more niche fish or inverts. Ones that have a lot of appeal but aren't normally seen in a fish shop. You also however need to have it not so niche that there is a really small market for it.

Killifish may be an option to look at. They don't require a lot of space, they are fairly easy to breed and they aren't seen often in fish shops.

Generally though I would say anything making money from this hobby can be pretty difficult. It's a thought that comes to pretty much everyone that has been in the hobby for awhile and a lot of us have been through the same processes to some degree or another. I would be willing to bet that the majority of us if with was honest, and took into account how much time we put into it, would have been better off money wise just going and getting a couple of hours work from somewhere.

I definitely encourage you to give it a go. Breeding fish and growing plants is fun. Just do it for the fun first and consider any money you might make an added bonus.

Edit: There are some areas that might be worth considering.

If you are willing to put the work in for it then fragging corals like xenia, greenstar poylps and fast growing mushrooms can turn a profit. Even more so if you live somewhere warm and sunny were you can replacing artificial light with sunlight.

Also making your own marine aragocrete based "live rock", curing it and then seeding it with critters could be an option. It is low cost and not too difficult but takes space and quite a bit of time.

 

[I Like Rare Fish]

tough to make a profit, for sure. I think you need to invest to make a profit. My Gymnogeophagus will breed very much. You can sell to lfs and online.

 

[AbbeysDad]

xxBarneyxx wrote - "With the risk of sounding like a party pooper though I would say actually making a profit from anything aquatics related is fairly difficult."

I'll also take a dump in the 'party poopin' pail' (just couldn't resist! <hehe>)...
I've been breeding and raising red and pineapple swordtails. Over the last two years I've sold over 600 fish which on the surface, may seem impressive. However, retail expects to pay about 1/3 the selling price for fish, so my big, beautiful swordtails sell for $1 each as they retail for about $2.98/ea. So I barely cover the cost of fish food (and I culture some live foods as well). So...if this was a business, I'd easily be in the RED.
For me, I really just consider it an extension of the hobby and if the fish sales cover fish food, it's a small win.

On the other hand, if you were to successfully breed and sell fish with a higher profit margin and/or mass produce fish, you could do better. But be realistic. As mentioned, treat it like a business, with a plan and factor in energy, water, fish food, and equipment costs (as well as TIME) to truly understand your cost of doing business. I can't really speak to raising and selling plants. I think most plant sellers buy, mark up, and resell plants that are grown in the south.

The bottom line is that I think most successful fish operations are typically large scale, indoors in countless large vats or outdoors (south) in several ponds (and now I'm remembering huge losses with bad weather (e.g. Disaster at Goliad Farms.)

An interviewer asked a fish breeder who just won the lottery what he was going to do. He said "I guess I'll just keep raising fish until it's all gone."

EDIT FOOTNOTE: Check out the video section on my website for tours of some awesome large scale fish operations.

 

[OliveFish05]

There is lots of great info and advice in this thread.

With the risk of sounding like a party pooper though I would say actually making a profit from anything aquatics related is fairly difficult. Anything you buy from a fish shop is being bought by them for next to nothing and has various guarantees and stuff attached to it that you wont be able to offer.

Depending on where you live and what your weather is like growing certain plants outdoors if you have the space can be profitable. Again though most of the commonly available fast growers have plenty of competition out there already so you really need to do it at as close to zero cost as you can or do it on scale (which takes money/time and lots of space). I know locally to me I struggle to even give plants away a lot of the time.

You need to factor in running costs, setup and labour time to really see if you are making a profit. Sadly the answer a lot of the times is that you will barely break even on a lot of projects.

Live bearers generally are what people want to breed. However they are also the hardest to make money from. Unless you are breeding something really special and are active in the communities that appreciate that then its a hard sell.

The best options are generally more niche fish or inverts. Ones that have a lot of appeal but aren't normally seen in a fish shop. You also however need to have it not so niche that there is a really small market for it.

Killifish may be an option to look at. They don't require a lot of space, they are fairly easy to breed and they aren't seen often in fish shops.

Generally though I would say anything making money from this hobby can be pretty difficult. It's a thought that comes to pretty much everyone that has been in the hobby for awhile and a lot of us have been through the same processes to some degree or another. I would be willing to bet that the majority of us if with was honest, and took into account how much time we put into it, would have been better off money wise just going and getting a couple of hours work from somewhere.

I definitely encourage you to give it a go. Breeding fish and growing plants is fun. Just do it for the fun first and consider any money you might make an added bonus.

Edit: There are some areas that might be worth considering.

If you are willing to put the work in for it then fragging corals like xenia, greenstar poylps and fast growing mushrooms can turn a profit. Even more so if you live somewhere warm and sunny were you can replacing artificial light with sunlight.

Also making your own marine aragocrete based "live rock", curing it and then seeding it with critters could be an option. It is low cost and not too difficult but takes space and quite a bit of time.

xxBarneyxx wrote - "With the risk of sounding like a party pooper though I would say actually making a profit from anything aquatics related is fairly difficult."

I'll also take a dump in the 'party poopin' pail' (just couldn't resist! <hehe>)...
I've been breeding and raising red and pineapple swordtails. Over the last two years I've sold over 600 fish which on the surface, may seem impressive. However, retail expects to pay about 1/3 the selling price for fish, so my big, beautiful swordtails sell for $1 each as they retail for about $2.98/ea. So I barely cover the cost of fish food (and I culture some live foods as well). So...if this was a business, I'd easily be in the RED.
For me, I really just consider it an extension of the hobby and if the fish sales cover fish food, it's a small win.

On the other hand, if you were to successfully breed and sell fish with a higher profit margin and/or mass produce fish, you could do better. But be realistic. As mentioned, treat it like a business, with a plan and factor in energy, water, fish food, and equipment costs (as well as TIME) to truly understand your cost of doing business. I can't really speak to raising and selling plants. I think most plant sellers buy, mark up, and resell plants that are grown in the south.

The bottom line is that I think most successful fish operations are typically large scale, indoors in countless large vats or outdoors (south) in several ponds (and now I'm remembering huge losses with bad weather (e.g. Disaster at Goliad Farms.)

An interviewer asked a fish breeder who just won the lottery what he was going to do. He said "I guess I'll just keep raising fish until it's all gone."

EDIT FOOTNOTE: Check out the video section on my website for tours of some awesome large scale fish operations.

Thank you so much for your input, both of you! I appreciate everyone's help immensely.