Selling fish online business

[FishShelz]

Hello everyone!
I'm hoping to get some advice from people who may have prior experience with an online fish selling business. I have been thinking intensely about opening an online fish store for some years now. I want to replace my current job with this store. The main thing I need to know is can this be a full time job and an only job to bring in around 2 thousand a month? And would say 100 10 or 20 gallon tanks be enough room to support the stock to sell at that rate? Any help is appreciated! Thanks you

 

[mikey11]

depends how good you are at breeding fish,

what type of fish are you thinking about?

 

[FishShelz]

Just a variety of anything pretty much. Mostly just small tropical fish maybe some guppies. Im sure I would do some breeding. But probably the majority of my fish I might get wholesale and then resell.

 

[Colin_T]

It depends on where you live and the quality of your stock. If there are other online shops servicing your area you will struggle. But if there are no other online shops near you, it has potential. Then it comes down to good stock ,(both fish and dry goods). Carry decent brands and get healthy fish.

If you have petshops near you that carry bread n butter fish like guppies and goldfish, then carry those and more unusual stuff.

Set up a nice easy to use website and have photos of everything you sell. If you get new fish in, photograph them and put them on the website.

One of the shops I worked at had been open to the public for over 20 years and was doing ok. But when they started selling online, they did 10 x the sales online compared to walk in sales at the shop. They carry marine and freshwater fishes, and they carried Tunze products. So it can be done.

 

[FishShelz]

It depends on where you live and the quality of your stock. If there are other online shops servicing your area you will struggle. But if there are no other online shops near you, it has potential. Then it comes down to good stock ,(both fish and dry goods). Carry decent brands and get healthy fish.

If you have petshops near you that carry bread n butter fish like guppies and goldfish, then carry those and more unusual stuff.

Set up a nice easy to use website and have photos of everything you sell. If you get new fish in, photograph them and put them on the website.

One of the shops I worked at had been open to the public for over 20 years and was doing ok. But when they started selling online, they did 10 x the sales online compared to walk in sales at the shop. They carry marine and freshwater fishes, and they carried Tunze products. So it can be done.

Thank you so much! Its very inspiring to help me have the information I need to move forward in achieving my goals to know that it is possible. My only other concern is I may have a fairly small area to make my store as I'm hoping to work from home. Any ideas how many tanks and what size would be best?

 

[Colin_T]

Most shop display tanks are about 2ft long x 12inches wide x 12 inches high. If you make them wider (2ft long x 14-18inches wide x 12 inches high) it gives more water volume. A lot of shops have 2 tier stands but you can make 3 or 4 tier stands to reduce wasted space.

Quarantine tanks that importers use are about 3ft long x 2ft wide x 18inches high. This is due to the number of fish they bring in, usually 5000-10000 neons, 2000-5000 male guppies, etc. Obviously you don't need to import that many fish at a time but you have to pay quarantine to inspect every shipment and there are associated fees with them checking the fish during the holding period. So the more fish you bring in, the lower the price is per fish when it comes to fees.

eg: you bring in 1000 fish total. Quarantine fees are $1000 per shipment. This means each fish costs you $1 for fees just to keep them in holding tanks for a month before you can sell them. That price has to be added to the price of the fish, plus the price of importing the fish into your country, plus you need to cover the cost of feeding, water changes, heating, medications and losing any fish.
If you bring in 10000 fish. Quarantine fees are $1000. This means each fish cost 10cents for fees.

So the more fish you can bring in with each shipment, the cheaper the fees are per fish.

In addition to this, you pay a fee to have a quarantine room. This fee is paid annually regardless of it you bring in 1 shipment of fish, or 12 shipments. So this fee has to be added to the price of the fish too.
Obviously quarantine fees and charges vary from country to country and some places don't have any importation requirements, but most countries have some.

Due to the fees and charges most importers try to do shipments as often as possible. Using the quarantine tanks as holding facilities while you sell stock is a waste of money. It is best to use them for holding new fish for quarantine purposes, then move them into shop tanks to sell while new fish are brought in and quarantined.

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The other option is to buy fish from an importer rather than bring in your own stuff. It saves a lot of time, money and hassle but the fish cost more. However, by selling online you reduce overheads and save money that way.

eg: neons cost 5 cents to buy from an Asian fish farm. After all the expenses of importing, quarantine, etc, and assuming you don't lose them to neon disease, they might cost you 40cents each. If you lose half of them to disease it costs you 80 cents per fish. If you buy neons from an importer you might pay 60 cents - $1 per fish but it doesn't cost you anything to bring them in, and if you have dead fish in the bag, most importers will credit you for the dead fish.

An advantage of importing fish is you can bring in unusual stuff that most places don't carry and you can supply the rare or unusual fish as well as common stuff. However, rare and unusual don't always sell quickly so you might have a tank of fish sitting around for 6 months before any sell. But if you get a good reputation for unusual fishes, then they sell faster.

 

[FishShelz]

Most shop display tanks are about 2ft long x 12inches wide x 12 inches high. If you make them wider it gives more water volume. A lot of shops have 2 tier stands but you can make 3 or 4 tier stands to reduce wasted space.

Quarantine tanks that importers use are about 3ft long x 2ft wide x 18inches high. This is due to the number of fish they bring in, usually 5000-10000 neons, 2000-5000 male guppies, etc. Obviously you don't need to import that many fish at a time but you have to pay quarantine to inspect every shipment and there are associated fees with them checking the fish during the holding period. So the more fish you bring in, the lower the price is per fish when it comes to fees.
eg: you bring in 1000 fish total. Quarantine fees are $1000 per shipment. This means each fish costs you $1 for fees just to keep them in holding tanks for a month before you can sell them. That price has to be added to the price of the fish, plus the price of importing the fish into your country, plus you need to cover the cost of feeding, water changes, heating, medications and losing any fish.
If you bring in 10000 fish. Quarantine fees are $1000. This means each fish cost 10cents for fees.

So the more fish you can bring in, the cheaper the fees are per fish.

In addition to this, you pay an yearly fee to have a quarantine room. This fee is paid annually regardless of it you bring in 1 shipment of fish, or 12 shipments. So this fee has to be added to the price of the fish too.
Obviously quarantine fees and charges vary from country to country and some places don't have any importation requirements, but most countries have some.

Due to the fees and charges most importers try to do shipments as often as possible. Using the quarantine tanks as holding facilities while you sell stock is a waste of money. It is best to use them for holding new fish for quarantine purposes, then move them into shop tanks to sell while new fish are brought in and quarantined.

-------------------------
The other option is to buy fish from an importer rather than bring in your own stuff. It saves a lot of time, money and hassle but the fish cost more. However, by selling online you reduce overheads and save money that way.
eg: neons cost 5 cents to buy from an Asian fish farm. After all the expenses of importing, quarantine, etc, and assuming you don't lose them to neon disease, they might cost you 40cents each. If you lose half of them to disease it costs you 80 cents per fish. If you buy neons from an importer you might pay 60 cents - $1 per fish but it doesn't cost you anything to bring them in, and if you have dead fish in the bag, most importers will credit you for the dead fish.

An advantage of importing fish is you can bring in unusual stuff that most places don't carry and you can supply the rare or unusual fish as well as common stuff. However, rare and uncommon don't always sell quickly so you might have a tank of fish sitting around for 6 months before any sell. But if you get a good reputation for unusual fishes, then they sell faster.

Wow lots of good information to know. Thank you

 

[mikey11]

Just a variety of anything pretty much. Mostly just small tropical fish maybe some guppies. Im sure I would do some breeding. But probably the majority of my fish I might get wholesale and then resell.

guppies and livebearers are so cheap to buy and easy to breed, i can't really see how you would make anything on them after your expenses,

i have bred discus and angelfish in very large quantities before, at my peak i had about 120 tanks going, even with those kinds of fish i wasnt making much money after i factored in my expenses.....but i honestly wasnt doing it to try to make money, i was just doing it because i enjoyed it,

 

[AbbeysDad]

......... even with those kinds of fish i wasnt making much money after i factored in my expenses.....but i honestly wasnt doing it to try to make money, i was just doing it because i enjoyed it,

Like culturing live foods, breeding and growing out fish is just a logical extension of the 'hobby'....or is it obsession? But in reality, hobbyists can't sell fish for profit since any money earned likely just goes back into the hobby!!!

 

[FishShelz]

guppies and livebearers are so cheap to buy and easy to breed, i can't really see how you would make anything on them after your expenses,

i have bred discus and angelfish in very large quantities before, at my peak i had about 120 tanks going, even with those kinds of fish i wasnt making much money after i factored in my expenses.....but i honestly wasnt doing it to try to make money, i was just doing it because i enjoyed it,

Yeah thats true. I dunno definitely something to consider. But I guess I figure that if lfs are able to make enough money to Stay open and make profit and they have extra rent and utilities to pay on top of it all and the rent is something I plan to cut out then maybe it will be ok. I plan on trying to sell some less common fish too. But maybe those lfs make most profit on the supplies rather than the fish?

 

[Colin_T]

You don't make money breeding discus unless you can sell them in large numbers and that means working with a supplier not a petshop. Small angelfish sell tho and are worth breeding. Guppies, platies mollies and swordtails sell, as do neon tetras, tiger barbs (altho ruby barbs are better), and Corydoras all sell.

Depending on the size of your property and if you have a backyard, you can breed some fish outdoors in warmer weather. Rainbowfish are not commonly bred and whilst they don't sell as readily as neon tetras, some of the more colourful ones do sell, especially if you can get the price down.

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Most of the time shops do make more money from dry goods than live stock. Fish food, plants, ornaments and tanks, filters, heaters, etc, bring in the majority of money but on weekends you sell a lot of fish so it balances out a bit.

And you are correct about not having rent or wages for workers (only yourself), whereas shops have both of those, and rent is usually huge, especially if the petshop is in a shopping centre.

Most petshops have a 200-300% mark up on fish and about 120% on smaller cheaper dry goods. Less on more expensive items (50-80%) like tanks, metal halide light units and trickle filters.

 

[FishShelz]

You don't make money breeding discus unless you can sell them in large numbers and that means working with a supplier not a petshop. Small angelfish sell tho and are worth breeding. Guppies, platies mollies and swordtails sell, as do neon tetras, tiger barbs (altho ruby barbs are better), and Corydoras all sell.

Depending on the size of your property and if you have a backyard, you can breed some fish outdoors in warmer weather. Rainbowfish are not commonly bred and whilst they don't sell as readily as neon tetras, some of the more colourful ones do sell, especially if you can get the price down.

-------------------------
Most of the time shops do make more money from dry goods than live stock. Fish food, plants, ornaments and tanks, filters, heaters, etc, bring in the majority of money but on weekends you sell a lot of fish so it balances out a bit.

And you are correct about not having rent or wages for workers (only yourself), whereas shops have both of those, and rent is usually huge, especially if the petshop is in a shopping centre.

Most petshops have a 200-300% mark up on fish and about 120% on smaller cheaper dry goods. Less on more expensive items (50-80%) like tanks, metal halide light units and trickle filters.

I am learning so much and getting such insight and new ideas to making this a reality. It's awesome!

 

[hobby5]

From my knowledge shops don't make any money on live fish, they rather lose money. They are only there to lure in the customers. What brings in the money is food and equipment sales. If you truely want to make money with fish alone you need to be very large and professional.

 

[Colin_T]

From my knowledge shops don't make any money on live fish, they rather lose money.

It depends on how many fish you lose and it is also why shops put a 200-300% mark-up on them, to help cover the cost of losing them. If you have clean tanks and look after the fish, you lose a few when they first come in and those losses are normally from stress or diseased fish being sent to you and most suppliers credit you for DOAs (dead on arrival). But once the fish have had 2 weeks to settle down, then you rarely lose any fish.

The problem is that most shops get in a new shipment of fish every week and this means a new batch of stressed and potentially diseased fish being added to the established healthy ones. To overcome this we use to try and put new fish into their own tanks. That way we didn't add 200 sick/ stressed neon tetras to the tank with healthy ones in. This does mean you need more tanks but you don't have to do it for all species. Neons, guppies, platies, mollies & gouramis are the worst offenders when it comes to having diseases. These species should be put in their own tanks each time they come in. If you only have 2 or 3 neons or guppies left, then adding 200 is fine. But if you have 50 neons or 20 guppies left from an earlier batch, then put the new ones in their own tank.

We kept a diary of all fish that died in the shop. It was just an exercise book and we put the date at the top of each page and listed any dead fish below, along with any treatments for those tanks. We had the number and type of each species that died and which tank they came from. (eg: tank 12, 3 male guppies, treating for Ich with 10ml of Cuprazin). Each aquarium in the shop had a number from 1 - 300 or however many you have. Then if you notice a lot of dead fish in tank 25, you check it for water quality and diseases and mark the tank not for sale and then fix the problem.

We used a permanent marker to write on tanks and would write the date and treatment on the tank too. Each day when the tank was treated for a disease, we drew a line thru the date of treatment on the tank so all workers knew that tank had been treated on that day. At the end of treatment we used Methylated spirits (alcohol) to wipe the writing off the glass and marked the fish for sale.

As mentioned above, if you keep the tanks, filters & substrate clean and the fish looked after, you can reduce the number that die and this means more profit. We had days were no fish died but most of the time we would only lose 5-10 fish per day and most deaths occurred within a week of new fish coming in. We had over 300 tanks in the shop and on average each tank contained several hundred fish, so we had a lot of fish.

In a home situation with fewer tanks containing fewer fishes, and no customers tapping on glass, you will only need to get a shipment in every few weeks (or even monthly) and that will give the fish time to recover and you should lose fewer fish.

 

[hobby5]

Al right, but if you factor in the cost for tanks, water, food, medication etc. Fish don't make much money for the shops, but rather lose money. A shop with 300 tanks!? Never seen one in Europe that big.