Starting a fish business?

I'm wondering if starting an at-home fish breeding/selling business is a viable option for me in a couple years. I've collected quite a few tanks that could be breeders, etc. and I've become quite knowledgeable about fish over the past 15 years or so, but I want to make sure that I can actually do this while making a few bucks (obviously I'm not looking for a get-rich-quick scheme...I've had fish my whole life and this would be a great way for me to continue to have fish, while hopefully bringing in enough money to support my fish hobby/obsession). First off, what types of fish are the best selling/most popular fish on the market? How hard is it to sell to people online and to pet stores? I've already sold a few of my swordtails and guppies that I've raised to one of my local pet stores and got quite a bit in-store credit, which I was fine with. What would I need to get started with my fish operation? How many tanks (approx)? Any other information? Thanks!

Starting a fish business?
I think thats a great idea, considerering you love fish. You should clean out (unless you already have) a big spacious room to store your fish in. You are going to need heating, so you can have multiple heaters in different tanks, or have the whole room heated to te appropriate temperature. I am sure they sell more affordable options then multiple heaters, but you'll have to do that yourself. :( Setting up a fish room is pretty easy if you have time on your hands, as this is what your going to have to do before you start selling them. There's a pretty good article in this months issue of Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine on setting up a fish room.





You definately going to need to buy mutiple tanks (breeding, housing, and selling) so stretch your budget a little bit to buy the adaquate amount. 10 gallons work good for breeding livebearers and bettas and paradisefish. 5 to 8 gallons work good for housing young fry. 15 to 20 gallons work good for selling, unless your choose to sell relatively big fish. Cleaning and maintaining all of these tanks is going to be pretty hard, so you should look into reasonably priced cleaning products (filters, gravel vacs, and properly distilled water)





Popular fish aren't that hard to find, considering livebearers are popualar. Kids like guppies, platys, mollies, and swordfish. If you provide them with extraordinary colors I am sure they'll become a hit. They are also small and really easy to breed. Just put the male you want to breed with a couple females, in a planted tank, and wait. Although most livebearers eat their young, most will survive if you have the tank heavily planted and feed your females throughout the day. Bettas are really pretty, and are okay on the breeding scale. Spawning can be dangerous for both of your fish and precautions should be taken. You can read up on it through the internet. But surpriseingly, female bettas are making tropical communities complete. More and more people start looking in to them, so you should too. Once you get out of that range, spawning gets harder and harder. Angels are somewhat popular, but I don't know the difficulties of spawning. Cichlids are popular among the tropical hobbyists, and there are many different species and beautiful colors. Oscars and Jack Dempseys are also a keepsake.





You should try getting a website after you start your business and put flyers up. Putting an ad in the newspaper helps too.





Hope all goes great!! :)
Reply:Goldfish, Siamese Fighting Fish, Mollies, Tetras, and Platys are the most popular. Get around five aquariums. Beta raising is really quite a hasstle, but worth it.
Reply:Ok the best selling fish are so beta and sucker fish and the snails that clean the water. How hard they are to sell give details on the fish and pictures on them its like start with your garage [that is if you have one] if you have a garage make it your shop make sure the temputure is the right temp for the fish. If you dont have a garage then make your shop. You atleast need 12 tanks atleast.More info: take care of your bussiness and it should work out prices for fish are atleast 20$ for the BIGGER fish small fish chipper um sale more then fish sale tanks birds lizards pet food etc. .
Reply:You need to reverse engineer it. Find out what consistently sells well in your area, and seems to be in short supply. Besides shops, join a local aquatics club, and attend auctions. You need to keep overhead as low as possible, clubs %26amp; auctions are a way to find used equipment cheap.





Build as much of your own equipment yourself as possible. This means racks, tops, lighting, filtration, anything to save a buck. Keep in mind that a breeding setup is nothing like show tanks, it is a working fishroom designed to produce a product as efficiently as possible.





You are not going to beat the Asian importing market that many shops use as far as price is concerned. The only way to beat them is quality and service. You are going to be culling fish that do not meet quality standards, if you can't handle this fact then breeding for any sort of profit is not for you.





Things you cannot build or buy used locally buy online, this means flake, dechlor, and other supplies in bulk. Your other big overhead expense is heating tanks, cram as many tanks as possible into a small room that is well insulated, this will save on electric if you choose that for heat. Depending on your area water may be an expense, there is no way around this. You can make some of this up by using the nitrate rich old tank water for watering a vegetable garden, free fertilizer.





I have dozens of other tricks, it's late %26amp; I still have to do fry tanks, pm or e-mail me.
Reply:A true business credit card is a line of credit that is taken in the name of the business, under the business' credit. Activity, whether good or bad, is reflected on your business' credit report through D%26amp;B and other financial institutions, and the liability for any debts incurred and bills owed is with the business.





However, some companies out there offer "business" credit cards which they require a person guarantee for. These institutions will often ask for a personal guarantee, and will almost always ask for a social security number from the person applying for the card. If this is the case, the credit card is not a business credit card, but is simply a personal credit card which is used for the business. The business is not liable for bills and debts - you are.





When applying for a credit card for your business, watch out for areas asking for your SSN (and not your TaxID or EIN) and be wary of any credit card that asks for a personal guarantee. By ensuring that your credit card is in the name of your business, you can help to build your business' credit, while avoiding creating problems with your own.





Many companies offer a list of credit cards that are issued under the business name only. Those lists typically run $300-$900, depending on the quality of the information inquiring. I would suggest starting your search online via google or yahoo. Search for "strong business credit" (just like that in quotes) to find services that sell the information.








Good luck,








Ilya Bodner


Small Business Owner


Initial Underwriting Group
Reply:angelfish are defenitly popular, i work at a pet shop, they go like crazy! livebearers are a good one too, easy to breed and keep...you could try and move into the fancy but ig nothing happens it might upset you...thats something to think about in my opinion, got to spend money, time eetc etc...good luck though
Reply:i think some of the most popular fish would probably be guppies, goldfish, tigerbarbs, and rainbow sharks.
Reply:Well this is obvious, but I suggest Goldfish for sure, children will deffinatly want those and people who just want a fish to look nice.





Also Betta fish, you'll have to look into how to breed them though, I heard they can be difficult.





Those are the most popular type of fish but more are:


Guppies


Mollies


Suckerfish (Algae eaters)


Snails


Tetras





Live plants are also a great seller too, you can put them in a seperate aquarium as well, strickly for plants.





As for tanks you would need to have "Sale" aquariums (one's people look at to buy fish from) and "Breeding" aquariums (one's that you can breed fish in) and then you will need a "Baby" aquarium where you can put the little one's so their parents can nurse them and later on be taken so the eggs won't be eaten.. So basically you need three types of aquarium's, and depending on how many fish you have, is how many aquariums you'll need.





You can probably find cheap tanks around town if you look at yardsales or petshop sales etc.
Reply:Most people on www.aquabid.com, are at home breeders. All you do is post what your selling, and people bid, just like Ebay.





Best selling, is not actually fish, BUT shrimp and plants. Though you could breed fish, but most fish people buy at commonly sold in petstores. The more rare breeds, are harder and more expensive to keep. You might get some serious collectors, but selling expensive fish is hard. You could always allow people to pick up fish from your house, than you can offer more variety and not have to ship or wait for people to bid on auctions.





Depending on what fish, best breeder tanks would be 30+ gallons and up.





Breed for demand, is the best way to find out what people want to purchase.





("'\(o.o)/"')

boxing shoes