Should I Sell Fish?

I live in an area that is fairly remote, and the only store that sells fish or aquarium supplies is 4 hours away. Although I'm certainly not an expert aquarist, I do have about ten years total experience keeping fish. I am probably the only person in my county that has planted tanks, and one of very few that even keep fish at all (just an educated guess).

I've been considering going into "business". I use the term business loosely, because it would be a very small operation and not an actual store or anything. I probably would make very little profit, but I would like to make the hobby more accessible for people in my area.

If you were in my situation, what would you do?

I'm thinking about just putting an ad in the local paper, to get an idea of how much demand there would be. First I would need to get a few more tanks and some stock. I'm thinking I could get some nicely colored and easily bred livebearers to "test the waters".

I would need to dedicate quite a bit of space for even a small operation. Space is my biggest challenge, since I am a hobbyist and my taste leans towards the more uncommon and not-so-easy-to-breed fish. I would need to find a balance between space for my own tanks and breeding projects, and the "commercial" tanks so to speak.

If I can find a way to make it work on a very small scale and get a feel for the demand, then I could go from there. I think the idea is a good one, if I can find a way to make it work. I don't live in a large house so space is limited at the moment.

IceH2O said:

First I'd find out if it is worth doing. If you're the only fish keeper in the area is it because there are no stores or because people just don't feel like doing it?

Can you sell fish to people that might not take proper care of the fish? Remember you can't control how people take care of them and you certainly can't bust down the door and take the fish back if you did know.

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I think the main reason more people don't have aquariums is that there is no local supplier of equipment and livestock. A couple of years ago there was a guy with "zebra fish" for sale in the local Swap/Buy/Sell. My girlfriend wanted fish really bad, so we went to check it out. The person had two tanks loaded with baby convicts, and they sold pretty fast. This guy had no clue about fishkeeping, and had bought the tanks and fish as presents for his children.

I could live with selling fish to people that are inexperienced. I have given that issue some thought, and would write up a pamphlet that would cover the basics. I would also ask a lot of questions before the sale, and do my best to educate potential customers. I could also install another phone line so that they could call me if they had any questions or emergencies, but as I thought that idea over I realized that it could get out of control very quickly!