Any tropical fish farmers from Florida here?

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Smertrios

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Jul 28, 2007
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I've been interested in tropical fish farming for quite awhile. A few weeks ago I came across an ad for a farm that was for sale. $400,000 and far out of my price range but that didn't matter as the seller seemed hard for the real estate agent to communicate with. In any case I realized I really didn't know how to operate a tropical fish farm and started searching for information. I searched google and created a map from the tampa area south and have marked well over 100 farms. Thing is around half of them are not being used and some of the other half may not be in use it was hard to tell with some of them. It was finding the first unused farm that got me thinking and searching the map in the first place. I wonder how much something like an unused farm would go for and if they are even willing to sell? There are some farms that are empty because of some drainage issues caused by neighbors digging ditches to drain water away. Others are empty for uncertain reasons but there are a few that seem to have good water levels but are not being used. I can tell because they are overgrown with trees! WAAAY overgrown... Others are not being used because its not easy to find buyers that can run the farm I guess.

The info on why the farms are not running is what I have gleaned from a couple of articles on the internet.

Curious about things like net profits of course but also how its all done. Feeding, harvest, spawns etc... Really interested to know how effective the cold frames are at keeping the temperatures up in the winter.
 
henningc

henningc

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May 11, 2013
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Try the Florida Tropical Fish Farmers Association. The folks at Consolidated Fish Farm would likely talk to you.
 
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Smertrios

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Jul 28, 2007
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I sent an email to FTFFA.com asking if there was a forum common to Florida fish farmers and got an email back telling me to resend my email after the 2nd of January because the Executive Director was not there to read it.
 
henningc

henningc

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Good luck and if you don't get the information you need p.m. and I'll introduce you to somebody down there.
 
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toddnbecka

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Just like any businss, most startups don't make it in the long haul for any number of reasons. I've heard presentations from a several successful folks at our local fish club meetings, and it really takes a lot of work. Birds are a problem, so are toads that lay eggs in the ponds (the fish are poisoned when they eat the eggs.)
 
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Narwhal72

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I used to work on a fish farm outside of Fellsmere back in my college days. It's not an easy business. All kinds of problems with pests, water levels, poaching, cold snaps, etc... can drive a farm out of business.

Not to mention normal business problems like finding buyers for your fish, bounced checks, etc...

The best way to make a small fortune in the fish business is to start with a large one.

Andy
 
henningc

henningc

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I have a good deal of knowledge about the farms and what goes into them. Most of the farms don't sell to anyone except other fish farms. One of my contacts-farm-carries over 200 varieties of fish. To produce at that level you would need upward of 600 ponds. It is a common mistake that retailers figure since they are buying from a Florida farm that they are raising all the fish and all of them are from Florida. Many of the larger farms that sell wholesale to retailers still transship some types of fish. Most are raised on asian farms but some are still collected from the wild. Imported fish present a world of different issues. New diseases, parasites and fungus'.


I farm -at least that is what I call it- tropical fish in kiddie pools during the summer. Small above ground pools and vats keep the toads out, but the tree frogs make themselves right at home. Lucky for me cichlids eat tadpoles. I've never had an issue with birds, but Florida has tons of birds that eat fish and a restricted pond is a great place to eat. Most people don't realize that egg layers, for the most part, are spawned indoors and fry reared outside. If you toss a bunch of tetras in a pond you will end up with less than you started with. If you spawn 20 pairs over a two to three day period, quick start the fry with live baby brine and then toss them in a pond you end up with thousands. This year I am going to try to faciliate this process with Bettas. I'm just starting trial runs with the breeders and should be ready to roll in late May.
 
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Smertrios

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Jul 28, 2007
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In the first post I mentioned a map of fish farms I made. Figured I would post and see what people had to say... some of the FTFFA farms are listed on there but I didn't get them all. I bet I got them when I scanned most of florida for fish farms and many of the FTFFA addresses are residential anyway and not to a "fish farm".

Can't upload an html file to Aquaria Centeral so putting it on my web and posting a link... not sure how long I will have that domain up

http://diablodjinn.com/fishfarms.html
 
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Narwhal72

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Cool map. Looks like a couple may be just business addresses and not actual farms. I noticed one on the east coast that the satellite showed was clearly a house in a subdivision. Interesting to see the ponds laid out by satellite.

Andy
 
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