Well things have started to move. Yesterday I shipped out 45 fish. Another 30 were supposed to go but time worked against me. If all goes well they will go out next Monday. I now have three open tanks on the terrace and bout a 2 -3 week window to use them for my second group of 173 and 236. I may have another interested buyer in a 20 fish group. That would get me about 1/3 of the way through the fish to go. But from a size point of view with it being the larger fish, the result is closer to 1/2 the bio-load.
I need to move out more fish. Soon I think it will be time to offer some of the breeding groups. I would like to find a couple of unique individuals with whom I could place them. Such a person will be qualified/experience enough to keep them spawning and getting the kids into the hands of other keepers.
I am very surprised to see I am one of very few people in the states who is spawning and selling them. there have to be others but I cannot seem to locate them. I do know that a quality breeding operation in Indonesia is doing so. But they sell the fish in 50 lots and their largest size fish is about 2.35 inched TL. They do sell a lot more at 1.5 - 1.75 inched. A box of 50 of their 1.5 inch fish used to be on sale for $210/fish down from $300. Add the importing costs and figure you can have 50 of them for the low low price of about $12,000. They sell what they call A grade fish at 1.5 inches for $500 and offer no discount. I consider many of my fish to be A grade.
I do not ask anywhere near the import cost when I sell my fish. If one buys a fish to resell for $210, they are going to mark up anywhere from 100% to 200%. I guess this is why they are not so easy to find nor to afford. To buy the proven breeders I have was an insane price. This was especially so because I was the one who made them proven before I owned them. *sigh*
There is one good thing about getting pretty old, by then one should have accumulated most of the wealth one might have. I am lucky enough to be able to pay stupid money every now and then for fish. But the other side of this is I do not go on vacations any more. I do not eat out often and I live a fairly simple life. I am just a fish nut and that is the one area where I splurge. I would bet that anybody reading this has splurged on fish or at least really wanted to do so. It also took me 10 years of working up the ladder of species where each one paid for the next to get to where I am. It also did not start until I had been keeping fish for 5 years.
But the real secret to any success I have had with fish is not because I am formally educated in this area. I am self=taught as are most of us. It is not because I have any special skills either. The success is due to two things. The first is I care for my fish by doing weekly maint. and water changes and feeding a good diet. But the most important factor is my well water. This is and was a matter of chance, it is basically soft and neutral pH. It must contain some sort of a natural fish aphrodisiac because things were spawning in my tanks long before I had a clue. I am just extremely lucky as much as anything.
One of the best things about the "hobby" of keeping fish is that there are more ways to do things and more different fish to keep tham one can imagine. As long as what you are doing makes you happy, then it is the right way for you. I am into my 21st year of keeping fish and just watching them still makes me smile. In spite of having 1,000s of fish born in my tanks over that time, I still do the happy fish dance when I see a new spawn or spot unexpected fry.
I have only two regrets about this hobby/ First, it took me close to 54 years to get started. Second, I am now only a couple of years from it all ending. I have to wrap my head around the idea of maybe just having one small community tank or no tanks at all.
My adventure began too late and is ending too soon.
I need to move out more fish. Soon I think it will be time to offer some of the breeding groups. I would like to find a couple of unique individuals with whom I could place them. Such a person will be qualified/experience enough to keep them spawning and getting the kids into the hands of other keepers.
I am very surprised to see I am one of very few people in the states who is spawning and selling them. there have to be others but I cannot seem to locate them. I do know that a quality breeding operation in Indonesia is doing so. But they sell the fish in 50 lots and their largest size fish is about 2.35 inched TL. They do sell a lot more at 1.5 - 1.75 inched. A box of 50 of their 1.5 inch fish used to be on sale for $210/fish down from $300. Add the importing costs and figure you can have 50 of them for the low low price of about $12,000. They sell what they call A grade fish at 1.5 inches for $500 and offer no discount. I consider many of my fish to be A grade.
I do not ask anywhere near the import cost when I sell my fish. If one buys a fish to resell for $210, they are going to mark up anywhere from 100% to 200%. I guess this is why they are not so easy to find nor to afford. To buy the proven breeders I have was an insane price. This was especially so because I was the one who made them proven before I owned them. *sigh*
There is one good thing about getting pretty old, by then one should have accumulated most of the wealth one might have. I am lucky enough to be able to pay stupid money every now and then for fish. But the other side of this is I do not go on vacations any more. I do not eat out often and I live a fairly simple life. I am just a fish nut and that is the one area where I splurge. I would bet that anybody reading this has splurged on fish or at least really wanted to do so. It also took me 10 years of working up the ladder of species where each one paid for the next to get to where I am. It also did not start until I had been keeping fish for 5 years.
But the real secret to any success I have had with fish is not because I am formally educated in this area. I am self=taught as are most of us. It is not because I have any special skills either. The success is due to two things. The first is I care for my fish by doing weekly maint. and water changes and feeding a good diet. But the most important factor is my well water. This is and was a matter of chance, it is basically soft and neutral pH. It must contain some sort of a natural fish aphrodisiac because things were spawning in my tanks long before I had a clue. I am just extremely lucky as much as anything.
One of the best things about the "hobby" of keeping fish is that there are more ways to do things and more different fish to keep tham one can imagine. As long as what you are doing makes you happy, then it is the right way for you. I am into my 21st year of keeping fish and just watching them still makes me smile. In spite of having 1,000s of fish born in my tanks over that time, I still do the happy fish dance when I see a new spawn or spot unexpected fry.
I have only two regrets about this hobby/ First, it took me close to 54 years to get started. Second, I am now only a couple of years from it all ending. I have to wrap my head around the idea of maybe just having one small community tank or no tanks at all.
My adventure began too late and is ending too soon.