The fish database would be incredibly easy, but tedious to make. You could probably get away with script that contained a database of common names and scientific names. Then when the user gives you a common name it converts it to the scientific name and then could gives google's first result.
So far the plan is this:
It'd be a split store, one half for fish, one half for pets like dogs, cats, and birds. But we won't be selling any large animals; if you want a dog or a cat we'll have a catalouge of all the animlas being offered by local rescues and the few that we can foster in the store during the day for a few hours or contact information for reputable breeders. For the bird people, again, we would not keep any animals in the store save for two or the that would be our pets. To buy one we would put you incontact with a breeder with whom we would have a deal worked out and who's faciluties and animals we would have checked. I would also like to try and affiliate, or at least have an avian vet the store would use.
(To make a profit on rescue or breed animals, the store would do one of two things: for animals purchaed from a breeder we will extend the customer credit for vetrinary check-up from the vet we have affiliated with (around $50) for each large cage purchased ($60+). The money from this method comes from purchasing of cage accessories -- perches, toys, and food dishes all add up.
Animals who are adopted through us should make up the majority. They will cost more in-store, but less over all. Addoption fee + medical fee + leash + several toys + kennel + by bed. All adopted pets will be given with a typed up overview of general behavior, commands known, and how well it handles on a leash.)
Smaller animals like gerbils and mice, salamanders, and newts would be kept in store but would not be avaliable for sale in bulk -- ie. not as feeders. The same will run true for goldfish and minnows
except for the animals that would be bred
in-store with the intent of selling them as food.
The fish half of the store would be kept dimly lit (natural light through a white screen and aquarium/pond lighting only). All tanks will be moderatly planted, species only in most cases, and will contain no rocks (nothing to really block nets) and most will be chained together to make water maintainance easier -- tanks containing similar animals will will share water flow,e.g. Tank 1 (Male Guppies) -> Tank 2 (Female Guppies) -> Tank 3 (Platies) -> Tank 4 (Swordtails) -> UV Steralizer -> 200 gallon fuge (CO2, RO unit when needed, plants, crabs, snails, a few amanos, 600w PC lighting on a schedule reverse of the tanks, and heaters) -> Tank 1. Filtration won't be done by anything used by hobbists, I'll be either be purchasing several comercial filtration systems from a company similar to MarineLand or use large pond filters with a minimum GPH of 3500gph. Each string of tanks will have it's own comercial/pond filter as well as smaller biowheels on Tank 2 and 3 and heaters on Tanks 1 and 4. All tanks will have a small power head attached to RUGF to help minimize the need for gravle vaccing. With a circulation rate of about 14.25 times an hour (4 x 20gal + 200fuge / 4000) I should be able to keep higher densities of schooling/peaceful fish with few ramifications in regards to their health (maybe 30-40 2in. fish per tank).
All tanks with fish will be under 2-3wpg, tanks with livebearers will be kept at 2wpg and will grow "easy" or fry friendly plants (java moss,amazon swords, water sprite, anachris, water cabbage, etc.). The rest of the stocked tank will be kept at 3wpg and 30ppm CO2. The plant only tanks (there will be 3 of them, 55 gallons each) will be kept under 4wpg, 35ppm CO2. All tanks will be dosed with micro-nutrients and kept under moonlighting at night. This will let me grow and sell the widest variety of plants possible.
Bettas will not be sold in cups. Nor will they all simply be lyretails. I will have a betta barracks setup just next to the display tank alcove and a duplicate system in the back. Each betta will have 2 gallons of "personal" space and there will be around 50-60 bettas on diplay at a time. I plant to buy several show quality bettas (a pair of CT, SD and standard Delta, and LT) and breed them about a year before the store will open. The goal will be to have 20 bettas of each style on display at any point in time.
I will not sell any tanks smaller than 1 gallon for any reason, and people who think bettas can live in fish bowls will be several rebuked. The smallest tank avaliable for children to buy will be 5 gallons simply because they have filters and heaters. 1 gallons will be avaliable solely to betta enthusiats and breeders, or to keepers I feel are competant, but not to Mr. Johnson and his two year old son.
In the middle of the store I'm going to have a circular pond (2' deep. 8' diameter) depression excavated from the foundation. It will be built up 3' from the floor and have a bench running around it. Only 5' of the diameter will be "pond", the outer foot will be a bog garden (lillies, cat tails, ornamental grasses). The pond will beheavily planted (duck weed, water lettuce, two lily pads, several strands of hornwort kept submerged and some java moss tied to drift woo) and stocked with three rainbow trout, four bluegill, and three shubunkin.
When purchasing fish I'll be taking a page from Big Al's and ricester. A small computer will be kept by the diaplay tanks. Each customer will have to make an account and give basic personal details -- name, phone number, number of tanks, tank sizes, current tank stocking, years in the hobby -- before they can move to the next stage of selecting which fish. Each fish will have a profile in the computer (water parameters, food requirements, typical water column location, life span, price etc.), and you will have to view it before being able to purchase an animal. All purchases will be kept in the database as well as any returns, so I'll be able to keep track of whose competant and who not. I'll also be able to help people make better decisions if I know exactly what they're trying to shop for.
Sound good? I'm still working on details. I plan to have
every detail drawn out by the end of college, from the floor plan, down to the plumbing of tanks, to light switch placement.
Money will be little of an object. I'm opening either a mutual fund or IRA as soon as I start college. I'll be depositing $5000 initially and then $4000 each year afterward. My girlfriend (future wife and co-owner most likely
) will be doing the same and after college when we're sure we're together for the long run we'll be combining our funds and yearly deposits. The petstore will not come into being for probably another fifteen or twenty years so our invesments will have time to mature and so we'll have time for careers and possibly have children, but about that time we'll have upwards of $500,000 of our own funds plus whatever loans we can secure to invest in opening a business. Hopefully this board will still be around then
