a new intiative! My Fishroom

[navneethtk]

hey guys,
so as of now i am doing my BBM 2nd year and our college has asked us either to join a business or start a business! of course i wanted to start my own business.

so i was running out of space to keep my tanks at home and had to be stuck with just about 5 tanks. then i remembered that my grandad had a 2 storey building which is lying for storage. so spoke to my dad and grandad and they encouraged me from carrying this forward! the floor space is a 30" x 20" with two balconies, a terrace and a bathroom.

so i'm posting this here not as some sort of promotional gimmick but to check and verify with you guys what i have to do make this a success.
as of now the following is ready:
loads of scrap glass for making stock tanks.
few racks which can hold few of the nano tanks.
moving two of my scapes and two of karthik's scapes there.
an A/C a Chiller
few wardrobes to store things.
sand, driftwood, soil and rocks for hardscapes and sandboxes
few tubs for growing plants and raising livebearers
lights (mainly PLL)
styrofoam

planning to get these in another two weeks time:
a strong air pump (please help in suggesting which is best for about 12-15 nano tanks)
constant supply of plants
a large TV
need to get a carpenter to make the sandboxes (this is for me to make and practise dry scapes and others who also visit.)
nano betta tanks
good packets for packing fish (any idea where to get the good quality packets? the ones i found aren't the ones used by good LFS)
few LEDs for biotope tanks
nets, sponge filters, air pipes

here's a basic layout of how the place should look like.
https://www.facebook.com/greenshackindi ... =1&theater

i know that very less encouragement to commercials is given, but this is my interest is and i want to hopefully make it my career. i asked 2 senior hobbyists but i received no response, whereas many other seniors have provided with plenty of guidance and material to use in the store. i want this to happen because i want to develop my hobby in a larger space, but to pay the bills and to improve i need a bit of cash, and since i have no job or source of income i wanted to be slightly commercial by selling plants and sort (hopefully accessories and hardscape material later on). if i had a job i wouldn't be commercial and would be making my fishroom and paying for it myself.

also since there is so much space i wanted to utilize it to teach others about basic aquascaping and fish scaping. i have space for visual aid as well. i wish to teach people of what i have learnt from all this time. everyone is invited to come to learn or to even use the sandboxes to create scapes with what i have or you can bring your own to scape there.

please note if this thread is against any rules or is wrong, please have it deleted admin!
i wanted everyone to know of my plan and am open to suggestions! thank you.

[rajivzee]

This looks good, Hobbyist taking up it as business will only improve things.
All the best

[navneethtk]

This looks good, Hobbyist taking up it as business will only improve things.
All the best

Thank you.



Any inputs and suggestions from everyone? Highly appreciate any help.

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[Romi]

The hobby is sustained by people who have passion, as long as they also bring true integrity to it, and don't get bogged down by politics which follows without fail

Take Delhi for instance. There are dozens of people at any one time, entering the market and trying to run big aquarium businesses, but the ones who have done well over time are those whose integrity is even better than their knowledge. The biggest wholesaler is one example of how good intentions sustained for long always lead to good things...

Having said that, I think, being young, you should keep it simple, and keep the costs low, from the very start. Do it in a way that, should your studies, or something else, suddenly take all of your time, you will not need to worry too much about keeping this space running.

Since the house is already free, and you live in a very pleasant place, the garden city Bangalore ( I remember my 3 years there with memories of great weather), you could identify a lot of species of fish and plants that will be easy to propagate. I suggested breeding Bristelnose plecos to a good friend of mine who likes breeding fish, and he really began to churn them out by the dozens... why not try breeding a species like that? They eat veggies, and are very gentle. You could try breeding planted tank fish that don't eat their fry, like White Cloud Mountain Minnows, they love moss to breed in and do it off and on all year in good weather.

Among plants, you could propagate the gems you found and updated on your native plant thread. You will have every right to demand decent prices for them, once you confirm they do well in water for yourself. You could breed shrimp so easily, you know that. And some natives are so easy to breed too, and breeding and selling them could help in conservation... so many ideas, come to think of it

You are fortunate to have a father and a grandfather who encourage you and give you a roof under which to start, take the bull by the horns and jump into the arena If you need more specific inputs of a technical nature about business, I am sure your lecturers in college would make some useful suggestions. you could share them here and get a second opinion on them..

[Romi]

ok, lol, I saw the FB page and realized this isn't a newbie jumping into business,,, this is a veteran jumping again....

ok, whatever. keep us updated.

[navneethtk]

The hobby is sustained by people who have passion, as long as they also bring true integrity to it, and don't get bogged down by politics which follows without fail

Take Delhi for instance. There are dozens of people at any one time, entering the market and trying to run big aquarium businesses, but the ones who have done well over time are those whose integrity is even better than their knowledge. The biggest wholesaler is one example of how good intentions sustained for long always lead to good things...

Having said that, I think, being young, you should keep it simple, and keep the costs low, from the very start. Do it in a way that, should your studies, or something else, suddenly take all of your time, you will not need to worry too much about keeping this space running.

Since the house is already free, and you live in a very pleasant place, the garden city Bangalore ( I remember my 3 years there with memories of great weather), you could identify a lot of species of fish and plants that will be easy to propagate. I suggested breeding Bristelnose plecos to a good friend of mine who likes breeding fish, and he really began to churn them out by the dozens... why not try breeding a species like that? They eat veggies, and are very gentle. You could try breeding planted tank fish that don't eat their fry, like White Cloud Mountain Minnows, they love moss to breed in and do it off and on all year in good weather.

Among plants, you could propagate the gems you found and updated on your native plant thread. You will have every right to demand decent prices for them, once you confirm they do well in water for yourself. You could breed shrimp so easily, you know that. And some natives are so easy to breed too, and breeding and selling them could help in conservation... so many ideas, come to think of it

You are fortunate to have a father and a grandfather who encourage you and give you a roof under which to start, take the bull by the horns and jump into the arena If you need more specific inputs of a technical nature about business, I am sure your lecturers in college would make some useful suggestions. you could share them here and get a second opinion on them..

Thanks romi!
Thanks for the tips about breeding fish. Will try with some!

And regarding native plants, yes I'm planning to cultivate and sell some myself!



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[Romi]

Please reserve seat one in the queue for those Indian aquatic ferns, Navneeth

[navneethtk]

Please reserve seat one in the queue for those Indian aquatic ferns, Navneeth

Consider it done!

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[vijendra_s123]

Well, first of all you have to decide what is it that you want – developing the hobby in a larger space or going commercial full time. If you decide to develop the hobby and in turn sell certain stuff that you grow (plants) or breed (fish) you certainly wont be able cover all your expenditures (capital+running), leave alone making a profit.

Your setups would also differ accordingly. If you want to develop your hobby then you would be required to make sort of permanent setups – like a hobbyist’s fish room (more on the lines of your design), where the setups are for a specified time if not fixed. If you want to go fully commercial then you will be required to have a lot of holding tanks, where your stock of fish or plants are kept temporarily till they are handed over to your customers.

If you wish to grow plants for selling then tanks are a poor option as they would be expensive to maintain (lights+CO2+Ferts) as you would know. If you plan to breed fish then you need to setup tanks accordingly (3-4 tanks of varied sizes for each species for conditioning, breeding, raising fries etc, depending upon the fish species offcourse). Several live food cultures to feed fish and the fries. A dedicated BBS hatchery for rearing all the fries. If the number of tanks are large then its better to have an auto drain and auto fill system to save you a lot of hours in changing water every week. You would have to invest in some good test kits specially if you are planning to breed fish.

As for the air pump, there are a lot of Chinese brands available in the market at cheap rates, but they are not that reliable. I have one air pump that runs 10 tanks in my fishroom (is capable of running more tanks, cant recollect the name), which costed me some 2.2-2.4K, but is worth every penny.

Honestly I am still confused as what is it that you want to achieve –
Your plan looks like a hobbyists’ fish room
You have mentioned that you have ‘sand, driftwood, soil and rocks for hardscapes and sandboxes’ for scaping
You also have mentioned that you want to buy good packets for packing fish – giving an idea that you are looking to sell fishes (but wont you need holding tanks to keep them, as you wont be able to net them from your scapes every time you wish to sell some)
You also wish to sell ‘accessories and hardscape material later on’ so you will have to alter the design of your den to make storage space for them later on, so why not set the room that way from start only to save all the hassle afterwards

[navneethtk]

Thanks vijendra for a good reply.
I want to develop my hobby into a bigger space by reselling plants (fish/fish food later on) and selling what I grow (not ones I receive as gifts or from hobbyists) so yes I do have a supplier of plants that i will be retailing.

My scapes will surely be permanent (8-12 months) I'll be moving few of my scapes, and my friends and also create some of my own over there to keep as a showcase.

Yes I am in a way going commercial so I will get stock tanks made, but not to stock too much so it'll be a two footer and several one foot cubes. I thought I'll move my light setups and one co2 setup with powder ferts there to use. I'll use river sand and German clay to hold plants for sale. Those that take time to sell will be given most care.

Fish breeding will be something much later on so I'm not goig to focus on that now.

I thought of having grindals and meal worm cultures. Also frozen food in a cooler. (Have mentioned that in the link I posted).

Auto filling water. Yes I hadn't thought of that. Will work on implementing it.

Test kits also i have to buy!

Can you pm me details of the air pump you're using? I'd like to buy the same.

The hardscape i mentioned is to play around in the sandboxes. The livestock and plants will have dedicated stock tanks.

There are two large wardrobes for storing accessories and also a balcony to store hardscape (please open the link I posted it has the blueprint)

Let me know what you think of that. Sorry I sho7ld have been a bit more clear.

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