[shadowaquatics]

Hello everyone!

I have a lot of high-tech tanks set up throughout my house and my current "fish room", and the bills are becoming higher as I have a bad case of MTS. I usually spend around $300-500 per month on this hobby between fertilizers, CO2, new equipment, fish, shrimp, plants, etc. I have been able to offset this cost for a while by about $100 by selling trimmings from my various plants.

I recently came up with an idea that I think may be able to offset more of the costs of this hobby so that I can possibly do more, or better maintain what I currently have. I would like your opinion on this idea, and I am sorry that this is such a long post.

I have a basement that is virtually empty. It is not a finished basement, but that doesn't really concern me too much besides heating, which I have been successful doing with tank heaters in the past relatively cheap. I have a large table that basically spans the perimeter of the basement and it has been holding old equipment for awhile until I came up with this idea.

I am thinking of taking ten gallon rubbermaid totes such as these: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rubbermaid-10-Gallon-Roughneck-Tote-FG2214TPMICBL/202260839#.UhY5TdWnapg and using submersible heaters to grow various plants that are somewhat common and always have a decent demand, such as various mosses and floating plants. I could use clip-on CFL bulbs for lighting. Each container would take about $40.00 to start including plants, meaning that I could ease my way into this!

I am simply wondering if you all think that growing aquatic plants like these and selling them here, Aquabid, Ebay, etc., would be a viable option for offsetting most of the costs of this hobby.

I know many people say that it is hard to make any profit from plants, shrimp, etc., because of shipping costs. I have never had this problem. I have always been able to have buyers pay for shipping more than happily on other sites, but less so here on my other account.

P.S. I have a LOT of red cherry shrimp in a 40 gallon breeder at the moment and I was debating possibly breeding some of them in the totes with the plants as well.

I would appreciate any and all input, as I have been in this hobby for many years now and I have already had experience with these plants, shrimp, etc. I already do this on a hobby level as mentioned above, and this would not be a business venture or anything like that, just a small setup to offset the costs of the hobby.

 

[klaus07]

The hardest part is finding and servicing your market. Just as hard are the attacks you may run into from people who already do what you do. People make things up on the internet and it takes time and energy to defend yourself. I have heard some horror stories from people who tried to sell shrimp and plants. You will also be a threat to others who already do this and it can be a pretty petty cutthroat business. If you just quietly continue selling a little here and there, i think you are much better off and have taken on a lot less risk.

 

[shadowaquatics]

Thanks for the reply!

I have been thinking about it some more and I would love to give it a try as long as there is a good chance of making a profit. I love working with aquatic plants and shrimp, so this would also help satisfy my MTS while hopefully offsetting some costs.

I understand what you are saying about finding people to purchase plants, shrimp, or whatever else. That has been my biggest fear this whole time. I could easily sell monthly trimmings on this site and others (Aquabid and Ebay), but I have never tried it with a higher volume of plants.

Has anyone here had any experience with something like this, or any other advice? Thanks again!

 

[junaid368]

My 2 cents would be don't go all out once. Start out small, and gradually increase. If I've learned anything from using ebay for the past 6 years, its that smaller investments are always better.

Good Luck!

 

[shadowaquatics]

Thanks for the reply!

I mentioned above that it could be started small scale, and I am thinking that I will be doing it that way. Starting something like this large scale would be fine if you had done it before and knew that there was a market for x volume of x plants.

Unfortunately, I only have experience selling small amounts of trimmings, so I cannot guarantee a market like that, and it would be experimental at best. I am thinking of starting small and seeing if it takes off, or if I am glad that I saved some money and invested overtime.

Thanks for your help!