Following a hobby like reef keeping is no inexpensive task. The overall asset you put into maintaining its healthy and uninterrupted growth combined with the price you pay for buying the livestock and equipments can cost you a fortune. The need for high intensity lighting shows up in your electricity bills. Other than real enthusiasts, not everyone might want to part with their hard earned money into reef keeping.
Common people might want to have a reef tank but are sometimes too afraid to begin with it for the expenses associated. Good news for all you people out there who want their hobby to bring in some money to balance the expenses you put in to keep the tank alive and shining! You can with some efforts make money from your reef tank at least enough to share a part of the electricity bill or to sigh a breath of relief from the costs of treatment product. If you get lucky or more practically, if you work a little harder you might be able to make a good profit from the business.
Before you begin with anything new, make a plan. Find out how you are going to work on them an also research on the market where your product shall sell with ease. If there is one such market situated close to your location, it will be easier to estimate your chances of prospering in the trade.
1.Fragging and Trading
With big steps being taken for banning in export of corals and endangered species of fishes from the major exporters like Indonesia, Fiji and the Solomon Islands, coral trading within US is considerably increasing to fulfill the demands for reef keeping. You can easily add your bit for trade by increasing the growth and overall development of the corals that you already own.
Do a little research on the species you have been keeping and gather as much information about it as you can to ascertain the price you will be getting for the frags. You can arrange for a dedicated frag aquarium to help those frags which you have separated from the main coral to develop healthy. You can frag almost all types of corals; SPS, LPS and soft corals. They are soon going to develop into colonies if proper light and water conditions are met. Offer them for sale at the local stores and they are sure to yield you some good profit. To begin with, concentrate on one or two species only and when they sell well you can try other species in demands and the ones for which the store-keepers are willing to pay more.
You can also consider online fonts for selling these corals. Either you can create your own site for selling these corals or contact other online stores and see if they are willing to stock your corals. All you need to take care is learn on the fragging of each of the species you are about to begin with. A perfect and carefully fragmented species is likely to develop swiftly with the requirements met. Also try to establish good relationships with the direct buyers.
2.Breeding reef friendly fishes
Since reef friendly fishes are more often argued upon, you can update customers buying your fragmented corals on the species of fishes that can be included into a reef tank. If your reef tank has been doing fine with some species of reef compatible fishes, you can breed them and offer them for sale too. Breeding marine fishes are neither difficult nor expensive; a small quarantine can be used for breeding them. Once the juveniles are healthy enough and can sustain living with other organisms, transfer them into main tank and let them develop a little before selling them. Healthy fishes are going to get you good profit especially if you offer them to customers purchasing your coral frags. Whichever species of fish you chose to breed research on their breeding conditions and fry growth conditions before beginning with anything. If your frag trade prospers, this is also sure to do well. Every new saltwater aquarist wants some species of fish for their tank but is confused with the incomplete information the local sellers provide. You, as a well acquainted aquarist can definitely earn some good reputation compared to the local stores where executives without a second thought would declare a fish to be reef friendly without knowing the ABC’s of reef keeping.
3.Breeding Seahorses
Sea horses are an attraction in reef aquariums and every other aquarist will want to possess one. They are not that difficult to breed in a large captive aquarium and are not so cheap too so you are definitely going to make some profit from selling them directly to customers or to local fish stores. They reproduce quite profusely in home aquariums so with good nutrition and netter conditions, their offspring are likely to grow healthy and earn you some good cash. Their fries are going to need special food for growing well and so will the parent seahorses. They will eat frozen Mysis shrimp and he fries will prefer freshly hatched brine shrimp until they are large enough for prepared Mysis. Do good research and get them all the requisites and they are going to yield good result for you.