The love of fishes and corals is the reason most people decide to set up an aquarium in the first place. But many people initially drawn to the hobby fail to consider the long-term costs associated with keeping a vibrant freshwater or a dynamic reef setup. I’ve heard hobbyists bemoan their monthly electrical bills, which become inflated because of the pumps, lights, chillers and filters that they have to keep running 24/7. The aquarium hobby can be an expensive proposition, especially if it is approached with the singular goal of conceiving, planning and setting up a tank of exceptional beauty. But what if you could actually experience all the joys of the hobby and make a few bucks to boot? In all walks of life, entrepreneurial types emerge and the aquarium hobby is no exception.
I attend the monthly aquarium society get-togethers of the Southern California Marine Aquarium Society (SCMAS). One of the great benefits of SCMAS membership is the ability to participate in monthly raffles for donated aquarium equipment and livestock. At the same corner booth (the SCMAS meets at a restaurant) at every meeting sits Steve Garrett. Without fail, Garrett, a marine hobbyist and SCMAS member, brings a plastic container filled with his own home-grown coral frags. He places them on the tabletop, under a warming lamp, and offers them for sale to other Society hobbyists. Garrett has a day job, but by channeling his entrepreneurial energies, he has designed and built a 1,200-gallon, 20-foot-long coral frag system that takes up about 25 percent of the backyard (SoCal yards are notoriously small to start with). Garrett’s frag system (he mostly propagates SPS corals) relies mainly on the energy of the sun and costs next to nothing to keep running. Garrett not only sells his frags at the SCMAS meetings, but he also offers them at local coral swaps and shows, including the two-day SCMAS-sponsored Reef-a-Palooza (ReefAPalooza.com) event, which will be held October 24 to 25, 2009, at the Orange County Fairgrounds, in Costa Mesa, California. Check out FishChannel's exclusive video from the 2008 Reef-a-Palooza.
“My main goal is to have the hobby pay for itself and [to] continually collect new coral species,” Garrett said. For a look at Garrett’s coral farming operation, click here.
At the Midwest Frag Fest, which I recently attended, there were plenty of hobbyists turned “coralpreneurs” offering their latest coral frags for sale. But one gentleman really stood out. He was the only hobbyist offering any fish for sale, clownfish to be exact. He was selling Nemos he breeds and raises at home, and he probably sold a minimum of 20 (a conservative guess, probably double or triple this number) during the course of the weekend. At about $15 apiece, that’s $300. That’ll buy a lot of fish food. For a comprehensive list of marine fishes that have been propagated in aquaria, click here.
Making the Cut
Of course, you don’t have to become a coral farmer the likes of Steve Garrett to make enough selling coral frags or captive-bred fishes for it to be worth your while. With minimal outlays of cash, some inexpensive, specialized equipment and a little patience while corals or fishes grow, you’ll soon have other hobbyists knocking at your door and fattening your wallet because you have quality corals or fishes they want in their own setups.
Clownfishes are one of the easiest marine fishes to breed, to produce eggs and to raise fry from in aquaria. With little more than a mated pair (you can pay more for a mated pair, or you can buy random individuals and a pair will eventually emerge, as they are hermaphrodites and the dominant male will switch its sex to become the dominant breeding female) and properly furnished breeding and fry-rearing tanks, you too can supplement your hobby with monies made from clownfish propagation efforts, especially if you live in a marine-fish-poor locale.
Sexually propagating corals in aquaria is still in its infancy and is fraught with all kinds of challenges. Sexually propagating viable corals is beyond the scope of most aquarists. However, many corals and anemones can be fragmented, or fragged, into smaller pieces that have the ability to regrow themselves into new specimens. These ‘frags” can then be fragged again or sold. For example, at a recent frag swap I saw a Lobophytum sp. coral frag being offered for $85. A hobbyist could purchase this and take it home to a grow-out tank. Once it reaches a decent size it can be fragged into perhaps five pieces or more and resold at a future coral swap, thus bringing an ROI (return on investment) of at least $340.
Soft corals are the most forgiving and easiest corals to frag (often requiring only a pair of scissors or a safety razor blade) for those marine aquarists new to coral propagation. Frags are then affixed to ceramic coral plugs or small pieces of live rock and placed in grow-out tanks so they can heal before being offered for sale. Stony corals may require more heavy-duty cutting tools up to and including powered saws.
Depending on the species, the volume of corals a hobbyist is able to propagate and the venues they offer their corals at, coral fragging can be quite lucrative. A SCMAS friend of mine cleared more than a grand selling his frags at a recent Marine Aquarium Conference of North America (macnaxxi.com). Most of this money was used to pay for his trip to MACNA and the rest was funneled back into further outfitting his reef tank. He’s “playing with house money,” much to the delight of his spouse.
Can’t afford the latest newfangled piece of aquarium equipment? Want to upgrade from a 50 to a 180? Would you like to include an out-of-state aquarium conference in your summer travel plans? A new source of income that you can use to supplement your own hobby might be right under your nose in your very own setup. You never know what might happen until you give it a try.
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