Fish Economics

(by theAquarian January 26, 2003)

Fish are a lot like cars in that they usually end up costing a lot more money than you budget for.  Furthermore, you often have to keep sinking money into your initial purchase, buying things such as medication, better filters & lighting, and food just to keep things running smoothly.  In fact, fish are worse than cars, because once you have a successful experience with fish you are likely to buy more fish and more aquariums.  When this cycle hits its worst, you will be paying as much to keep your fish alive as you are paying to keep yourself alive.

Ahhh, but there is that dream of breeding fish and selling the fry for more than you are paying to keep your fish.  If you are able to do so, then you can theoretically have a hobby that pays for itself.  However, often that doesn't work out.  I listened to a presentation at the local fish club by Ray Gill on the ills of Fish Economics, and decided to follow some of the same thoughts into an article, so please enjoy!

Bear Market

My first major failure in investing in fish was investing in fish.  Unlike gold or precious stones, fish are not very good hard goods.  In fact, they are often squishy, and they don't do so well out of water.  What is worse is that often they don't do well in water.  About one year after the P. Demasoni was discovered, I had the opportunity to buy some fry.  P. Demasoni is a beautiful fish.  It is an unworldly blue with black velvety stripes that defy imagination...for a freshwater fish.  Upon seeing adults, I was convinced that this fish would be a perfect fish to breed and sell as no human would be able to resist the stark color patterns.

I invested $50 to buy 4 juveniles.  I then purchased a 20 gallon aquarium and outfitted it with a Bio-Wheel, a sand substrate, a Whisper submersible heater, live plants, lava rock, and a basic fluorescent hood.  All together the whole project came in just under $300 including the fish.  However, since I was convinced that I would soon be selling fry off at $10+ a piece, it seemed to be a very good investment.

The problem with the P. Demasoni comes from the now well-known fact that they are among the most aggressive Pseudotropheus available, and that is saying something.  Though diminutive in size, in this fish beats the heart of a fighter that cannot be contained.  Within 5 weeks I was down to one P. Demasoni...just one too few to have a breeding pair.  Despite being a beautiful fish, I was unable to keep this bruiser with my other cichlids as it caused considerable damage to them and eventually sold it as a fully grown male to a friend for $15.

Investment-> $300 Return->$15

Bear Market 2

Shell-dwelling fish are absolutely fascinating to me.  The Similis is likely the prettiest and easiest to keep of the shell-dwelling fish, and it is also a very good breeder if you get it started.  They wouldn't likely kill each other like the Pseudochromis did, and they didn't require a large aquarium.  What is more, shell-dwelling fish offer great returns in the marketplace as everyone finds them interesting enough to buy, but few people are breeding them.

Right after my birthday one year I found a pet shop carrying similis.  I had been hunting for the fish for over a year and was thrilled to see them in the store.  The only problem was the steep $14 a fish price tag.  Nevertheless, I pursed up the money to buy 4 of these beauties.  I took them home and rebuilt my 60 gallon aquarium with a sand bottom, a Penguin 330 bio-wheel, and a Whisper Submersible heater.  Thankfully I had most of these items already available to me.  Nevertheless, the total price for the tank, stand and accessories was easily over $400 to add to the price of the fish.

With the similis I learned an important lesson that I've carried with me to this day.  Four males will not produce any fry.  Of course I didn't know that I had four males when I purchased the fish as I was buying very young fish, but I did refrain from buying more due to the hearty price tag.

After losing one of the males to fights, I placed the remaining three in a 10-gallon aquarium where they stayed quite happily for a year before I sold the group at an auction for $12.

Investment->$452 Return->$12

Bear Market 3

Among the Tanganyikan cichlids, the Juliedochromis species are some of the most fun to keep.  These fish become brilliant beauties when fully grown, and though they can be difficult to breed, once they are breeding, you are ensured a large number of easy to raise fry as the parents allow all the fry to live together.  You often have brothers and sisters that are ranging in size from 1/2 cm to 5 cm all living together in a massive community in the aquarium.

Learning from my past experience, I purchased 5 Julidochromis Reagoni Kipili at $6 a piece for this project.  The Kipili reagoni are a beautiful fish with a bright yellow stripes alternating with black stripes.  They are quite beautiful and fairly easy to sell at full-size.

The downfall of this project was the ease of doing it.  The 5 fish settled down in a 20 gallon aquarium, and soon decreased in numbers as one pair formed and killed off all the other fish.  Still I wasn't worried yet, as a pair could return plenty of fish.  I was happy as could be when they started breeding and I had 50+ fry in the tank all living together.  I had considered moving some of the fry to another aquarium, but decided against it as it was so simple keeping them all together, and I hadn't noticed any aggression among the fish.

I think the worst thing about this story is the fact that the fish were likely worth $5 or more a piece.  I had a huge return sitting in front of me.  The tank I had from past failed projects, and all the equipment too.  I had cut costs everywhere to make it a profitable project, and it was about to succeed.  Except I cut costs too much.  One weekend while I was out, the el cheapo top fin heater failed.  It fried every fish in the tank, leaving me with a dish of very expensive cooked fish soup.  Lesson learned, never use cheap equipment to care for your fish...or your investment.

Investment->$30 Return->$0 (but oh so close to hundreds)

Bull Market

For every dozen failures, there are plenty of success stories.  I don't think that the failures make up for the success stories, but they sure help me feel better.  After failing with my similis, I purchased 5 multifasciatus at $7 a piece from a local pet store.  This fish is very similar to the similis, but not quite so pretty as the stripes do not extend onto the head.  Nevertheless, it is fairly easy to take care of and will breed in colonies, allowing the fry to stay with the parents in the aquarium.  This means you don't have to dedicate other tanks to the raising of the fry.  Having learned, I used an Ebo-Jager heater on the aquarium to avoid further equipment issues.

I placed the 5 in the tank where my similis had been, and actually soon lost one as it found it didn't have a friend in the world.  The other fish however were more than willing to breed for me.  I watched as the one colony became 2 different colonies, and still the number of fish grew.  I traded, sold them and then started a second aquarium of multis.  To date I've sold more than 150 fish from those first 5.  I currently have more than 150 on hand, counting all the way to the smallest fry.  The profit on selling the fish has been in excess of $300 so far...and I have no reason to believe they won't keep paying for themselves.  Victory!

Investment->$35 Return->$300

End of the Story

Fish Economics is tricky no matter how you look at it.  I've many more failure and success stories I could share, but I think the lessons taught by these were good ones.  However the one lesson that wasn't taught by any one of the stories was that you shouldn't go into a fish expecting to turn it into cash.  Just remember that fish are more like automobiles than they are like investments, and you are sure to enjoy the fish you have while you have them.

But...
If you just cannot shake the bug, and are sure you are going to make a profit with your fish, remember the following:  Find out about the fish before you buy it.  Get good equipment!  Make sure you have both males & females!  and...make sure you have a way of selling the fish after you get them.  Don't just assume the fish you see in a pet store for $10 will command $5 when you try to sell it.  Most of all enjoy!  Breeding fish is one of the most exciting aspects of the hobby, just don't count all your baby cichlids before they hatch.
 

[ Back to Fishy Tales | Sections Index ]