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  • Breeding Co-Op?

    Has anyone thought of a breeding Co-op?

  • #2
    Re: Breeding Co-Op?

    I love it when my hobby can pay for itself.  

    I usually deal with mom & pop local fish shops and they will trade me store credit for my young stock.
    Great deal for them, good deal for me as I would be buying food, meds and equipment from them anyway......

    One of the things I love about raising show quality bettas is that they command excelent prices when listed on
    Aquabid
    'Dear Lord,' the minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. 'Without you, we are but dust ...'
    He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient daughter who was listening leaned over to me and asked quite audibly in her shrill little four-year old girl voice, 'Mom, what is butt dust?'

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    • #3
      Re: Breeding Co-Op?

      Any fish store in Houston that does not have one is out of its mind. Our water is hard and the pH is high. Moving fish from farms to distributers to stores to home is a lot of changes in water. No wonder with that and the shipping and changes in surroundings and companion fish a lot of fish ultimately end up dead. Sometimes they get over crowded too. I much prefer to buy fish grown in local water from a local breeder.

      max

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      • #4
        Re: Breeding Co-Op?

        I do the same thing when I have too many young fish and they are of decent size.  I know of a few fish/pet stores in houston that will buy and or give store credit for my fish.  What irritates me is that alot of pet stores will not offer a dime, but will gladly take your fish from you to make a profit.  They know and you know its a better deal for them, but they want you to think they are doing you the favor by offering very little or nothing for the fish.

        I sell some of my fish to friends and family and friends of friends and family.  I charge a little more this way, but it is still cheap for them compared to buying from the store.

        Rrocket
        Raul
        PokerFace

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        • #5
          Re: Breeding Co-Op?

          Scott,

          I would like to see pics of your setup.  I'm very interested in seeing them.  

          If you still have some ice blue zebras this weekend, maybe I could see your setup if I can make my way out there.

          Rrocket
          Raul
          PokerFace

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          • #6
            Re: Breeding Co-Op?

            Sure thing, I think I have a couple Ice Blues left. If I do they will be in the 1/2" range. Still have some Cherry Reds 3-4", and some small (1/4") yellow labs. More good news, just had the Electric Blues spawn again, so in about 8 weeks I will have a batch of those ready to go along with the Hongi. Also, if you are interested I have some Juli's which are just about ready for market as well, both maeleri and reagani.
            Consider my posts as general information based on personal experiences, and in most cases, far oversimplified. Actual mileage may vary. Don't try this at home. If symptoms persist, contact your physician.

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            • #7
              Re: Breeding Co-Op?

              Hey Scott I have some Juli's too but mine are Coryadoras lol.

              rrocket2002, I think you might get a lot more money for a few fish at aquabid like Phish Phreek suggested. The sales volume might not be enough to make a living but the unit price looks good.

              max

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              • #8
                Re: Breeding Co-Op?

                I have all the ice blue zebras you could ever want. Let me know if you want some.

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                • #9
                  Re: Breeding Co-Op?

                  I think, now I may be mistaken here in this but, I think what Ken was looking for on this topic was a fish exchange amongst members. I may be wrong, but I believe thats what he was intending with the CO-OP deal. Say I breed Labs and he breeds blues, we do a swap and now I have some blues and he has some labs. Over simplified I know, but hey, I'm a simple kind of guy. If this is the case, I would suggest listing what you have to trade, and even more important, what it is you would like to aquire. God knows, for me thats about a 12 page post, hehe. Now if I am mistaken on this assumption, don't shoot me or anything, for all I know he may be trying to set up a coalition to strong arm the pet stores into buying all their fish from us at a set price of our choosing.  In that case, we will need some guys named Guido to enforce our demands, and if they fail to step into line, I say, "let em sleep with the fishes".
                  Scott
                  Consider my posts as general information based on personal experiences, and in most cases, far oversimplified. Actual mileage may vary. Don't try this at home. If symptoms persist, contact your physician.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Breeding Co-Op?

                    Honestly, I was thinking it might be a good oportunity for one of the big breeders like scott or max or another to put together and maintain a list of fish available via our group. Then that person could broker deals to local stores. It's a fairly big undertaking, but if we could offer local stores the same deals they are getting elsewhere or better due to lack of  shipping costs, then I believe that would be a good hook. I'm not suggesting that we could handle all of their needs, but we could definitely supplement their inventory.

                    In addition, I also believe a good fish exchange between members would be a great benefit.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Breeding Co-Op?

                      OK, anyone have any cousins named Vinny, Guido, Jimmy 2 Toes? Not sure if it will work Ken, but hell, I'm game to give it a shot. If nothing else we can have multiple way trades happening. I have a store that will buy pretty much anything I have to offer, if they have the space. I just need to know in advance what kind of stock we are looking at and when it needs to be moved. That way they can hold tank space for the incoming fish. I cant guarantee that they will be interested in all offerings, or even that they will pay a fair rate, but in my dealings with them, if it has been a bread and butter fish, the exchange is not bad.
                      Consider my posts as general information based on personal experiences, and in most cases, far oversimplified. Actual mileage may vary. Don't try this at home. If symptoms persist, contact your physician.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Breeding Co-Op?

                        Something else to consider Ken, I have my retail license and tax id, and order my supplies direct from a wholesaler. As part of the Co-Op deal if we could secure a large enough order to defray shipping, I could offer my pricing to the members. While not always the cheapest solution, especially on heavy bulky items, on the lighter items you can deffinately come out way ahead. My only stipulation to this would be that I would have to have a minimum before ordering, this allows me to reduce shipping as much as possible. Another drawback would be that I wouldn't be able to quote the shipping cost until I had the minimum, due to weights and price breaks. But if you look at it like this, a new canister filter for $100 off retail for a trade of $25 shipping, thats still $75 in pocket, and thats a worst case senario. Most items ship for a fraction of value. Exceptions would be tanks, and gravel. I won't order those as the shipping is outrageous on these items.
                        Consider my posts as general information based on personal experiences, and in most cases, far oversimplified. Actual mileage may vary. Don't try this at home. If symptoms persist, contact your physician.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Breeding Co-Op?

                          I might not be willing to mass produce guppies. I do that to make me happy. If I let someone else influence my guppy keeping they might spoil my fun by bidding down the value of my effort.

                          If someone wants to buy 100 mostly white or 100 multicolored cold/disease resistant sailfin mollies or 100 cold/disease resistant platies I have them. The problem is that the value of those fish will not pay the light bill. I heard someone else say they have 100 zebra danios.

                          In Florida the farms raise fish for cheap and they are marked up as they go to a distributer with a lot of different kinds of fish. They sell to brokers who mark them up on the way to stores. So there is a lot of layers and mark up and most of the true growers only produce one kind of fish for cheap. This list and the logistics of getting the fish together and to the buyer in good shape may entail a lot of work and some tanks and equipment. I have not volunteered for that job.

                          I guess it depends how well it becomes organized. I can't understand why we can't produce fish here in Texas to ship to Florida. The local market and the hobby is going to suffer if fish are not produced here for this market. Yet there are a lot of stores that will not buy local fish.

                          max

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                          • #14
                            Re: Breeding Co-Op?

                            I don't think Ken was implying that we all try to start our own fish ranches, rather that we try to band together to find a market for those fish that we are willing to part with. If you only have 3 fish a year that you want to get rid of, it's nice to think that you may be able to find someone with an interest. As for mass production, I don't know anybody with that capability. You are talking several acres worth of speedways and ponds for something of that scale. I think what Ken has envisioned is more or less a support group for members to take what they have to offer, and hopefully see a reasonable return. I don;t think anyone in this hobby expects to get rich, in fact, last I looked at my bank account it was quite the opposite. I think in the end this will ammount to a traders paradise and little more, but even so, its nice to know who has what and when they are going to have it.
                            Consider my posts as general information based on personal experiences, and in most cases, far oversimplified. Actual mileage may vary. Don't try this at home. If symptoms persist, contact your physician.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Breeding Co-Op?

                              I think I have over 200 zebra danio fry...very difficult to count. One of the cool things about a local onlione forum is we have the chance to offload (buy/sell/swap) amongst ourselves. But it would be cool to be able to sell to LFS's as a group....
                              Russ



                              My other hobby?Vroom![b]

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