Fish room / Fish clubhouse

[gt3guru]

I'd given some thought to turning the spare bedroom in my house into a fishroom. Strip the carpet, run some plumbing. There is a wall that is shared with the garage that also has plumbing, making it easy to get water to the room or put filtration outside.

But not just any fishroom. A clubhouse fishroom.

I see this being a group effort. a professional fishroom for people who have day jobs. 1-2 members per day visit the room to feed, clean and maintain the system. member fees cover electricity, water, livestock, etc. the goal being to breed somewhat profitable fish for LFS and to gain/share some experiences and contribute to the local hobby.

maybe even help maintain endangered fish.

Please comment on the concept, I'd love to set up something like this.

[cichlidsooner]

Re: Fish room / Fish clubhouse

Just curious, why would you want to do all the work and then get that particular fish to breed and let a LFS profit from your work? Not that the rest of the concept is not bad at all, but seems like alot a work for someone else to make money off you or your club idea.

The goal is not bad either but there is too many outlets to sell the fish yourself and make the profit for your club.

[rrocket2002]

Re: Fish room / Fish clubhouse

:think:

Sounds great, but lets think about this for a sec.  I think ultimately most of the maintenance would fall on your shoulders and maybe a one or two others that would help out on a semi-regular basis.  Ummm.......how would you control who joins your club?  Would you want strangers in your home each day of the week, that is if they did show up on a regular schedule.  

It's one thing to meet with a group once or a couple times a month at your home, but quite another to have some people you don't know very well over everyday.  Unless you only allowed those you already know and feel somewhat comfortable with.  Would you be present every day when help came over?  

Maybe its just me.  I know alot of people here on the box and think they are all good people, but I don't really know all of them....meeting some for an hour or two a month at most.  What do you think?  

Raul

[cichlidsooner]

Re: Fish room / Fish clubhouse

rrocket2002 has another good point, man I am not sure about have people coming and going out my house. As much as you can think you can trust someone, there is something coming missing and what do you do? Or something dies who takes the blame?

I like rrocket2002, but I don't want him at my house!!

[rrocket2002]

Re: Fish room / Fish clubhouse

Hey!  

That works both ways!

LOL

[CichlidFan]

Re: Fish room / Fish clubhouse

Yeah, although I like your way of thinking as far as the fish room is concerned, I believe the "club house" idea is a bit unorthodox. It does seem a bit unusual to have your home open to potential issues that may or may not be "risky".
I'm not saying to give up on your aspirations, but you may want to give it some more thought as to the insurance factor and the actual membership idea. I do like the idea in theory, but daily or even weekly commitments would be difficult for most potential members due to your location I would think.
If indeed you do have a few trustworthy friends from the fishbox, maybe you could "think tank" (pun intended) or kick this idea around futher with them.

Maybe a better idea would be a joint venture retail store for the passionate HFB members who would like to contribute time and money. Who among us has not thought about this hobby as a business opportunity, I know I have. The only problem I foresee is NFS on all the tanks.....


In any case, best wishes to you and your future fish keeping plans.

CF

[guppymax]

Re: Fish room / Fish clubhouse

I talked to TPWD at the Sheldon Reservoir Environmental Learning Center about maintaining some endangered Gambusia and having a little outside Aquarium for the public to see some of these fish. These are endangered Texas fish that pretty much exist only in their own little single respective unique pot  holes here in Texas. TPWD was interested but I could not get enough committed help to make it happen. Someone has to feed and maintain the tanks. TPWD has meeting rooms and all kinds of facilities but they are short handed as far as staff goes. Maybe cichlids are more popular or those who keep them are more gung ho?

max

[gt3guru]

Re: Fish room / Fish clubhouse

I love the responce!

I had considered how to limit access to the rest of the house. I'd have a seperate entrance to the one room and a lock between the room and the house. And only a few members would have a key to the fish room. Most, I suspect, would have to come in at other times or with a keyed member.

Also agreed on selling to LFS. a club website would be a better avenue to sell from. As well as local websites like HFB.

I don't think my usual petsmart customers would be interested in this club. I would only expect experienced fish keepers to want to spend the time on something like this. There would certainly be some minimum requirements to being a member.

I don't believe this has a great chance of happening but I'm curious if the concept would be doable.

I also see us being a hub of information, including a website with detailed plans on how we set it up, test and maintain what we have. Articles on specific exotic fish we have/have had. DIY projects we use to save money/increase productivity.

I only see this happening with the crem de la crem of aquarists in the area.

How many of us have too many tanks, or at least more than we should. (ek) Wouldn't it be more economical for our members to have a place where we share the hobby with others and keep it down to a min. at home.

[CichlidFan]

Re: Fish room / Fish clubhouse

I would like to keep track of this line of conversation and see where it goes, it is afterall, very stimulating to say the least. I think the biggest obstacle to overcome would be the limitations of a single physical location. It would most likely become a chore for some not so close members. But again, you got an idea here that is worth more consideration and I'm pulling for you....

I think the idea of having a club sounds good, a Cichlid Club perhaps, but how that club would funtion and the general purpose of it, needs to be thought out and planned to be viable. There is plenty of room for everyone's main interest, you could have a few members into Tangs, and others into Malawi, Africans, as well as South American, so forth.
Members could vote and agree to raise certain speicies for distribution thoughout the club as well as to other HFB members. Each club member could track each others progress and assist other members and so forth. Keep on this, and count me in for limited support at this time.

CF

[gt3guru]

Re: Fish room / Fish clubhouse

To decide what fish we would rase would be a matter of why we are raising them.

Profit?
protecting endangered species?
Studying breeding behavior of uncommon, difficult fish?
creating new strains?
(any other ideas?)

probably a combination.  

for those who didn't see my post this is the buildup of a MASSIVE fish room. who wouldn't like to visit something like this.

http://discusasahobby.com/forum/index.php?topic=2384.0

And how many times do you see these on ebay. I've seen several, 1 auction had 10 8 foot sections, each for 500 bucks.

http://cgi.ebay.com/MARS-COMMERCIAL-DISPLAY-AQUARIUM-TANK-FISH-PET-BUSINESS_W0QQitemZ130105679201QQihZ003QQcategoryZ20755QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

And as far as selling to local fish stores, if we only carrybreed/study valuable fish we would have a distinct advantage locally. shipping costs a fortune. inventory is expensive, and we could cut out both entirely for a LFS. keep our inventory available online and let the stores know what we have, therefore keeping them from having to house any. just deliver to the store after they find a buyer.

Its one thing to have a website that 20 people visit a day, its another to have 20 stores know we are available for their dozens of customers.

[rrocket2002]

Re: Fish room / Fish clubhouse

I don't think the idea selling to lfs is going to work.  LFS is out to make a profit and I think everyone here knows that as individuals, a lfs don't pay you jack for your fish, because they are gonna want to sell at a 3x markup or more.  

This isn't the first time this has come up on the Box.  A consortium* has been discussed on here before.  Its nice to think about, but to bring to life another thing all together.  

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of it and have considered something similar.  I've considered talking to those of us living on the SE side of town....at least those that I'm familiar with that breed fish.  Each maintaining there own Inventory and providing an updated listing of what they have to sell, but only sell through the group*, a council so to speak.  This way you have a larger inventory to offer lfs and to people direct via local auctions and online auctions.   The individual receives compensation as well as the Group.  The group votes and decides how the money is saved or spent.

Now I have a headache again,  Too many details.  It can work, but requires active particpation from everyone in the group.

Raul

[cichlidsooner]

Re: Fish room / Fish clubhouse

I am with rocket, doesn't matter what you get or breed, you will get bend over the table by the LFS. They would rather pay the shipping instead of getting hooked up by a local breeder. Just the way it goes.

I know rocket and I can provide all the above specs about the fish but it will be the same story at the end of the day, you get one third of what they are going to sell it for if you are lucky and then you a nice credit slip to then pay the  double mark up on the supplies knowing good and well you can get the same supplies from ebay, foster and smith, aquabid, or just about any online store even with shipping cheaper. Double screw job, hosed on the fish price and then hosed by having to pay more for the supplies, not to many people want to join that club.

That is why most everyone dreads taking fish to the LFS because of the above mentioned reasons. Trade in a 4-5" colored and sexable fish to barely get enough to get a one inch fish with no color or sexablity. Thanks but no thanks. I would rather get hosed at an auction cause at least I will get $ instead of a credit slip any day. Usually get more for that same fish at an auction than from an LFS.

[PhishPhreek]

Re: Fish room / Fish clubhouse

No - not in your home - but if you set it up in a metal building with a large central meeting room and half a dozen fish rooms on the outside with outside access to the fish rooms for maintaince and built in tanks on the meeting room walls,  you could then rent a fish room meeting room to all the various clubs in the area.

[Armadillo_Del_Rio]

Re: Fish room / Fish clubhouse

Why not a small aquarium built for those who are passionate and those who are just intrested. Houston is one of the larger cities i lived in without a nice  public aquarium. maybe this is a step to change it.

[SCOTT]

Re: Fish room / Fish clubhouse

GT, if a fish club is all you are after, or at least the main focus of what you are after, the LHA meets not very far from you. Most of the members are cichlid nuts, I can only think of 2 people who aren't. We meet in my garage/fish room the first Friday of each month at 7:00 PM. Since downsizing the fish room, the meeting area is back to its normal size again. I really like the idea of having each club member raise a selected species for club distribution and outside sales. That could be something we need to look at as a club. Sounds fun and interesting to me.