If our fish rescuing experience of 13 years first in upstate New York and then SW Florida is of guidance, rescuing fish is a badly money-losing operation. The revenue comes usually only from the adoption fee and covers about 1/10-1/4 of the expenses.
One of the best case scenarios: someone actually brings over and drops off say a red tail catfish RTC at 1'-1.5' (30-45 cm), so no expense for us in acquiring, and in half a year it is adopted. It will have grown to 2' or over (60+cm) and cost us around $200 to house, this is an out of pocket expense, namely, electricity (85%) and feed (15%), and not counting my labor and that I have to earn a living, plus the property taxes and upkeep & repair of the facility, repair & replacement of pumps, fish tanks, and other equipment and its service, etc. The standard adoption fee for such an RTC is $100 (and it's hard to find qualified takers even at $100!) versus the $200 of out of pocket housing expenses, and versus crudely speaking $400 of overall housing expenses. Our loss is $300.
One of the worst cases: in March 2016 I drove to Dayton, Ohio, 60 hours round trip, to rescue 6 paroon shark catfish at 1.5' (45 cm). The trip cost around $1500 out of pocket, so the acquiring expense is ~$250 per catfish, or ~$500 if one counts total expenses (including my supposed hourly pay rate at say very modest $15 an hour). After 4 years, the now 3' (90 cm) paroon is adopted for $400 versus ~$1600 of the out of pocket housing expenses and crudely $3200 of the overall housing expenses. Our loss over 4 years is $500+$3200-$400=$3300.
Take-home message: in our specific circumstances (means at the current volume of rescuing), rescuing one large fish, such as a large-bodied 2'-3' catfish or pacu, costs us $800 a year in total expenses. Each year on average we rescue about 50 such fishes and it costs us $40,000 a year.
In reality many fish we rescue are smaller but there are more of them, hence the total more or less checks out the same. These numbers are there just to shape the right thinking of what to expect if you want to enter this "trade".
Also note the above only concerns the recurring expenses and doesn't take into account the initial capital investment, such as the building, the fish tanks, the filters, the pumps, etc. and its depreciation over time.
BTW, if one wanted to rescue just one RTC, their yearly total expense could be smaller than our $800 only by 1.5x-2x because the tank size should be comparable and, hence, the water pumping could be only marginally smaller (in a different scenario, when one is provided a living by someone else, they'd only be concerned with the out of pocket, recurring expenses, which are further 2x smaller vs the total). If one wanted to rescue far more fish than 50 a year, I don't see a reason for the cost to change much. In such a way, the operational volume of far larger ventures like the Ohio Fish Rescue is 10x larger and I suppose it must cost them $400,000 a year! And they are ordinary folks, like you and me, working day jobs that pay the likes of $40,000 a year, 1/10th of the rescuing budget.
Thus, the rescue fish adoption fee / "sale fee" is a symbol, a small token of appreciation that an adopter could give to a rescuer, and yet, it is not uncommon to encounter adopters / buyers bargaining with rescuers for a better price. Oh well. It's capitalism after all, offer and demand, right?
It doesn't hurt my feelings. I take it as it a norm now.
It's funny when friends ask, "What happened to such or such fish?" And I say I have adopted it out, for instance, a 3' paroon for $400, or a 3.5' jau catfish we have kept for 12 years since 2008 for $1500. They go, "Wow, and you paid nothing for it, right? It's a great business you got going! I should consider it!" I take on a clownish vulnerable look, sadly nod, and say, yup, yup, you've got figured me out! hahahahha.....
Things should improve vastly when we open to public at large (finishing touches now) and are able to charge admission and make money from exhibiting and educating patrons about these animals that captured our hearts. But until now, for the last 13 years, it has been largely as I tried to describe above.
One of the best case scenarios: someone actually brings over and drops off say a red tail catfish RTC at 1'-1.5' (30-45 cm), so no expense for us in acquiring, and in half a year it is adopted. It will have grown to 2' or over (60+cm) and cost us around $200 to house, this is an out of pocket expense, namely, electricity (85%) and feed (15%), and not counting my labor and that I have to earn a living, plus the property taxes and upkeep & repair of the facility, repair & replacement of pumps, fish tanks, and other equipment and its service, etc. The standard adoption fee for such an RTC is $100 (and it's hard to find qualified takers even at $100!) versus the $200 of out of pocket housing expenses, and versus crudely speaking $400 of overall housing expenses. Our loss is $300.
One of the worst cases: in March 2016 I drove to Dayton, Ohio, 60 hours round trip, to rescue 6 paroon shark catfish at 1.5' (45 cm). The trip cost around $1500 out of pocket, so the acquiring expense is ~$250 per catfish, or ~$500 if one counts total expenses (including my supposed hourly pay rate at say very modest $15 an hour). After 4 years, the now 3' (90 cm) paroon is adopted for $400 versus ~$1600 of the out of pocket housing expenses and crudely $3200 of the overall housing expenses. Our loss over 4 years is $500+$3200-$400=$3300.
Take-home message: in our specific circumstances (means at the current volume of rescuing), rescuing one large fish, such as a large-bodied 2'-3' catfish or pacu, costs us $800 a year in total expenses. Each year on average we rescue about 50 such fishes and it costs us $40,000 a year.
In reality many fish we rescue are smaller but there are more of them, hence the total more or less checks out the same. These numbers are there just to shape the right thinking of what to expect if you want to enter this "trade".
Also note the above only concerns the recurring expenses and doesn't take into account the initial capital investment, such as the building, the fish tanks, the filters, the pumps, etc. and its depreciation over time.
BTW, if one wanted to rescue just one RTC, their yearly total expense could be smaller than our $800 only by 1.5x-2x because the tank size should be comparable and, hence, the water pumping could be only marginally smaller (in a different scenario, when one is provided a living by someone else, they'd only be concerned with the out of pocket, recurring expenses, which are further 2x smaller vs the total). If one wanted to rescue far more fish than 50 a year, I don't see a reason for the cost to change much. In such a way, the operational volume of far larger ventures like the Ohio Fish Rescue is 10x larger and I suppose it must cost them $400,000 a year! And they are ordinary folks, like you and me, working day jobs that pay the likes of $40,000 a year, 1/10th of the rescuing budget.
Thus, the rescue fish adoption fee / "sale fee" is a symbol, a small token of appreciation that an adopter could give to a rescuer, and yet, it is not uncommon to encounter adopters / buyers bargaining with rescuers for a better price. Oh well. It's capitalism after all, offer and demand, right?
It doesn't hurt my feelings. I take it as it a norm now. It's funny when friends ask, "What happened to such or such fish?" And I say I have adopted it out, for instance, a 3' paroon for $400, or a 3.5' jau catfish we have kept for 12 years since 2008 for $1500. They go, "Wow, and you paid nothing for it, right? It's a great business you got going! I should consider it!" I take on a clownish vulnerable look, sadly nod, and say, yup, yup, you've got figured me out! hahahahha.....
Things should improve vastly when we open to public at large (finishing touches now) and are able to charge admission and make money from exhibiting and educating patrons about these animals that captured our hearts. But until now, for the last 13 years, it has been largely as I tried to describe above.
