How to start a fish store?

[Benfica]

This being said, do not be afraid to centralize, I always did, except for discus, rays, and invertebrates. Just use UV and good mechanical filtration. I only had something rip through once, and at the time I did not have UV, it was eromonous bacteria with the african cichlids. To prevent things like ich sometimes you gotta use copper as a preventative. Furthermore you get used to your suppliers and learn what to buy and what not to buy from them. I was able to visit them and thus pick my own fish which helped a lot. Although a valid concern, tank to tank contamination was not something I worried about very often, I know how to keep fish and what to look for, if you are good and you check your fish every day you will catch issues before they are a problem.

Okay, i have never owned ray so not very familiar. TFD has a pretty good freshwater selection not at all good salt water sekection. Thing that anoys me that most is if you ever go to petsmart,walmart, some lfs look at the tanks and some fish are already rotten. Dont those people even look at their tanks!!! I understand if it dies and been there for 1-2days but should they realise.

Thanks again for the information really helpful

 

[Benfica]

Anyone knwo any other good wholesale companies beside TFD so i got an idea of the difference. Also tfd doesnt ahve a good selection for saltwater fish on FW

 

[tank125]

There is likely a "source" book for Canada, there is one for the US at least. TFD is pricey. Depending on how many tanks you have you may want to consider transhipping your own fish into the country. It will be loads cheaper, but the quantities are large and there are no credits and such, you get what you get, weather it comes dead or alive. If you have no local wholesalers you are going to want to look not only at transhipping but at some of the big wholesalers like Segrest Farms. I have not found a place that has both good salt and fresh, generally you will be using different suppliers for both. be careful with salt, you can loose your shirt fast, find local wholesalers first and spend the extra dough so that you can pick your fish yourself.

 

[Benfica]

There is likely a "source" book for Canada, there is one for the US at least. TFD is pricey. Depending on how many tanks you have you may want to consider transhipping your own fish into the country. It will be loads cheaper, but the quantities are large and there are no credits and such, you get what you get, weather it comes dead or alive. If you have no local wholesalers you are going to want to look not only at transhipping but at some of the big wholesalers like Segrest Farms. I have not found a place that has both good salt and fresh, generally you will be using different suppliers for both. be careful with salt, you can loose your shirt fast, find local wholesalers first and spend the extra dough so that you can pick your fish yourself.

I have onyl looked at TFD prices so that the onyl thing i am familiar with. Im hoping to ahve 170-180,40gallon breeder tanks. Where i am from London Ontario, we do not have any wholesale close to us. And TFD is in Ohio about 6hs from me.I might have some wholesales near great lakes but not sure.Also something that is harder for me to find is since i havent registrated my buisness numer, id etc i can not go on website to look at the prices since they ask for it and i havent gotten any.

Thanks

 

[Benfica]

Oh ya i got the buisness part down know alot of information. Starting a successful buisness in Canada is a really good book and helpful and easy to understand. So that was good that i read it. (includes some financil spread sheets, cd rom etc)

 

[tank125]

I have onyl looked at TFD prices so that the onyl thing i am familiar with. Im hoping to ahve 170-180,40gallon breeder tanks. Where i am from London Ontario, we do not have any wholesale close to us. And TFD is in Ohio about 6hs from me.I might have some wholesales near great lakes but not sure.Also something that is harder for me to find is since i havent registrated my buisness numer, id etc i can not go on website to look at the prices since they ask for it and i havent gotten any.

Thanks

You might, no, YOU WILL, get pissed catching... loaches, tetras, barbs, rasboras, african cichlids, etc. in 40BR's, use 20L's or even 15's IMO.

 

[Danger_Chicken]

The whoelsale who i can contact has a really good list of fish with affordable profitable items. So ill just buy most them. I will also ahve a sheet of the whoelsale items and people can recomened items or special orders. I plan on having a 1000gallon tank right beside the doors (near) to catch people attention but if i cant get one ill go for like 500+ still thinking of some nice fish..

Thanks for your post!!

1000g and 500g will take up too much space where merchandise could go. 2500sqf isn't as big as it sounds.

I know that it is okay to ask, but this kid is in way over his head. I have posted in this thread already, and now I am embarrassed and annoyed. This is just a little kid, you are not asking any direct questions, you do not have the first clue about what you are even asking, honestly... what do you want us to do? Tell you everything there is to know? It is a business, you need to treat it as such, you need to do YOUR OWN research because it is your $$$$$$ on the line. Sit down and come up with some sort of plan or at least figure how much money you have and can get to do this venture, if it is less than $150,000 don't waste your time. At the very least go work for a store for a year and get a feel for how much work it is.


You are taking this too lightly and it is annoying me, sorry, I had to vent. Like I said before, I have 3 stores, you need to get yourself some business experience and especially some pet store business experience first before you tease yourself about doing this venture. But like I said early, how much money do you have access to?

Agreed

Thanks.Yup alot of people are posting alot of useful information and there is usually liek 2 or 3browsing this thread. Sorry about the bumps just try to get pages to top ill bump every 15-20mins?

Ya i thought of that to. I also forgot lease expense.

Thanks for posting

I think there is a 1 bump a day rule here.

You might, no, YOU WILL, get pissed catching... loaches, tetras, barbs, rasboras, african cichlids, etc. in 40BR's, use 20L's or even 15's IMO.

agreed again.
There is a hundred other things I could say but all the bumping has annoyed me too much

 

[Benfica]

You might, no, YOU WILL, get pissed catching... loaches, tetras, barbs, rasboras, african cichlids, etc. in 40BR's, use 20L's or even 15's IMO.

Ok,then that would cut expense in half, and should i still use 40g breeders for other fish? For goldifsh i will be using much bigger tanks,and for the fish that requrire bigger tanks i will put into 180g

 

[Benfica]

Getting Off soon

 

[Benfica]

K Cya everyone im off, b back on tommrow hopefully some new posts bye!

Thanks again to everyone for posting!!!!