opening new fish store
- Thread starter dovii_6
- Start date
)I consult for a fish store, and having worked in several I have to recommend that you carry more than just cichlids. It will be tough to make a living (if that's what you want to do) without your bread-and-butter community fish. I used to work at Marine Warehouse (Tampa, FL), which had the best selection of African cichlids for a couple hundred miles. From time-to-time we even had people come from Georgia and South Carolina to shop! They carry little ones, as well as beautiful adult male peacocks and haps up to about 10". That being said, African cichlids still made less than the other freshwater and saltwater fish. I will say that you do get good, regular customers from cichlid people though. They often come in and buy a couple per week until their tank fills up, and then they only end up shopping for supplies for a while.
And as for names, I personally think that the whole Blue Ridge thing is a little tapped-out:
Blue Ridge Aquatics
Blue Ridge Aquaculture
Blue Ridge Fish Hatchery
And as for names, I personally think that the whole Blue Ridge thing is a little tapped-out:
Blue Ridge Aquatics
Blue Ridge Aquaculture
Blue Ridge Fish Hatchery
I agree with the replies about the fish stock. If you want to specialize in cichlids it could work but your going to still want a large variety to keep a broader customer base. If you fish and supplies are comparable in price to other places it's easy enough to win over customers with knowledgable and helpful staff. I choose my LFS by the staff. For cheap little supplies (air stones, air lines, that sort of stuff) I usually grab at petsmart because it's cheaper but for everything else I go where people know their stuff and know their fish.
Agree fully with 2 previous posters....I run a fish store in Milwaukee area...you need the bread and butter fish to bring a wider variety of customers in..at our store if we didn't sell mollies, goldfish,oscars, tetras,guppies etc., we would not survive...even though there are many cichlids to choose from limiting yourself to certain fish is a death sentence..how many other fish stores that sell only certain fish do you see out there?
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The used to be a store in Omaha, Nebraska that was called "Underwater fantasies", great name and store.
I feel what your saying about a broader spectrum but I want to be a specialty fish store and I plan on having 42 diff species right off the bat then expanding to about 100 I think I can make it work as long as i can talk to the customers. The great thing about cichlids is you can please just about anyone u can go from community up to just single fish tanks people want the common stuff cus they don't know about the uncommon stuff well educate them at the same time.
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