As a kid I loved keeping pets. In fact many people referred to our suburban home as being the local zoo. Kids from all over the neighborhood would come by to see the goings-on in our back yard.
I had a huge fish pond which, during the summer, would be teaming with little colourful fish. The fish first started out in my aquarium and as they multiplied they ended up in the pond. By the end of the summer there would be so many
that if I didn’t find homes for them they would over populate the pond and wipe themselves out. So I would catch them by the hundred, put them into big buckets and take them off to the local aquarium shops. The shop owners were happy to get my fish and paid me 50 cents each. Thirty five years ago this amounted to a lot of money.
One time though, I remember delivering a bucket full of sword tails, which are renowned for jumping. The
aquarium shop owner left the bucket on the ground without a lid whilst he went about his shop business. He returned later in the day to find nearly all the fish on the ground!
I’d also divide up the water lilies and pull out huge amounts of water plants that were thriving in the summer heat in the pond and sell them at the same aquarium shops. All up my hobby pet breeding enterprise well and truly paid for itself!
Today I still keep aquarium fish and breed them in ponds during the summer. Some of my children have taken an interest in them and keep fish as well.
A close friend of the family, Brayden, stopped by our place and showed an interest in my fish. I told him what I was doing and the story of how I would sell them to the aquarium shops.
Fifteen year old Brayden also kept
fish. He had an aquarium full of guppies. As a result of our conversation he took all his guppies down to the local pet shop and sold them for $2.50 each. He was so pleased with his fish sale that he began playing with figures as to whether or not it would be worth trying to farm aquarium fish as an enterprise. His figures stacked up and he told me that he had acquired several large fish tanks. He had done his research on fish and worked out which were easy to breed and which were sort after by the aquarium shops.
His aquaculture enterprise is just beginning and has the potential to do very well. I’ll keep you posted with how he goes.
Here are some helpful tips if you are considering breeding animals or plants to sell. Choose quality stock to breed from, from the start. Look for animals or plants that have a higher price tag. It is just as easy to breed a $2 guppy as it is to breed an exotic $30 guppy. So why not choose the latter.
Also don’t be afraid to cull inferior fish based on colour, shape and size. Keep your very best stock for breeding as these will produce the best offspring. Feed them well and only sell young quality animals. It is important to develop a good reputation with the pet shops. Maintain pure strains. These will always look the best and demand the best price.
Make sure you do your research before breeding pets. Some animals can prove to be very difficult to keep and breed and may require expensive equipment and services to keep them in top breeding condition. Ask the pet shops what animals they are regularly looking for. Become the expert on the pet you’re planning to breed.
Lastly, consider selling your pets on Facebook, ebay, or one of the internet buy and sell sites. These are free to advertise on and have huge followings of prospective customers.
Maybe you too can develop a pet enterprise, or at least have your pets pay for themselves! Here are a few ebooks that could help you to develop your expertise with a pet breeding enterprise… Aquarium Fish, Guinea Pigs, Pet Rats, and Chickens.
Our next blog will take us back to the Enterprises our children have been running. Find out how they are going and the lessons they are learning along the way…
