If you had an aquarium store, what fish would you prioritize?

[GaryE]

This is just for fun, so let's throw business survival and marketing out the window. Imagine you had a store with a curious clientele and a supportive aquarium scene. Let's say it has 50 to 100 tanks, and you could hire a small staff at good wages, so their advice would be good and things would be well run. You have state of the art filtration and access to whatever fish you want - wild, farmed, cheap, expensive, rare or common.

What fish would you prioritize? What non fish features would you prioritize?

I would have a small cafe as part of the set up. I'd go rainforest, with large African and South American sections, and a smaller Asian set up. My focus would be on shoalers, dwarf Cichlids, killies, and oddball small fish. There would be a steady arrival of the newly found fish, especially of tetras, which would be magically inexpensive. There's be no GMO, hybrid or linebred fish.

 

[Magnum Man]

just build it in my area, and if you have iced tea in the cafe, and a big tank of fish, to watch from the cafe ( even if those aren't for sale ) then you won't need magically cheap fish... I have no issues paying a fair price for heathy, unusual fish... I'm there...

 

[sharkweek178]

Since the tap water in my area is soft water, I would want to encourage soft water fishes.

 

[gwand]

My store would specialize in fish 3 inches and less in size. A third of my store would be devoted to breeding fish on the endangered species list. If the habitat permits I would return fish to the wild.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Many years ago I wanted all sorts of fish I could not have as I did not have any place for a ton of tanks. So, it occurred to me I could get to work with a lot more fish by owning my own local fish store. So I began doing my homework. I figured I needed about $100k to get it up and running.

I figured I did not care if I never made one penny in profit. I had only once concern and that was not o lose my inventment. As long as I could be reasonably certain of this not happenng, I would move forward with opening a store.

No matter how I crunched the numbers, no matter how I thought it would work, I could not reach the reasobale conclusion my investment would not be lost entirely. I even had the name for my potential store all planned out.

Needless to say, I never opened my store. In the end I chose a different path. I am nw going into the 25th year of keeping fish. At the peak I had 28 tanks (8 were always only up for the summer months).

But, I managed to make my hobby pay for itself. As of today I have spent 0 dollars net on the hobby. I never got to have all of the species I dreamed bout having (even if many were in a store I owned), but I have not lost one cent and my net out of pocket cost have been a but less than 0.

Unlike GaryE, I have no issue with line breeding iThere some cases as long as it doesn't result in frankenfish. And I have a Q you you, sir. Albinism is a natural occurance but not all that common. In nature the odds of a line of albino anything is not likely to develop naturally, But if I have two albino fish I have caught in nature and I allow them to breed and they produce a line of albino fish.......

And then what about natural hybrids? Consider this "L066, L236, L287, L333, L399 & L400 = Hypancistrus seideli" these 6 different L numbers are all found in the wild. They all lokk different as well, yet it turns out they are the same species. So, are these fish you would never have in your "ideal" fish shop?

And, if you have a cafe what foods would you serve? A lot of what we consume is bsically created by cross breeeding/hybridizing things and then line breeding from there. And what about us- people? For example, if a black person and a white person have kids, is this wrong? What is the difference between that and our putting together two species of angels from different locations, so they would never encounter each other, and having them mate and produce a new color morph in one of our tanks?

Isn't this all a bit of a slippery slope?

 

[Innesfan]

I'm pretty much with @GaryE's concept on this one though I would add a minority of vintage line-bred strains--half black angels, the vintage Vienna Emerald bottom sword and double sword guppies, and a few of the rarer, non-grotesque vintage Goldfish varieties--Philadelphia Veils, London and Bristol Shubunkins and Japanese Jikins for example.

Oh, and I'd have a reading lounge with an extensive collection of classics and the best modern works, including the 19 Innes editions, a complete run of his magazine, The Aquarium, from 1932-1967, works by Sterba, Baensch etc.

 

[GaryE]

No slippery slope at all. I have had albino fish appear in my breeding species, and I simply didn't remove and prioritize them. The next generation didn't show the mutation. It's a natural process and a natural result. Natural sports continue on in group breeding here, but rarely reappear here. I don't remove them unless it's a harmful genetic deformity showing.

Natural hybrids? No problem. Hybridization in nature is a driver in evolution, and I have enjoyed wild type livebearers with hybridization histories. I see that as very different from hobbyists crossing fish that would never meet in nature. All breeders should keep studbooks, and the history of the fish should matter.

The situation you describe in your L-numbers is well known in killifish. Cryptic species abound, where fish from different, no longer connected habitats have evolved into different species, but look the same. It's why good killiekeepers try to keep collection codes for their fish, in case of exciting research into them.

I eat hybrids, no issue there. I just wouldn't sell them as I think all aquarium fish are like windows into nature, if the view is natural. I don't take pictures of my meals, as some people do. I do photograph wild type fish though. My imaginary cafe would have coffee and tea and cold drinks. No food. Kids are more likely to put it in tanks, from experience.

With all due respect, your black and white person example looks like a debating trick. We're all Homo sapiens sapiens, whatever our colour. One species. We apparently hybridized with other Homo species before they became extinct, part of our natural history. I guess I have neanderthal of denisovian in me somewhere. I know have Irish, English, Guinean, Innu and who knows what other Homo sapiens ancestors, and that doesn't make me a hybrid, unless you don't know what hybrid means.

Since this is all hypothetical, if someone wants all glo-fish as a store, go for it. We won't be competing in the unreal world then. I'm just curious about a very unrealistic question, given the costs and shrinking markets in our pastime.

Since it's a fantsy ideal store, I would only sell wild type angels. Maybe I'd breed them in the back. I would accompany them with detailed info on their habitat, including theories on how it may have shaped their colouration (bars on the side, reeds as cover...). You can't see that on a marble angel with its blotch patterns, so I wouldn't sell them.

 

[emeraldking]

If you had an aquarium store, what fish would you prioritize?​

What fish would you prioritize? What non fish features would you prioritize?

Well, I would prioritize livebearers (rare and common). But to have a good continuity in the sale of fish, I would have to have a section with a good share of standard aquarium fish. Because that is where most sales will come from if a store has to stay open the whole week, since most households choose precisely these types of fish. It's nice to have a focus on rare species. However, if that's the main focus, sales will suffer. For you need to have stable income to pay for everything. Think of staff, energy bill, insurance, enough finances to reinvest like purchasing etc. Crustaceans are currently popular and the most common are the smaller species because there is also a large share of customers who do not have such a large fishtank at home. So I would also offer those.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Well, then how to you access the effect of humanity on wild species. When we dam a river and change the environment, thus affects what species may or may not encounter each other. It also may cause one species to become extinct.

I started working with zebra plecos in 2006. So they became a species I followed fairly closely in the literature. This fish is only found in one location, the Big bend of the Rio Xingu. Because of its uniqueness and limited range the unusual demand for the fish has created a problem. It has been illegal to remove zebras from the river and the country for over 20 years now. Yet it has been collected to the the point of near extinction levels. The reason is simple, the money involved is such that the laws have been broken for several decades.

A short time ago and expereiment was done with the intent of creating another location where this species might live thd thrive. Fish were captured in the Xingu and taken to another river with similar parameters. However, the makeup of the bottom of the XIngu is fairly unique even if the water poarameters are not so. A year after the transfer the scientists etc. involved went to check out the situation in the new habitat. They could not find any zebras. The reason was simp, the bottom structure of the new location was not similar to the Xingu and the fish failed to thrive.

I would be willing to bet that today there are more zebras libing in captivity than in the wild. The only rreason for this was the mismanagement of tit all by the Brazilian government. By making he fish illegal to export, they ignore the demand side and that encourage the illegal trade. This in turn threatened the survival of the species in general. Many of the fish being smugled out of Brazil never made it because hiding the fish in transit meant using methods that were not all that conducive for the fish surviving the trip.

But, we accept a lot of line breeding of animals in our lives. How many breeds of dogs would not exist were it not for humans creating them? Have a read here https://discover.hubpages.com/animals/Natural-Breeds-of-Dog-Explored

Can I assume you folks would never own any of the man made breeds of dog the same way you reject fish humans have "engineered" for the hobby- i.e. ornamental fish.

And let's consider our bovine friends. From the Google AI, which may be wrong but not by all that much?

Humans have created over 800 different breeds of cows through selective breeding. This process has led to cattle with various physical features and adaptations to diverse environments and human needs. While some sources state over 1,000 breeds, the most common estimate is around 800.

https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/res...s/nature-holy-cow-different-breeds-of-cattle/

Like I said- this is all a slippery slope.

 

[emeraldking]

Well, then how to you access the effect of humanity on wild species. When we dam a river and change the environment, thus affects what species may or may not encounter each other. It also may cause one species to become extinct.

Every change in nature done by man will affect the flora and fauna.
But in order to keep wild species of fish within the aquarium scene, we don't have to overdo it to risk the extintion of those fish in the wild. What I've done for years is to breed wild livebearer species (even a number that are close to extinction in free nature. But I'm a member of Poecilia Netherlands and we support a project in Mexico. Their goal is to breed captive bred wild species and rerelease them into the wild. A part of my wild livebearers will also go to this project. What we take from nature should also be given back to nature. That's my philosphy.

Man created breeding forms of fish... For me there's a line that I draw. All deformations created in ornamental fish that limits the well being (in all aspects of the term "well being"), is a no go for me. But this goes for all animals in my opinion.

 

[Fishkeeper123]

This is just for fun, so let's throw business survival and marketing out the window. Imagine you had a store with a curious clientele and a supportive aquarium scene. Let's say it has 50 to 100 tanks, and you could hire a small staff at good wages, so their advice would be good and things would be well run. You have state of the art filtration and access to whatever fish you want - wild, farmed, cheap, expensive, rare or common.

What fish would you prioritize? What non fish features would you prioritize?

I would have a small cafe as part of the set up. I'd go rainforest, with large African and South American sections, and a smaller Asian set up. My focus would be on shoalers, dwarf Cichlids, killies, and oddball small fish. There would be a steady arrival of the newly found fish, especially of tetras, which would be magically inexpensive. There's be no GMO, hybrid or linebred fish.

I would do a pleco shop. This would be probably 50 different tanks of L number plecos ranging from your standard Bristlenose to your Ancistrus bodenharmi which ever since @CassCats showed one on a thread I’ve wanted to try and get one. I would also sell some of the core popular fish mainly cichlids and tetras but maybe others. I wouldn’t include any glo fish as I can’t stand them and probably no monster fish(other than large plecos). I would have the plecos in breeding tanks to show the process and you can see the parents. I would also add conditions to keep the fish including max size, minimum tank size and temperature requirements.
I would also like to try and set up a fish club if I started a shop to go with it.

This is all theoretical, and would doubt I would ever set up a fish shop but have considered looking into working at one, just for the enjoyment and mainly because I enjoy social things and am a very extroverted person so would enjoy giving advice to new fishkeepers.

 

[Back in the fold]

You described a shop that we actually did have in my town at one time . Ben Birdsill’s The Tropical Shop . Ben used to write for FAMA so he may be familiar to some of you . I really, really , really miss that place . I would make my shop exactly like it . He had all the common fish but almost every variety of each common fish . He had at least six or eight varieties of Platy’s , Guppies , Swordtails and Mollies but his biggest thing was cichlids . He had Apistogramma’s and West African’s and South Americans and oddballs like mouthbreeders . Tetras like you’ve never seen - all of them . I never did see a Killifish in there but that was before I started paying attention to them so maybe I did . Yep , that’s what I would do , I’d have every single one of all the usual common fish and as many of their varieties as possible . He also had several very large display tanks with big fish in them and always had a tank going with a breeding pair of some kind of cichlid doing their thing . Anybody here ever see a pair of Jack Dempsey’s with their fry in a shop ? I have .
Oh , and one other thing . My shop wouldn’t have a phone and the parking lot would be hidden in the back so spouses couldn’t track you down .

 

[Innesfan]

Anybody here ever see a pair of Jack Dempsey’s with their fry in a shop ? I have .

Wow, I did a spit take with my coffee.

In the late fifties we moved from NYC to suburban Long Island. I was nine. Our new house was a short bicycle ride to The Woodbury Aquarium, a mom and pop shop. I had a paper route and some pocket change from deposit bottles I found in the neighborhood and spent all of both at this fine establishment. One day I saw in the big display tank in the front, a pair of Dempseys spawning. Weeks later, the grease pencil notation on the glass read: "Dempsey fry, 5/$1." Not knowing any better, I bought one. It turned out to be a male and lived until I got my first car -- 8 years--in a too small 20 long on my desk where I did my homework. He was a true pet. My mother would say, "that fish is more like a dog than a fish." So Woodbury, Long Island and (I assume) southern Montana offered the same experience.

 

[GaryE]

I like the hidden parking idea. I would go one further - underground parking. No sales receipts. Ex burglars (gone honest) trained by ninjas to deliver tanks in the wee hours. A network of tunnels, spidering out across town, all leading to the fish library and video centre elevators. It would be like a Dr Evil lair, only for aquarists who are good.
There would be stairs too, but in a fishstore, they could become a slippery slope.

 

[jaylach]

Leaving out my two favorites, which are Panda Garra and rope fish, I'd probably go with South American Cichlids.

Since we are throwing out working business forms I would make any potential customer pass an aptitude fish care test.