And if they couldn’t pass there should be a mandatory school to attend and they couldn’t buy anything except goldfish and mystery snails until they did pass .
If you had an aquarium store, what fish would you prioritize?
- Thread starter GaryE
- Start date
Yeah a Fish school (pun intended)
Apistogramma Lineata and Apistogramma D37 Indria and Apistogramma D39....
Non fish feature: little black box where we would enter the name of a fish we want next; in hope they would import it.
Non fish feature: little black box where we would enter the name of a fish we want next; in hope they would import it.
What do the letters and numbers stand for? Are there D36 and D38?
I guess I am a simple sort. I would have live bearers such as Lyre Tail Molly, Sailfin Molly, Swordtails such as green, yellow, and marbled, perhaps some Platy. Then various Pleco - Albino, Super Red for example. These for the newbies who are starting out.
Then Angels of course, rainbow, Discus, loach and Cory. Of course, other fish but not much, if any, in the way of exotic.
My store would be full of very basic fish, and I would cater to the people starting in the hobby. A very aggressive learning system would also be offered with weekly gab togethers.
Accouterments would be VERY LARGE show tanks with native species --- Indoor Brook with trout, river chub and flathead minnows, another with bass, (rock, large mouth and black), as well as moon tail, and walleye. A third with land locked salmon, rainbow trout, lake trout, Cisco, and Smelt.
A "river" would run through the store and connect to an outside series of ponds with KOI, goldfish and various minnows.
It would be fun, but I am too poor and much too old for such a thing.
Then Angels of course, rainbow, Discus, loach and Cory. Of course, other fish but not much, if any, in the way of exotic.
My store would be full of very basic fish, and I would cater to the people starting in the hobby. A very aggressive learning system would also be offered with weekly gab togethers.
Accouterments would be VERY LARGE show tanks with native species --- Indoor Brook with trout, river chub and flathead minnows, another with bass, (rock, large mouth and black), as well as moon tail, and walleye. A third with land locked salmon, rainbow trout, lake trout, Cisco, and Smelt.
A "river" would run through the store and connect to an outside series of ponds with KOI, goldfish and various minnows.
It would be fun, but I am too poor and much too old for such a thing.
fishorama
Fishaholic
I would sell only fish that could live in a 4ft tank at most. Strict rules of must buy 5 or 6 schoolers, cheaper by the dozen! Some rarer fish, lots of almost nano fish. I'd keep an availability list for my regular customs to order from, possibly w/a down payment. & I'd QT for a week or 2 but no guarantee beyond that. No telling what the customer's tank are actually like...
This a combination of all the good lfs I've known over many years.
This a combination of all the good lfs I've known over many years.
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
I never really answered the question. I would want first and foremost to sell healthy stock, not matter what the species. Beyond that I am not sure how I would want to go. I see most stores as falling into a few basic categories. The first decision is would the store sell FW, SW or both. Since I have never kept SW fish, I would probably go FW only but then I would also want to include live plants.
The next decision I would need to make would be an assessment of the nature of the customers in the area. Are they more budget conscious or more affluent. Are they likely to be on the less sophisticated side or are there a lot of fish nuts. One way I would want to keep a lot of the less expensive species but also a few of the rarer fish which would be a bit more expensive. These factors would also dictate the sort of hard goods and tank sizes I would want to stock.
Finally, how everything would work would depend on my budget. It is hard to manage inventory without considering financing. Basically, a fish store is a business and one needs to make money for things to work out OK. But if money were not a consideration I would want to have a huge store with as many different fish as possible. I would want to have the greatest assortment of equipment and medications.
Perhaps as important would be having an online operation where I would sell and ship anything I sold in the store.
I do not think I would concentrate on any species just because it interested me. What would be more important would be what I would not sell. First and foremost that would be glo-fish. Next would be monster fish. There are two main reasons for this. the first is they could only be stocked when young and small since big fish need big space and cost more to maintain as stock. This leads to the second reason . Not stocking such small sized big fish could never lead to their being bought by folks who have ni clue and might buy something they rally should not. One cannot sell what one does not have
I have worked with some rare fish over the years. I have had them breed and been able to sell them to other hobbyists. The one thing I have never done is sold them to stores. these fish should go to people who understand they are rare fish, may even be endangered and that keeping them should be done with the intention of trying to breed them.
I have softer water and in the neutral pH range. So I have never kept rift lake cichlids. I know very little about them. But If I had a store I would want to include them. I have only ever wanted to keep two angelfish- double dark blacks- a man maid strain and Altum Angels, a wild fish. I have kept both. But I would most certainly want to have a greater variety of angels in "my store."
I also would hole to have a staff that was well educated in a variety of areas. I would want to be able to refuse to sell things to people clearly not able to know how to care for them properly. I would want to offer advice on cycling for those who needed it. I would want to prevent people from buying fish they may not be able to provide for properly. I would want to be able to help customers learn and to improve their skills when possible. The best way to insure fish are treated properly is to insure their keepers know how to do this.
None of the above is really concerned so much with what I would species I would like to sell as much as it is concerned with how I would prefer to do it. The above attitude can be applied to anything for m the smallest store which has the most basic species to a a super store which offers it all.
The next decision I would need to make would be an assessment of the nature of the customers in the area. Are they more budget conscious or more affluent. Are they likely to be on the less sophisticated side or are there a lot of fish nuts. One way I would want to keep a lot of the less expensive species but also a few of the rarer fish which would be a bit more expensive. These factors would also dictate the sort of hard goods and tank sizes I would want to stock.
Finally, how everything would work would depend on my budget. It is hard to manage inventory without considering financing. Basically, a fish store is a business and one needs to make money for things to work out OK. But if money were not a consideration I would want to have a huge store with as many different fish as possible. I would want to have the greatest assortment of equipment and medications.
Perhaps as important would be having an online operation where I would sell and ship anything I sold in the store.
I do not think I would concentrate on any species just because it interested me. What would be more important would be what I would not sell. First and foremost that would be glo-fish. Next would be monster fish. There are two main reasons for this. the first is they could only be stocked when young and small since big fish need big space and cost more to maintain as stock. This leads to the second reason . Not stocking such small sized big fish could never lead to their being bought by folks who have ni clue and might buy something they rally should not. One cannot sell what one does not have
I have worked with some rare fish over the years. I have had them breed and been able to sell them to other hobbyists. The one thing I have never done is sold them to stores. these fish should go to people who understand they are rare fish, may even be endangered and that keeping them should be done with the intention of trying to breed them.
I have softer water and in the neutral pH range. So I have never kept rift lake cichlids. I know very little about them. But If I had a store I would want to include them. I have only ever wanted to keep two angelfish- double dark blacks- a man maid strain and Altum Angels, a wild fish. I have kept both. But I would most certainly want to have a greater variety of angels in "my store."
I also would hole to have a staff that was well educated in a variety of areas. I would want to be able to refuse to sell things to people clearly not able to know how to care for them properly. I would want to offer advice on cycling for those who needed it. I would want to prevent people from buying fish they may not be able to provide for properly. I would want to be able to help customers learn and to improve their skills when possible. The best way to insure fish are treated properly is to insure their keepers know how to do this.
None of the above is really concerned so much with what I would species I would like to sell as much as it is concerned with how I would prefer to do it. The above attitude can be applied to anything for m the smallest store which has the most basic species to a a super store which offers it all.
Just a naming convention by those who name things - and yes there is a d36 and d38.
OP
OP
The most important thing would be the people. I would want some very knowledgeable staff. It would be a store where if you asked a question, you got a grounded answer. They would be well paid to work there.
One section would hold the very overlooked west and Central African Cichlids. This is why I would go bankrupt, but they would be available there. Since it's a fantasy, many would be locally bred, and the other would be wild caught. The store would work with local fishers in the country of origin to support a sustainable source of income for them. No shareholders on the Singapore exchange would profit.
Near it would be other African rainforest fish. Characins, Phractura catfish, Synodontis, small barbs, lampeyes and other killies.
The South American section would have a wide range of tetras, only sold in groups of ten. I would have a number of straight out of Amazonia looking Apistogramma, with the mcmasteri, njisseni, cacatuoides and aggasizzii groups always represented by wild forms. There would be a lot of Cory group fish, and a wide range of catfish and oddballs.
For larger fish, the store would have a reputation for Geophagines. I would also stock wild type angels, and some interesting Cichlids for behaviour.
I would have a small Asian section, and a small Lake Tanganyika section. The Tangas would be my hardwater section, which would also have near it wild type swordtails, platys, and mollies and livebearer oddballs. There would be softwater livebearers with the Amazon fish.
This thought experiment was inspired by going to garden centres. There would be many many more avid aquarists out there in the city around my magical fish centre, otherwise, an uncommon species centre would be doomed. I would have a co-op working with me - aquarium keepers who would be set up to breed certain species for the store, with a guaranteed market and broodstock coordinated through the store/co-op. Some central European wholesalers have worked with that model in the past. I would also steal an idea from a store in Montreal that used to have a very low tech cellar that mirrored the store, with a large number of tanks for quarantine and rotation.
It's a fantasy. Such a store would require a lot of capital, and wouldn't have a sea to swim in. With well over 300 million people, the USA supports a few scattered rare fish stores that barely survive. The hobby is declining, and the economy is getting much much worse for working people, so a hobby that depends on disposable income isn't going to grow here. But we can dream.
One section would hold the very overlooked west and Central African Cichlids. This is why I would go bankrupt, but they would be available there. Since it's a fantasy, many would be locally bred, and the other would be wild caught. The store would work with local fishers in the country of origin to support a sustainable source of income for them. No shareholders on the Singapore exchange would profit.
Near it would be other African rainforest fish. Characins, Phractura catfish, Synodontis, small barbs, lampeyes and other killies.
The South American section would have a wide range of tetras, only sold in groups of ten. I would have a number of straight out of Amazonia looking Apistogramma, with the mcmasteri, njisseni, cacatuoides and aggasizzii groups always represented by wild forms. There would be a lot of Cory group fish, and a wide range of catfish and oddballs.
For larger fish, the store would have a reputation for Geophagines. I would also stock wild type angels, and some interesting Cichlids for behaviour.
I would have a small Asian section, and a small Lake Tanganyika section. The Tangas would be my hardwater section, which would also have near it wild type swordtails, platys, and mollies and livebearer oddballs. There would be softwater livebearers with the Amazon fish.
This thought experiment was inspired by going to garden centres. There would be many many more avid aquarists out there in the city around my magical fish centre, otherwise, an uncommon species centre would be doomed. I would have a co-op working with me - aquarium keepers who would be set up to breed certain species for the store, with a guaranteed market and broodstock coordinated through the store/co-op. Some central European wholesalers have worked with that model in the past. I would also steal an idea from a store in Montreal that used to have a very low tech cellar that mirrored the store, with a large number of tanks for quarantine and rotation.
It's a fantasy. Such a store would require a lot of capital, and wouldn't have a sea to swim in. With well over 300 million people, the USA supports a few scattered rare fish stores that barely survive. The hobby is declining, and the economy is getting much much worse for working people, so a hobby that depends on disposable income isn't going to grow here. But we can dream.
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Since it's all fictional and would probably crash, but...
I would align 50-100 ten gallons tank and try to breed the most expensive Caridina in the world.
From 300$ to 500$ per shrimp would be good, so 3000$ to 6000$ a dozen.
I would align 50-100 ten gallons tank and try to breed the most expensive Caridina in the world.
From 300$ to 500$ per shrimp would be good, so 3000$ to 6000$ a dozen.
Not the goldfish in my store. They will require pristine water conditions and expert care. So how about limiting them to mystery snalis and moss balls.
Yes , much better idea .
OP
OP
I wouldn't be allowed in your store? Gee.Maybe they should demonstrate they can grow plants before they can add fish
WhistlingBadger
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Making a living means giving customers what they want. Feeling good about ourselves means going to reasonable lengths to ensure that customers will (or at least have the knowledge to) give the fish what they want. It could be pretty hard to do both, but shouldn't be completely impossible.
My fish store would mostly deal in fish that can thrive in a 55g or smaller. Only one variety/species of fish per tank, with prominently displayed info about their care. Minimum purchase for schoolers, unless I know the customer already has a bunch. (This is something that bothers me about TWS and other online retailers with minimum purchases. I get the intent, but what if I already have a bunch, lost a few to an accident, and just want a couple more to round out the school?) I would try to engage prospective fish keepers in conversation about their intended fish. Larger fish available by special order only.
For the making a living part, I'd mostly stock hardy, colorful, interesting fish that are fairly difficult to kill. I suspect those are the ones that pay your bills. Keeping adaptable, smallish-tank-oriented fish would solve a lot of problems.
My fish store would mostly deal in fish that can thrive in a 55g or smaller. Only one variety/species of fish per tank, with prominently displayed info about their care. Minimum purchase for schoolers, unless I know the customer already has a bunch. (This is something that bothers me about TWS and other online retailers with minimum purchases. I get the intent, but what if I already have a bunch, lost a few to an accident, and just want a couple more to round out the school?) I would try to engage prospective fish keepers in conversation about their intended fish. Larger fish available by special order only.
For the making a living part, I'd mostly stock hardy, colorful, interesting fish that are fairly difficult to kill. I suspect those are the ones that pay your bills. Keeping adaptable, smallish-tank-oriented fish would solve a lot of problems.
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