Starting up my small aquatic plant business, this is the journal.

[OliveFish05]

It's easy to separate Duckweed from most other plants. Simply hold the plant underwater and gently wriggle it. The Duckweed will come out and float to the surface.

And if it's to sell, just send the cuttings out with a bit of Duckweed on it.

hmmmm I’ll try it with some cuttings. I was looking on some of my preferred plant sellers sites and a lot of them have stopped selling a variety of the plants I am looking for. It could be that they’re sold out because they sell really well, or they stopped because there was not enough demand. Several of them, I already have.


Since this is a journal after all, I will post a pic of my space tomorrow! It’s a little clearing behind my garage. The plan is to set up some kind of aquaponics thing on the wall to utilize the vertical space. I’m going to grow some kale, spinach, strawberries, abd raspberries and try to propagate some spider plants and monstera cuttings. Then I’m going to have my stock tanks with fish and aquatic plants, and my wading pools with floating plants.

 

[Lynnzer]

I have no idea! I’ve been gone for two weeks, but @connorlindeman last I checked the hygrophila polysperma was choking it out… I moved some to floating not long before I left so I’ll be checking tonight how it did while I was away.


Anyone ever go through a random box of junk you packed up out of sight and out of mind months back and find a surprising amount of cash you forgot about? Well I did. I found $100 stashed in my closet from 3 years ago, we had some sketchy family visiting so I had hidden it. Now I know $100 isn’t much in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a good amount to buy some wading pools and stock tanks and new plants for my little business!

I think I’ve decided to just buy new plants instead of hassle with my duckweed infested ones from my tanks. I’m working on pricing right now. I’d like to have a 40 gallon stock tank with Pygmy sunfish and another with some neat strain of guppies. My LFS would absolutely be in the market for buying Pygmy sunfish. Considering the way they price things and what they pay for their stock, I expect I’d get at least $3 a piece for the sunfish and $1.50 for the guppies. That’s if I don’t want to deal with shipping.

$100? Hows about £1000.
My wife put an envelope with a thousand pounds in a safe place about 3 years ago. She has dementia although at that time it didn't manifest itself much.
Never found the cash again....... and the dementia is really going strong now. She even forgot she doesn't like fish tanks all over the house. Grumbled when I only had one but now I have seven. Well, I need a hobby I can do while at home as I just daren't leave her on her own.

 

[Colin_T]

Hey @OliveFish05, any updates on your plant hobby?

 

[Rocky998]

Hey @OliveFish05, any updates on your plant hobby?

She sadly had to leave the forum for a personal reason

 

[Colin_T]

She sadly had to leave the forum for a personal reason

when?

that's really disappointing. I hope she comes back to visit once in a while.

 

[Rocky998]

when?

that's really disappointing. I hope she comes back to visit once in a while.

Last month sometime I believe. I'll check my pms cause I forget as well.
I hope she does to.

 

[MetroPlecs]

She sadly had to leave the forum for a personal reason

Oh no! I was going to congratulate her and wish her luck with her new venture and see how it was coming along. Sorry to hear that.

 

[anewbie]

To be honest she would have done much better with a better selection of plants; for example various species of nurii rosen sell for quite a bit yet i have like 50 to 100 of them growing wild in one of my (non co2) aquarium. This comment is really being made as advice for those who try to do the same thing - but in this case as an example nurii rosen can sell for $20 to $40 a plant depending on species, size and how much buyers are willing to pay; duckweed? Well that I'll pay a to rent a gold fish to get rid of the stuff for me.

The point is too look for high value easy to manage items to sell. As for my nurii - i'm too lazy to figure out what to do with them right now. I rather focus on raising my winkies.

 

[tiwali]

Some plants that you could grow for big profits are plants like Hydrocotyle tripartita that at the fish store sells for $7-10 and just a tiny 3-4 sprigs rooted in rockwool. I put mine in a jar outdoors and its growing pretty well considering its February. Easy and fast grower in or out of water I bet. Same for Monte Carlo,Hygrophila pinnatifida as expensive to buy and grow fast out of water.
Others like Anubias? I see as really slow growers but I saw Anubias nana at a store for $10 and it was just like three leaves..3 small leaves for that price. If you can get them up in production,they always sell.
One big profit maker if you have Co2 is Bolbitis. That plant is always in the $20 range and then add shipping to hobbyists who want one. Get it on Co2 and the lighting does not have to be anything special. That's the crazy thing about that fern. But, it is very sensitive to low CO2 in the average aquarium, and that's where it starts to die off. If you're experiencing issues with this, you might want to reach a company via pissed consumer to get advice or assistance. I don't have CO2- but I do aim pump water at it and use the vortex of a powerhead and that has helped. You get that growing thick and you can retire.

Hi everyone,
I'm starting a maintenance business for freshwater systems and am looking to create a terms of service form to further protect myself (on top of my public liability insurance). I want to cover things like ensuring customers are responsible for their fish outside of my scheduled visits, and making it clear that I won't be held liable for any equipment failures, such as heaters, filters, or tanks, though I’m happy to help with any issues that arise. Additionally, I want to specify that service appointments will only be scheduled when a household member is available to be present for the entire duration.

 

[Rambomonkey]

For a quick win, start by researching your top three buyer personas and map out the specific keywords they’re searching. Then, apply those terms to your homepage title tags and meta descriptions to boost your organic visibility immediately

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Selling plants is a tough business. They take up space, need to be care for pretty much all the time. I was a serious plant keeper for at least a decade. I even had pressurized CO2 in one tank and there was nothing I could not grow well in that tank. I also was selling the bristenose plecos with which I was being over run. I lost money on every one I sold and the final spawn was over 100 eggs.

Then I wised up. Since then, I have maintained 20 years from 5.5 to 150 gallons year round and during the summer would have 8 more seasonal tanks. By finding the right fish to breed I can report that my hobby has cost me $0 going back to day one. It has also allowed me to attend weekend fish events as either a vendor or room seller. Usually at these if I am lucky I break even but the promotional value has made them pay off down the road.

The one caveat with it all is that the initial outlay to reach that point was at least $10k. My success began when I acquired a proveb breeding colony of zebra plecos in Apr. 2015. They began spawning for me in under 3 weeks. But they also cost me so much that I had to break into my IRA to pay for them.

Please understand that this may make it sound like it was an easy thing to do. It took me 6 years of learning how to keep fish before I even tried. Had I failed to get them breeding it would have cost me a lot of money. I also happen to have well water which is very condusive to keeping and breeding softer water fish. I often tell people that it contains a natural fish aphrodisiac. Tp be honest it took a combination of factors to allow me to have found a way for me to make my hobby pay for itself. None of the above has revealed how many hours of learning and then how much time it took to succeed.

I was about to turn 53 a few months after I set up my first tank. I had also moved from the work force to caring for elderly parents some years before. This care became increasingly more full time. I had to take over caring for my parents basically managing all their finances, there home and their health care. Since I had never married I was able to move into their home and devote myself to it all. It also allowed me to me to go from 1 to 20+ tanks.

So, if you are thinking of selling fish and/or plants, understand it it not an easy way to pay for your hobby let alone make to even a bit of profit. Early on I realized I could never keep all of the fish and plants which I would like to have. So I investigated the idea of opening a store. My goal in doing so was simple. I did not care if a store never made me any money personally. My only requirement was that it did not lose me my initial investment nor even more to keep it going. No matter how I worked the numbers I could never figure out a way to guarantee I wold break even and I never opened a store.

One last note on all of the above. I am a bit of a privacy nut. I am not registered on any social media and I do not have a web site. Nor do I own a smart phone. What I do have is an excellent reputation for the fish I bred and for the quality of what I offered. My prices were also reasonable. People who want few the rare species I have kept have managed to find me. Word or mouth and the weekend events seem to have been enough. And so has the luck factor. I use the past tense as I have been ramping down for the past few years and will have fewer than 10 tanks withing a year. Old age gets us all in the long run.

Fortunately, I did ultimately did luck into a way to make my hobby pay for itself. More importantly. it has given me many years of joy to be able to have done things the way I did. What did it was managing to buy more expensive species and then to have managed to have them breed in my tanks. It also allowed to me to meet a lot of good folks. This includes some of the worlds well known fish experts and some really nice fish keepers who shared my addiction. In the end, the most important part of keeping fish is that it makes one happy.

 

[Rambomonkey]

Selling plants is a tough business. They take up space, need to be care for pretty much all the time. I was a serious plant keeper for at least a decade. I even had pressurized CO2 in one tank and there was nothing I could not grow well in that tank. I also was selling the bristenose plecos with which I was being over run. I lost money on every one I sold and the final spawn was over 100 eggs.

Then I wised up. Since then, I have maintained 20 years from 5.5 to 150 gallons year round and during the summer would have 8 more seasonal tanks. By finding the right fish to breed I can report that my hobby has cost me $0 going back to day one. It has also allowed me to attend weekend fish events as either a vendor or room seller. Usually at these if I am lucky I break even but the promotional value has made them pay off down the road.

The one caveat with it all is that the initial outlay to reach that point was at least $10k. My success began when I acquired a proveb breeding colony of zebra plecos in Apr. 2015. They began spawning for me in under 3 weeks. But they also cost me so much that I had to break into my IRA to pay for them.

Please understand that this may make it sound like it was an easy thing to do. It took me 6 years of learning how to keep fish before I even tried. Had I failed to get them breeding it would have cost me a lot of money. I also happen to have well water which is very condusive to keeping and breeding softer water fish. I often tell people that it contains a natural fish aphrodisiac. Tp be honest it took a combination of factors to allow me to have found a way for me to make my hobby pay for itself. None of the above has revealed how many hours of learning and then how much time it took to succeed.

I was about to turn 53 a few months after I set up my first tank. I had also moved from the work force to caring for elderly parents some years before. This care became increasingly more full time. I had to take over caring for my parents basically managing all their finances, there home and their health care. Since I had never married I was able to move into their home and devote myself to it all. It also allowed me to me to go from 1 to 20+ tanks.

So, if you are thinking of selling fish and/or plants, understand it it not an easy way to pay for your hobby let alone make to even a bit of profit. Early on I realized I could never keep all of the fish and plants which I would like to have. So I investigated the idea of opening a store. My goal in doing so was simple. I did not care if a store never made me any money personally. My only requirement was that it did not lose me my initial investment nor even more to keep it going. No matter how I worked the numbers I could never figure out a way to guarantee I wold break even and I never opened a store.

One last note on all of the above. I am a bit of a privacy nut. I am not registered on any social media and I do not have a web site. Nor do I own a smart phone. What I do have is an excellent reputation for the fish I bred and for the quality of what I offered. My prices were also reasonable. People who want few the rare species I have kept have managed to find me. Word or mouth and the weekend events seem to have been enough. And so has the luck factor. I use the past tense as I have been ramping down for the past few years and will have fewer than 10 tanks withing a year. Old age gets us all in the long run.

Fortunately, I did ultimately did luck into a way to make my hobby pay for itself. More importantly. it has given me many years of joy to be able to have done things the way I did. What did it was managing to buy more expensive species and then to have managed to have them breed in my tanks. It also allowed to me to meet a lot of good folks. This includes some of the worlds well known fish experts and some really nice fish keepers who shared my addiction. In the end, the most important part of keeping fish is that it makes one happy.

Since you've thrived without social media or a smartphone, the takeaway for others might be: credibility first, distribution second. Still, in 2025, buyers start with Google. A clean listing, a few honest reviews that mention the species by name, and a simple availability page can pull in the same "word of mouth" but at scale. If building that feels outside your comfort zone, handing it to Fortress is a low-drama way to make sure the folks looking for what you breed can actually find you, so the hobby funds itself rather than the other way around.

 

[GaryE]

@Rambomonkey - out of curiosity, are you using AI to write? Nothing personal, but the writing style is google-ish. You're responding to posts you've read, but you read like AI writing. People can start with a lot more than one corporation (google) and this looks suspiciously like slick spam. Am I misreading you?

 

[connorlindeman]

AI posters should be banned. There's no excuse for posting AI slop.

 

[GaryE]

We're discussing in an old, dead thread, but let's see what we see. Using AI isn't against the current rules we agree to when we join.