My LFS is Now Calling ME!

[Schmorty]

Just wanted to share a success story.

I brought in some fancy guppies from Twin Cities Guppies almost a year ago with the intent of doing fish for profit, inspired by Cory's series. My area had a dearth of quality guppies, seemingly because all the local breeders had moved on to other live-bearers and cichlids, so I decided to go for it in my 40 gallon. 

I've definitely diverged from Cory's advice by going specific strain as opposed to nice mutts, and I'm doing it in a much bigger tank than a 10 or 20, but apparently I've hit the market right.

I've only been selling them to my store for the last three months, and just today they've called asking me for more, apparently demand is through the roof. The last time I delivered, I sold them 30 fish and they were sold out within a week. I'm actually running up to the point we're I don't know if I can keep up with the volume, which is an exciting problem to run into.

I understand this might be a boom and bust scenario, and I'm okay with that; I'm very patient, and I've got some other breeding projects in the works to take its place. It's just really gratifying to have the fish store call you instead of the typical other way around, and I wanted to share that mark of success with you all.

Thanks for all the support and tips!

(The thumbnail is one of my juveniles)

Edited May 21, 2021 by Schmorty

[Fish Folk]

Awesome!! Congratulations. This is how it should be: guppies raised in local water, sold to local customers with the same water. Same story for us... but we sold out too fast! 😂

[sudofish]

That's awesome. Always nice to have some money coming IN from the hobby and not always be going out lol.

[JettsPapa]

Congratulations.   I have a similar situation with pearl weed.  I can't grow it as fast as they can sell it.

[lefty o]

sounds like a good situation, just dont over sell and deplete  too much of the breeders.

[Lemon]

congratulations my lfs bought some salvinia from me for the first time 🙂

[Griznatch]

Congratulations! Success stories always make my day, thanks for sharing.

[Chris45]

How much do you sell them for?

Edited May 25, 2021 by Chris45

[Cory]

No pictures of the guppies/setup? you're killin me 😛

[Schmorty]

On 5/25/2021 at 11:07 AM, Chris45 said:

How much do you sell them for?

My store does 1/2 sale price in store credit or 1/3 sale price in cash. In my smaller batches, I was selling them for $2.50 to $3.00 in store credit as they increased the price in response to demand.

It turns out my worries of being unable to produce enough to meet demand were unfounded, because I went overzealous with the net this round and caught 90 fish for them this round, which was almost double what I had intended. Since I already had them bagged, I reduced the price to $1.80 since the store was willing to take so many right before the summer slow down.

[Schmorty]

Hi Cory!

Sorry I didn't share any photos, I didn't think people would be that interested, and it's not exactly a pretty setup. So, it's a 40 Breeder with hornwort and water wysteria growing inside and pothos and lucky bamboo growing out the back. The fish inside are dumbo red mosaic guppies and a group of juvenile lemon blue-eye bristlenose plecos that I'm raising up to breed alongside them. I would have done super reds, but there's already a local breeder that my store works with, and I didn't want to compete with him.

As far as hardscape, I wanted to play around with a tile bottom, using terracotta pots for the wysteria and lucky bamboo to root in. I thought it'd be easier to clean, and it was until I had a hundred guppy fry with no fear of the siphon. Combine that with the density of pots I put in, and now it's just mulm city. I also ran into issues of pH crashing, so I've got a couple filter bags of crushed coral sitting in the corners, and that's helped a bunch. Finally, there's some cholla wood and a hunk of driftwood for the plecos to rasp on and hide around, as well as a few Aquarium Co-op Pleco caves ready and waiting for when they start breeding.

 

P.S. I'm realizing as I go through my camera roll, I don't have any good photos of the setup as a whole since it's grown in. Once I get home I'll snap a few photos and add to the thread.

[rastamon34]

simple setups sometimes work best!^

[DSH OUTDOORS]

Congrats on the success from a fellow Minnesotan (North Metro).  This encourages me to keep going with my breeding projects started in January.  Good luck through the summer slow down and keep it up!

[Schmorty]

20 minutes ago, DSH OUTDOORS said:

Congrats on the success from a fellow Minnesotan (North Metro).  This encourages me to keep going with my breeding projects started in January.  Good luck through the summer slow down and keep it up!

Thank you. Yes it takes time and patience. I got the plecos in June 2020 as babies, and they're still not breeding age yet. And I shipped in the guppies in September 2020, lost the male in quarantine, and wasn't ready to start selling until March 2021. Best of luck with your projects! I hope they bring you even more success than the taste of success I've gotten.

Also, I should note that I'm not a Minnesotan. I ordered my original pair of guppies from Twin Cities Guppies, which is based in Minnesota as the name implies. I'm a Coloradan. 

[Schmorty]

On 5/25/2021 at 11:21 AM, Cory said:

No pictures of the guppies/setup? you're killin me 😛

Alright, as promised, here's some photos of the setup. I forgot to add that my filtration consists of an old 206 canister filter that I had left over from my first tank with a spray bar and intake sponge, as well as a couple co-op sponge filters to add some extra surface agitation and gas exchange. In the front left corner is my solution to doing water changes without sucking up babies. It's a pump I got from PetSmart that is designed to dump out over the edge. I threw on a small intake sponge on it and it works surprisingly great.

[demicent]

No such thing as too many guppy photos! Your setup is interesting and informative.   The one lfs I talked to said they would do me the favor of taking any fish I bred, with a hearty thank you as my reward.  I've been foisting my extras off on fish club people.

[Georgiapeach88]

@Schmorty @Cory
I’ve had my eye on some new guppy babies. I’ve never had guppies. And as a precaution to possibilities of to many. I did chat with my local fish store since they have the same ol typical ones PetSmart and petco have. I had been looking at totally different strains from tx, az and of course twin cities. For some variety. The one shop person I chatted with said owner don’t like giving Credit for fish however the gentlemen who I’ve seen many times and chatted with. She’s maid he had no problem giving 1$ per fish store credit. If the strains were good and true. So gives me hope of maybe getting my tanks that good and getting a fun community of guppies going. 😁has me totally excited to think about something else other than work all the time. Definitely relaxing. Ok Cory now let’s see some more pic of your guppies 😁 I’m totally falling for guppies thanks to all your posts and videos. As a new fish keeper for first time ever. I never knew so many fresh water fish could be so colorful 

Edited June 16, 2021 by Georgiapeach88
Forgot to tag people

[Georgiapeach88]

Do you have to use a breeder 40 gal or is that just recommended. I have a 36 gallon with some corydoras atm they are my only fish in there for now. It was originally going to be my community tank with hillstream loaches, corydora albino, a schooling fish of some sort pretty set on guppies as I like movement and colors. And neo cardinia shrimp. But now I’m debating changing all that if I decide to breed the guppy’s to sealable level. So many options. Idk if my family will allow another lg tank 😂 but I might be able to persuade with possibilities of selling them 😁

[Schmorty]

On 6/16/2021 at 4:11 AM, Georgiapeach88 said:

Do you have to use a breeder 40 gal or is that just recommended. I have a 36 gallon with some corydoras atm they are my only fish in there for now. It was originally going to be my community tank with hillstream loaches, corydora albino, a schooling fish of some sort pretty set on guppies as I like movement and colors. And neo cardinia shrimp. But now I’m debating changing all that if I decide to breed the guppy’s to sealable level. So many options. Idk if my family will allow another lg tank 😂 but I might be able to persuade with possibilities of selling them 😁

@Georgiapeach88 You definitely don't have to use a 40 gallon breeder. In fact, I think my 40B is arguably too big for breeding guppies for profit. I'm definitely overproducing for what my local store can sell, at least now that we are in my area's slow season. Most people are able to make a guppy-producing tank out of 10s and 20s and can maintain a sustainable, sellable population. In theory, the bigger tank is more stable and easier, but in my experience, I've definitely crashed the pH, spiked nitrates, and swung who knows what other parameters in this 40 gallon when it gets full of hundreds of guppies, and I'm not exaggerating that number. If I could do it over, I'd do this in a smaller tank or put in a divider and do guppies on one side and some other fish on the other.

If I was in your shoes, I'd keep your plans for that 36 as your community display tank. I'd start with a ten gallon with one strain of guppies and see how you do as a breeder. If you have success selling, then start to slowly expand and get more strains and more tanks.

If you haven't already, check out Cory's fish-for-profit series on YouTube that I've linked in this post. They're long videos, but they're full of great information on how to find success. I've definitely deviated from them somewhat, but they're what's behind my success.

 

[ARMYVET]

On 6/16/2021 at 1:12 PM, Schmorty said:

I think my 40B is arguably too big for breeding guppies for profit.

Wait till my breeding trio hits the 150 Gallon pond ....oye vey😨😱🤣

[Georgiapeach88]

On 6/16/2021 at 1:12 PM, Schmorty said:

@Georgiapeach88 You definitely don't have to use a 40 gallon breeder. In fact, I think my 40B is arguably too big for breeding guppies for profit. I'm definitely overproducing for what my local store can sell, at least now that we are in my area's slow season. Most people are able to make a guppy-producing tank out of 10s and 20s and can maintain a sustainable, sellable population. In theory, the bigger tank is more stable and easier, but in my experience, I've definitely crashed the pH, spiked nitrates, and swung who knows what other parameters in this 40 gallon when it gets full of hundreds of guppies, and I'm not exaggerating that number. If I could do it over, I'd do this in a smaller tank or put in a divider and do guppies on one side and some other fish on the other.

If I was in your shoes, I'd keep your plans for that 36 as your community display tank. I'd start with a ten gallon with one strain of guppies and see how you do as a breeder. If you have success selling, then start to slowly expand and get more strains and more tanks.

If you haven't already, check out Cory's fish-for-profit series on YouTube that I've linked in this post. They're long videos, but they're full of great information on how to find success. I've definitely deviated from them somewhat, but they're what's behind my success.

 

Thank you!  I love corys videos and watch as many as I can in last two months to learn all I can. I appreciate the first hand experience and will keep all that in mind.