make money off hobby

[Jeremy837]

Hello I just wanted to know if any of you big reefers has made money off the hobby by fraging, breeding, anemone breeding? if so could you give me details like how big of a tank you used, how you sell them, what kind you find work the best, and maybe if you wouldent mind how much you have made, not exact just like a few hundred a month or a few thousand a year. any information is appreciated, thank you.

[gone fishin]

Never made any money but I have gave away my fair share of frags though

[Jeremy837]

did you give them away or did you trade them?

[jamie1981]

Well ask most seasoned hobbyist,

How do you make $1 Million growing corals????

Answer, Start with $2 Million

[gone fishin]

Traded a few times but mostly gave some to new folks starting out. I also received quite a few when I started out.

I have taken some frags to my LFS for credit or trade on other coral or fish.

[avoidtheboyd]

I'm sure some people have made decent money off of corals but anything used to make money in a hobby like this takes time and generally a large startup. Example you either A. have to grow out a colony to frag off of which can take quite a long time or B. buy an established colony to frag out which depending on the coral can be insanely expensive.

[jamie1981]

If your just getting started keep it as a hobby then and only when you are successful at that consider what you may be able to do as a business. FYI any hobby that you make a profit at is considered a business by the IRS and taxes are legally supposed to be paid on any profits you make.

[Reef Frog]

Most reefers who sell stuff are simply defraying the cost of the hobby, not actually "making a profit".

Even if they are making s profit, it's usually quite modest. And if they were to value their time at even $10 per hour and plugged that into a profit/loss statement, almost all would be losing money. But there are probably exceptions.

[kmbyrnes]

HAH! I just try to make sure that I don't spend my last $20 until the day before payday.

[chimmike]

I know someone breeding expensive rare clowns making some money, but he has an elaborate setup in his garage made for breeding, and the original pair of clowns cost like $2k. I think the break even point is a blur, haha.

[ryeguyy84]

I'd say I make 1,000 to 1,500 a year in frag sales in my spare time. I keep that in my paypal account and use it for tank related costs. My wife can't say anything because the tank is self sustained

[billdogg]

I try to offset some of the expenses but am probably like 10,000 years away from turning a profit

[Dkuhlmann]

There's nothing worse than turning your enjoyable hobby into a JOB!

[Sk8r]

One hobbyist in a city of 300,000 with a large hammer coral can pretty well run out of places to dispose of the spares. [Reproduces pretty fast when it gets up to colony size.] You can saturate all the stores and all the tank owners within a year or so, since not everybody has a marine tank and not all who do want stony and not all who want stony want hammer. If you were producing for a shipper, maybe you could make something, but mine just defrayed food and salt costs for a while.

[albano]

Originally Posted by Jeremy837

Hello I just wanted to know if any of you big reefers has made money off the hobby by fraging, breeding, anemone breeding? ...

Forget that...if you can make a few $ to cover some aquarium expenses, you're doing great...

[WaReefer458]

Originally Posted by Dkuhlmann

There's nothing worse than turning your enjoyable hobby into a JOB!

that is the exact reason why you will find most people who own a LFS, dont have a tank at home...

[WaReefer458]

if you are planning on the hobby becoming lucrative, you will need so much floor space for tanks and filtration, you will most likely end up purchasing a building to do it... Once this happens, you officially have overhead that has to be paid. This is a hobby and if you are planning on trying to turn a profit, there will be so much upfront cost that you will most likely take years to pay yourself back before you even think of it as a source of income.... but thats just one guys opinion

[Reef Frog]

Originally Posted by Dkuhlmann

There's nothing worse than turning your enjoyable hobby into a JOB!

So true. Been there, done that.

FROM WAreefer
that is the exact reason why you will find most people who own a LFS, dont have a tank at home...

That describes the owner of at least one LFS proprietor in my town. At home, no fish, no tanks, no pet of any kind. I don't think he even owns a potted plant. He's been in business since the early 1980s. He's burned out but still runs a decent store. He does have display tanks there, but they're always in a state of flux so he never has any experience in the long term ownership experience.

But his knowledge base is ancient and obsolete in many cases. He gives out poor advice sometimes as a result. Few if any experienced, high end aquarists are going to rely on him for the high dollar stuff in this Internet economy because because he no longer has value to add.

It's like a few new car dealers I know. They have driven brand new, perfect cars all their lives. They get new ones every 7000 miles. They can get out of touch with the average consumer, the little guy who needs to take his daily driver 250K miles. Never paid for an oil change, never been inside an independent shop, never bought new tires or new brakes. Therefore they don't understand the zeitgeist of their service customer base. They miss opportunities as a result. I was once driving on a golf trip with these folks and they couldn't change s flat tire efficiently!

[Dkuhlmann]

Originally Posted by WaReefer458

if you are planning on the hobby becoming lucrative, you will need so much floor space for tanks and filtration, you will most likely end up purchasing a building to do it... Once this happens, you officially have overhead that has to be paid. This is a hobby and if you are planning on trying to turn a profit, there will be so much upfront cost that you will most likely take years to pay yourself back before you even think of it as a source of income.... but thats just one guys opinion

Why would I have to do all of that? If I were to go into the business I would simply drop ship from Quality Marine, as well as a supplier of all other non live products and have an office in my home with a kick butt website. No need for a brick and mortar business anymore.

GO BIG OR GO HOME!

[WaReefer458]

Originally Posted by Dkuhlmann

Why would I have to do all of that? If I were to go into the business I would simply drop ship from Quality Marine, as well as a supplier of all other non live products and have an office in my home with a kick butt website. No need for a brick and mortar business anymore.

GO BIG OR GO HOME!

He asked about fragging and breeding. Anyone can become a wholesale dealer.