How to make a career from reefing?

[Miami Reef]

How can a person make a living involving reef tanks?

I think I would enjoy operating a fish disease/quarantine treatment facility but I’m not sure. How can someone work with fish/corals?

No judgement please.

 

[Pistondog]

How can a person make a living involving reef tanks?

I think I would enjoy operating a fish disease/quarantine treatment facility but I’m not sure. How can someone work with fish/corals?

No judgement please.

We have a couple of local people that maintain home reefs, maintenance.
One has opened a shop selling fish and corals.
Like many jobs, you might enjoy some aspects, but not others. If it's still a hobby, you can pick and choose. If it's your business, not so much.

 

[innovusaquaculture]

I'm currently helping a young man start a fish/coral LFS. It will take him several years to learn everything he needs to know from running a business to taking care of reef tanks. We are starting to QT fish for customers and developing the protocols he will use, growing coral, building systems, etc. He is learning business.

He is 19 years old. I am trying to be a mentor. I will invest in his store when he is ready to open.

 

[fish farmer]

Go to college, get a degree in sciences, aquaculture/fisheries/animal husbandry.

Apply for jobs in the industry or fisheries field, get experience, move up the ladder. I actually saw a few jobs posted with ORA not too long ago. I know places like Mote Marine in Sarasota have jobs once in awhile. None are these are specific to reef tanks, but an aquarium is an aquarium. Since you are in Miami....look to this local organization for leaders in the industry down there https://www.ftffa.com/ Maybe there are local fish farms/collectors you could work at to get experience. I seriously thought of tropical fish farming as a job in Florida a long time ago.

I know to work for private Aquariums you may need an AZA certification or something along those lines https://www.aza.org/?locale=en

 

[Opus]

How can a person make a living involving reef tanks?

I think I would enjoy operating a fish disease/quarantine treatment facility but I’m not sure. How can someone work with fish/corals?

No judgement please.

If you mean you investing in such an operation, it will be expensive and not lucrative. Quarantining takes weeks and weeks which means you have cash tied up in the operations, so slow overturn of your inventory. Most of the people I know that are doing it for money start out on the side growing corals. Fish are usually just too risky and take a lot of space to accommodate. You then have to build up your coral business by going to frag swaps and/or selling on facebook/band. Having a website with up to date inventory is also helpful but is time consuming. People today expect WYSIWYG so you have to photograph every coral you sell. Most seem to also ignore the legal requirements and don't collect sales tax when needed and like cash because then they can hide it from the IRS. Most of these guys tend to burn out within a couple of years or less. I've seen a couple locally that get tired of people constantly coming to their house to shop and open up their own shop.

 

[Jekyl]

Create a business as a dealer. Get in good with some wholesalers. Fill your basement with tanks and lighting. Tell the city you're not growing marijuana. Buy a ton of coral. Wait 6 months, sell frags, wait, frags, wait, frags etc.

 

[MaxTremors]

Get an education and move somewhere where this kind of career would be possible (ie one of the reef hobby hotspots in the country, or basically any fairly large city on the coast). It would really help if you specified what kind of job you’re looking for. Do you want to work in academia, the aquarium hobby (wholesale, retail, or distribution, livestock or equipment, sales or product development/engineering), zoology (public aquariums/zoos), aquaculture, conservation, etc. There are so many fields within the hobby and that are hobby adjacent, it really just depends on what you want to do. Having an education (either a marine biology, fisheries, zoology or some related/relevant degree) is incredibly helpful. Opening or working at an LFS is probably the easiest and most immediate way to work in the industry, but it generally doesn’t pay well. Perhaps one of the more lucrative and fairly easy ways to get started, though the ethics of it are debatable, is opening an online chop shop. Or the more ethical, but harder and less lucrative alternative of opening a coral farm/aquaculture facility and selling online. If you can source quality corals they will sell.

 

[BostonReefer300]

Jay Hemdal wrote an article (or book) on this exact topic. I believe he gives it away for free. I suggest you PM him to find out more

 

[innovusaquaculture]

Jay Hemdal wrote an article (or book) on this exact topic. I believe he gives it away for free. I suggest you PM him to find out more

If Jay wrote the book already, then it's the best guide you can get!

 

[Dolphins18]

I started in this hobby a while ago, and never anticipated it becoming a career, things just kind of happened - I am not content on it being a career as it is extremely intensive and devastating losses can be your entire livelihood. While it works out, I am only recently scaling up rapidly. The worst you think you can do is turn something you enjoy into a price tagging business.
I hate to say it but the maintenance circle is extremely saturated, and I would not consider that a career choice.
I found a back up in finance that worked for me, hoping that this (SW) can be my ultimate story. I'd be only hurting myself devoting myself to a career in this hobby without a backup.

 

[Jesminnovak]

One idea could be starting a fish disease/quarantine treatment facility. I once visited a local aquarium and was amazed by their quarantine protocols—it inspired me to explore similar avenues.