Do you earn money from this hobby? If so, how much? I was wondering about this the other day. What if I frag my corals/breed some easy peasy fish and deliver them to buyers? The money comes out of it won't be much of course, but it sounds fun to do in my spare time. Also some extra $ for beer in the weekends is a plus.
Do you make money out of the hobby and how much?
- Thread starter dani5
- Start date
- Tagged users None
BantyRooster97
Valuable Member
I make enough to buy more stuff. Never ending cycle. LOL
CookieRdReef
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2020
- Messages
- 512
- Reaction score
- 877
If a penny saved is a penny earned then I make a ton of money everytime I resist buying corals online or lfs trips.
Everything Aquatics
Well-Known Member
I started my tank a few months ago and I am constantly loosing money at this point
footgal
5000 Club Member
I frag EVERYTHING. Acros, clove, zoas Xenia make up the bulk of my sales. Even though I do lower end stuff, I’ve made about $600 in the past three months. I feel like the fact my anemone has started to split really bumps up this number though. Selling larger frags for fair prices and doing pack deals is the way to go. I do a full frag plug of Xenia for $20 if they meet me at my house for pick up, and I’ve got enough Xenia to harvest this much 1x a week forever. The trick is the first time you have to harvest 2x in one week, let the first frag attach to the plug and have the second one attaching while you sell the first one so there’s always at least one for sale. WWC clove is also really good to sell, you can sell it 1/2 price than what you see on WWC’s website and make an absolute killing because everybody knows WWC and I’ve had people drive 2 hrs for a frag of the stuff. 3 different varieties of WWC clove, $45 for a 4 polyp frag and they grow like weeds, occasionally I have to auction off a colony piece just so I don’t have to throw some in the trash! Selling coral frags is a great business if you happen to be in a place with a lot of reefers, if you’re not then selling to the LFS is good too 
. Make consignment sales/store credit and you usually get a decent value
. Make consignment sales/store credit and you usually get a decent value
amps
Active Member
I design and make 3D printed reefing equipment, lots of power management and safety stuff for powerheads and pumps. So far it's going ok but nearly every dollar I make I put back into my tanks. I have one retailer that sells a few of my pieces and I just trade him for store credit mostly.
Flippers4pups
Fins up since 1993
I've been known to sell some frags from time to time to local reefers.
ScottR
Surfing....
I know many people that sell $100 worth of corals a week. Mostly fragging and/or importing. I’ve done it myself a few times. I’ve never seen a coral that didn’t sell. People are willing to buy anything from plain acros to xenia. Zoas usually are the money makers as they grow fast and many people like collecting the never ending types there is out there. Zoa packs seems to be the hot thing now. Maybe 3-4 types for $50.
Tired
2500 Club Member
Fish breeding isn't going to run you a profit. Maybe you get more money than you spent on food and supplies, but your time is also a cost. You could try to breed something super rare, but then you'd have even more time and supplies invested in it, because something being really rare means it's not easy to breed.
If you have corals that are spreading enough to be fragged and sold, do it. A bit of extra feeding might get them to grow faster, depending on what they are.
If you could get ultra RFAs breeding, you might make some decent money. Those are and always will be in demand.
Fancy-looking zoas are still semi-trendy, but I think there will always be some demand for the pretty stuff. Just don't buy some new, trending, $200-a-polyp zoa expecting to profit off of it.
USPS is having a lot of trouble right now, but if it hopefully gets back on its feet at some point, shipping isn't too hard. Priority mail shipping takes 2-3 days and runs $10-$15 for a small package, and plenty of corals are just fine being shipped priority mail. I haven't shipped corals, but I've shipped macroalgae, plants, and live fancy roaches (domino roaches, mostly), without any problems. Just insulate the heck out of it.
Oh, and if you do pickups/delivery, figure out how you'll do social distancing. Ask them to set the money on something and back up a bit, pick up the money, set the coral down, and let them come pick the corals up, so you don't have to get close to each other. People generally don't mind it.
If you have corals that are spreading enough to be fragged and sold, do it. A bit of extra feeding might get them to grow faster, depending on what they are.
If you could get ultra RFAs breeding, you might make some decent money. Those are and always will be in demand.
Fancy-looking zoas are still semi-trendy, but I think there will always be some demand for the pretty stuff. Just don't buy some new, trending, $200-a-polyp zoa expecting to profit off of it.
USPS is having a lot of trouble right now, but if it hopefully gets back on its feet at some point, shipping isn't too hard. Priority mail shipping takes 2-3 days and runs $10-$15 for a small package, and plenty of corals are just fine being shipped priority mail. I haven't shipped corals, but I've shipped macroalgae, plants, and live fancy roaches (domino roaches, mostly), without any problems. Just insulate the heck out of it.
Oh, and if you do pickups/delivery, figure out how you'll do social distancing. Ask them to set the money on something and back up a bit, pick up the money, set the coral down, and let them come pick the corals up, so you don't have to get close to each other. People generally don't mind it.
sawdonkey
Valuable Member
I sometimes make over $1,000 per month but probably average $600-700. I barely put any effort into it and only sell locally, but I live on a big market. It’s not always this way though. I’ve fully grown out my 210 gallon tank with acros three separate times. Each time, it takes about 1.5 years before I can sell much of anything. I’m just fully grown out now, so there isn’t much to do besides maintenance and trim corals.
Now and then, I sell to a guy that sells corals in a shop and online, but I have to give him ridiculously low prices so he can make a profit. Otherwise I just sell to local peeps and try to sell larger packs at really good prices so I don’t have to deal with $20 transactions.
At the end of the day, I’m still not breaking even....and that’s OK.
Now and then, I sell to a guy that sells corals in a shop and online, but I have to give him ridiculously low prices so he can make a profit. Otherwise I just sell to local peeps and try to sell larger packs at really good prices so I don’t have to deal with $20 transactions.
At the end of the day, I’m still not breaking even....and that’s OK.
JaimeIsNew
Community Member
Very interesting convo! I’ve only started, and I do believe I’m in a tiny market, but the idea of being akin to a florist in the aquarium world (a coralist? is there such a term?) is intriguing.
I've had a tank for 2.5 years. I started selling frags of my coral about a year ago after setting up a frag tank maybe 1.5 years ago. Nothing high end but easy softies, LPS and sps. I'm in socal so it's a large market so I've been able to sell well enough where my tank pays for itself now and then some but obviously hasn't come close to what my startup costs were which may take several years lol.....
RobB'z Reef
2500 Club Member
I just pay it forward and help others make money lol
stanleo
Valuable Member
I finally just started figuring out how to frag. I only have Xenia, Kenya trees, green hairy mushrooms and if it takes off, montipora. I can't seem to give them away. Made a couple postings and even trying to talk a friend from work who has a FOWLR tank to take the plunge into coral. No takers yet.
Oooooh I want to be a coralist when I grow up - I love that term ;Smuggrin;Smuggrin;Smuggrin
DaneGer21
Valuable Member
I wait for our Local annual frag swap. I may frag out $200-$400 worth of stuff. I take that money and fill up my gas tank(2hr round trip), take my wife to lunch after, since she tags along, then the rest we blow on new coral/frags.
So no, I don’t not make any money. Consider me a non profit reefer, haha, pay some bills, buy some new gear, and no money left haha.
So no, I don’t not make any money. Consider me a non profit reefer, haha, pay some bills, buy some new gear, and no money left haha.
Similar threads
-
- Poll
-
- Poll
