Coral "farming"

[lesdexic]

I just got off the GARF webpage: http://saltaquarium.about.com/pets/saltaquarium/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.garf.org/news3p1.html

And was reading about coral farming..... Can a person make any money doing this???? (enough to suport their reef hobby plus enough to make the farming worth while)... I am just wondering and playing with the thought.....

 

[tomocean]

You definitely can! I am going to be purchasing some frags from a guy here locally. Some LFS will also accept frags for credit. I think it is a great way to help promote an environmentally friendly approach to the hobby!

 

[Jon_Hewett_85]

You won't make hardly any money off of it. It will cost as much as or more to support yoru fraggin operation than you will make off of it most definatly.

 

[Jon_Hewett_85]

You won't make hardly any money off of it. It will cost as much as or more to support yoru fraggin operation than you will make off of it most definatly.

 

[fudge1]

Trust me.....Jon hit the nail on the head......Twice?

Marc.

 

[Alex1]

Umm lets not forget Tropicorium they are a coral farm and he has been in bussiness for a long time.

Alex

 

[Kalkbreath]

Captive breeding is somewhat like the Stock Market.......If it crashes and everyone knew deep down inside it couldnt last for ever...When they ban wild cought importation, you will be able to make mucho buckos...Until then Red brainS and Acro heads for $4 BUCKS FROM THE ISLAND WILL KEEP WILD STOLEN CORALS TOO CHEAP TO COMPETE WITH... BUT IF AND WHEN the reef junkies{hobbyists} cant get their fixes from the usual suppliers......captive coral farms will fill the gap and make it big!

 

[Anonymous]

>Tropicorium they are a coral farm and he has been in bussiness for a long time<

Not really, less than a decade.

 

[Anonymous]

Every Coral that will go in my tank will be fraged. I wish I could say the same for fish. If it is not fraged in a tank, I do not need it. I hope you do this and I hope people support you even if your prices are higher. I too think Importation will eventually be banned. I could not however guess if that is 5 years or 50. The only thing I have purchased so far is GSP and shrooms and I know they were propagated because I seen Jim do it.

Best of Luck

 

[Anonymous]

lesdexic,
Love your nick

Coral Farming is best done out of love of the hobby and your animals and not for profit. Don't plan on making any profit for several years. At least not if you are going to have true tank raised corals. ( can you say tax writeoff

)

I would guess that there are some chop shops out there making some money fragging wild caught heads... Please don't become one of them!

The garf info is inviting... They make it seem like you just jump right in and start making money... Consider, who your customers will be? Will you ship? How will you ship? containers? How will you fund this venture? How will you advertise? Where will you advertise? How much will electricity cost? startup costs? hardware? bulb replacment? The list goes on and on....

 

[MiNdErAsR]

Is there an echo in here?

 

[liquid]

Alex,

Remember, Tropicorium is a HUGE greenhouse and because of this Perrin doesn't need to buy lighting for all those corals (except for select SPS). The greenhouse provides him with a no-cost/minimal cost lighing and heat source and he's using air power to run powerful riser tubes for every vat in that place (which is dirt cheap). He does have some powerheads in there --but not much. Plus considering he doesn't use skimmers (he does weekly waterchanges on every vat in there) he's also got less of a bill there. I'd say the most expensive part of that operation would be all the salt he goes thru with the waterchanges...

FYI some Tropicorium info:

http://www.bomani.com/tropicorium.html
http://www.tropicorium.com/tinfo.html

Oh, I couldn't find the info but I do believe that Trop has been open for at least 10 years if not longer considering that Perrin's been in the hobby for 40+ years...

I would definitely heed Atlantis' advice on this subject as well.

fwiw,

liquid

 

[Anonymous]

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[wrasseman]

yes you sure can its an art you cant overpopulate an area but 10 or 15 frags of a nice aussie acan can triple your money. it has to be a nice one but 4-5 polips can bring $80.00 if u make 10 from a $250.00piece its pretty easy ive been doing it for some time w good sucess . g l 2 u

 

[wrasseman]

yes you sure can its an art you cant overpopulate an area but 10 or 15 frags of a nice aussie acan can triple your money. it has to be a nice one but 4-5 polips can bring $80.00 if u make 10 from a $250.00piece its pretty easy ive been doing it for some time w good sucess . g l 2 u

 

[blackcloudmedia]

Wow talk about bump lol. I considered doing this using solar power. Unfortunately In North enough in Florida that we get winters. I suppose it wouldnt be hard to set up a greenhouse here but it would be pricey. The problem I had with solar is it would take the entire lifespan of the solar panel to pay off the electric bill that it would cut. 5000 dollars in solar panels or 5000 in 20 years of electricity(the average lifespan of a SP.)
Plus you would have to have a large initial investment.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, I couldn't find the info but I do believe that Trop has been open for at least 10 years if not longer considering that Perrin's been in the hobby for 40+ years...

I realize this is an old thread but Trop has been around awhile and still going strong. I got my first (very expensive as I remember) live rock from them for the radically new "Berlin" method tank I was making :lol: Most of the livestock I have now I got there. The propagation tanks are truly something to see.

They have their own forum on Michigan Reefers, I'll post up and ask just how long Dick has been open.

EDIT: They answered me and have been running for 15 years.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow talk about bump lol. I considered doing this using solar power. Unfortunately In North enough in Florida that we get winters. .

LOL! We get them worse here in Michigan and Trop has been in the business for decade+. Not only coral propagation, but captive breeding of fish and a grrenhouse full of orchids

 

[Anonymous]

DoesDick log onto the MI site routinely?

 

[Anonymous]

They do. They post specials and such on their own forum.
:lol: the guesses on exactly how long are still coming in...

http://www.michiganreefers.com/forums/s ... post606743