One of my long time reefing friends is getting out of the hobby and he's looking to get rid of a few set ups. One of them is a extremely long tank (120 gallon but its 4 feet long, 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall) with a metal halide ballast. When I was asking him why he had it he said he was going to grow a few cash crops, but I unfortunately it slipped my mind to ask what types of corals were best to grow for profit. So out of curiosity does anyone here grow coral crops? And secondly which ones are best for getting into this business? I personally have a M-tank but otherwise would like to get into this profession on the side.

Thanks !

Question to start you off with:

Do you want to do this to make, and keep, a total profit, or do you just want to do it "on the side" to help with general reef-keeping costs?

I've been waiting for someone to ask this question! I just LOVE aquaculture, hopefully it's the way of the future of this hobby, the ONLY way!

First things first, have you ever fragged corals? If not, stick with the easy stuff for a few months. I'm gonna have to recommend to begin with Capnella Soft Corals. It's easier to grow than Xenias and because it's an awkward looking softie, it sells great. It's also very hardy and can be cut into very small pieces that grow fast. They also attach themselves to rocks or shells in a few days, 4 days maximum! They also require low light so you can drop them to the bottom of the tank, expect great growth and still grow tons of other stuff.

Next, I would pick up some xenia. Get a bunch of stalks and instantly frag them. Great because they grow like weeds in proper conditions. I've never kept them in my tanks, but i have stocked tanks that i maintain for others with them. Great for beginners, some give them away for free, but because they are soooo cheap you can sell them for $5/large stalk and they require no special care so it won't interfere with keeping other corals.

**be careful with tree corals, some grow fast some grow slow. nepthtea sp grow quite fast, the others much slower. make sure you have an id book before you purchase a tree corals.

this is just a start off point. when you get better at fragging and turn profit, you can move into the Acans, which grow really fast. The more you feed it, the faster it grows.

In a 120 lit by MHs these are all corals that will be kept in the bottom to middle of the tank. Best of luck with this, i hope you get started soon. Once i get some money in my pocket again I'll be back into selling my zoas. It's been a few years, I've slowly been playing catch up! Good Luck!

go for it !
go do research on the net about small business loans and such.
its a bit more complex than just growing the coral, legal issues , overhead
and time are your constant challenges.

In general, if you want to actually make a worth-while profit from an aquaculture buisiness, you need a greenhouse, etc.. where you can use the sun for most, if not all, lighting. Also, airlifts are cheap, & easy ways to get a lot of flow for less money, both in initial cost and over time electricity expenses. And, you're going to have to actually move a large amount of corals. It's also a pretty large initial investment due to equipment costs. Also, you'd want separate tanks for most coral types for best growth - SPS, mushrooms, etc... , to minimize aleopathy (chemical warfare of the corals).



If you're not looking for a profitable buisiness, then just go for whatever you want to set up. I only have a 20g long with 175w MH setup currently, but I plan on moving some time this year, so don't want to set anything bigger up yet, otherwise I'd get one of those big rubbermaid tubs.

You'll never make a penny.

Corals like xenia, kenya tree, etc.... are so easy to reproduce and such poor shippers that most local markets are flooded with these corals.

Factor in water, salt, electricity for the lighting, heaters and pumps and that is your monthly cost just to keep it going. Plus the startup coral cost (have to buy the corals first, then grow them, frag them and try to sell them not to mention any DOA's or corals that die in your care) as well as the setup and bulbs for the fixture you have.

Basically you are going to end up in the red before you have a drop of saltwater in the tank, after you start buying corals you are going to be further in the red. If you do start fragging them you can sell locally but pretty soon everyone in your area will have your corals.

Then you have to start shipping.

Fuel costs are going up which means transportation costs are going up. UPS just had a rate hike.

Factor in buying the following:
Boxes
Bags
Peanuts/Styrofoam

That adds up quick.

Then actual shipping costs are a killer. Regular Next Day can be around $30-$60 depending on which service (USPS, UPS, FedEx) plus your box/packaging costs you would have to charge another few $$$ on top of the shipping costs to break even.

Then DOA's if you ship, you have to replace them and reship (Further in the red).

Realistically nobody is going to pay a lot for these common "weed" corals and then on top of it pay a lot in overnight shipping when these are all corals that can be picked up locally for cheap.

My advice (I do accounting for a mail order catalog company so I have a clue about a lot of what I mentioned above) is not to do it on this size scale.

Aquaculture is great but making money on a scale your thinking is just not feasable.

I would have a nice display tank and a smaller prop tank for sales. And really if you want $$$$ look into SPS, things like digi's, birdsnest and milli's grow quite well and are always in demand.

I never thought those years of studying aquaculture would pay off. But here you are and I have an answer to your questions, haha. Now I have a few questions for you

1. How big do you actually want this "business" to be?
2. Do you have any experience in fragging and/or shipping?
3. Do you have anyone to work this.

The reason I offered my opening suggestions is because it's important that he/she starts somewhere. You can do small scale and save on money. Shallowly, he/she wants to sell corals and make money. Cool. This can be drastically expanded into setting up tanks and maintaining those tanks for individuals. I've done multiple 2.5 gallon aquariums around my neighborhood for some of the elderly, youths, and middle aged couples. Start up cost less than $100 for everything including salt mix for 25 gallons. Get your talent and people skills sky high before thinking of going "professional." Setting up tanks and selling your lower priced corals to people who enjoy SW tanks decreases the strain on our reefs. You can sell Xenia and Kenya trees and other fast growing corals to new people and then charge like $20/month for maintenance. $5 is a reasonable price for any coral and doesn't really affect the pocket too heavily. With a 120 gallon tank, you can grow out masses of easy corals and then start there. Don't take out any loans! Stay small scale. Post on every possible SW/FW site possible to inform them of your prospering business. I've done it, ove the past few years i've averaged a good $3k/year on teaching and setting up tanks for parents and grandparents who often have their children/grandchildren over.

There are tons of books that help you understand aquaculture, but while you're reading you can get a jump on simply growing out corals!

Try reading SeaMounts: Ecology, Fisheries & Conservation . Tell your LFS that you've been going to that you have xenia stalks for $5, not all stores carry large amounts because they aren't easy to get rid of. BUT any new reefer would be more than glad to spend $5 on a coral that they may not have. There's a whole world out there of things to grow and sell.

eliminate as many costs as possible from the start.

the easiest to eliminate is lighting by opting for sunlight either as the main light source or a significant supplement.

imo the most difficult cost elimination is salt and water. although a RO unit with the "wastewater" tied to feeding something else (e.g. agriculture) significantly reduces that cost aspect. the salt is still a big portion. hence the popularity of IO in public aquariums or cheaper "industrial/commercial" grades for the food/restaurant industry.

the tank and pumps and such are essentially one-time expenses and you can opt for very inexpensive options like tubs and diy's. (some pumps are solar-powered too)

dosings and such are relatively cheap, e.g. pickling lime and two-part ca/alk solutions.

the highest cost would be the livestock themselves, at least initially speaking. i disagree with the fast-growing options. perun did a great job (i'd even go so far to say he revolutionized the industry) by marketing interesting livestock. even if they were artificially interesting via their namings. purple-people-eaters, superman zoanthids, pickmynosebooger palys, etc.

charging higher margin prices for rarer items is what you need to do in a niche market. commodity business may pay the overhead but that's where you relegate it to. any hope of profit will likely come from the 'niche side'.

last point, packaging can be a profit area too. if you can break-even everywhere else, $5~$10/shipment profit isn't too shabby if you can process 10~30 orders a day doing something you like to do. negotiate with the carriers (you'll be surprised what kind of discounts they'd give for guaranteed daily volume) for client-specific rates. volume purchases on packaging (costco'ing).


side note for shippers: is there any reason why a styrofoam chest (with the livestock bagged inside) can't be further vacuum-sealed in a high mil polybag? i.e. is there a some kind of specific requirement by the carriers to have a "carton/box" in regards to livestock? i don't/never come across this in my own business (not applicable) but the idea's been tickling the back of my brain for a while.

but this would eliminate a significant portion of the shipment cost ($0.50~$1.00) and inventory costs. for existing hobby businesses and startups like we're discussing here.

IMO, sunset monty, they grow fast and sell for a lot, and are hard to kill

Actually yes I also disagree, Xenia is a great way to PRACTICE... but not a great way to make profit... it's akin to selling kudzu, the stuff grows anywhere and ends up becoming a nuisance, why it isn't commonly found in high end reef set-ups.

Green star polyps, similar situation, but more attractive with the neon fluorescence, and you can sell the frags for a decent price, still probably not going to break even.

Sad but true, the ones that make the most money, are the ones that grow as slow as all get out, and can cost you somewhere between $50-300 for a dime-sized fragment.

however, this also means that you can grow them out as big as your hand in a year or two under excellent conditions and sell them for $50-300 per dime sized fragment. Exotic chalices and super-colored LPS and SPS corals are where money is in coral farming.

However, not all beautiful specimens are incredibly slow growing, there are plenty of exotic varieties to be found for reasonable prices, maybe say $50-100 for a 3/4-1" fragment that will expand fairly rapidly...

Either way, you need to factor in cost... it costs the same to light 50 frags or 5 frags in a coral tank... so you need to efficiently use space, trim expenses, and have excellent products, prices, and customer service... basically it has the same barriers to entry as just about any business.

The good news is it is actually fairly easy to do... and if you get a little expertise, you can make fragments out of the tiniest pieces of coral... 1/2" ricordea polyps can easily and safely be cut into fours and will regrow to 1/2"-1" in a few weeks time... process to be repeated indefinitely... and there are definitely some eye catching ricordea varieties.

Once again you have to be creative with packaging, buy-in-bulk rates, and package specials... generally here shipping is once again the biggest obstacle to profit as local markets are as one poster mentioned, flooded, with great corals... but many reef hobbyists live far away from these markets and may not even have an LFS within driving distance, or maybe at least not one with nice looking corals.

There is an allure to captive grown corals, and many reef-keepers are conscious of the benefits as well as the ecological implications and are more than willing to shell out a few extra bucks for captive grown corals...

This is an old thread but felt like digging it back up.

At the end of the day, it's really just like any other business, but there is surely profit potential... Farming corals is just about the easiest thing a person can do (easier than growing a vegetable garden), but there will be many headaches, heartbreaks, and outright disasters along the way. So start small and get some experience under your belt before you dive in head first.

Moreover, besides making profit, you really are doing something that is pretty cool from a conservation perspective.

Breeding endangered fish such as Kaudern's or Banggai Cardinal fish which are easy to breed is also relatively easy and ecologically important as well.

The goal is to have as minimal intrusion on the naturally formed reefs of the ocean as possible while being able to sustain a growing and thriving aquarium hobby...

What are you hoping to make annually off of this? If this is something you want to be as your main source of income be prepared and have a back-up plan.

I use aquaculture as a way to cover my costs of reefing and put a few bucks in my pocket. I do have a normal job and this is strictly something on the side. That being said, for the year of 2009 I am still in the red because of start-up. My system is very small and not even comparable to most who actually try to do this for a living. I hope that in the next few years I will be able to make a couple thousand a year to save as my daughter's college fund, but I think doing this as a main income would be difficult. It can be done, but you need to get in on the high-end stuff and be competitive in price and customer service. I would definitely follow and see how this thing develops if you are really going to try this.

Unarguably the best corals in terms of making a living with your farm are SPS, especially montiporas and thinner branching staghorn acros, but they also take a more expensive system and a bit more experience than farming regular corals. Second in line would be zoanthids, but they can be rather volatile sometimes with infections, etc... Small polyped favias and favites aren't too bad either, but acans, chalices and other larger polyped LPS will always have poor returns compared to other corals.

If you're growing softies keep in mind that the market for them is very limited, which adds a downside to their faster growth.

old thread is old

I'd say highend zoo's/ric's,but would suggest fragging and collecting first doing things on a small scale

I hadn't even noticed that until I saw John reply. How about checking the date on threads that come up while you're rocking the search function before writing encyclopedic responses to posts that are over two years old?

Maybe this thread was useful to someone else...?

Who the hell cares if it's two years old?

It was useful to me. Isn't this site about learning? I agree with david, who cares if its 2 years old. It could have been ten years old but it still has good information

I just always wanted to get to say it...

I learned a ton from reading those responses. I'm glad this was bumped.

well i think the guy is talking about the profits of a frag tank not an entire farm because hes talking about a 4ft tank. what do you guys feel about frag tanks anyways? do they actually bring in some profit?

depends on if you consider your time or not

I agree, and stand corrected. There's been a plethora of zombie threads lately, most aren't helpful at all and I kind of jumped the gun on this one, my bad



The amount of work, dedication and corals that you put into your frag tank will pretty much directly dictate what comes out of it.

Its very simple. Spend the $20 on this:

Practical Coral Farming By Miguel Tolosa

He did this for *YEARS* used to own Fraggle Reef and the info in the book makes it very much worth it. He is a sponsor here if I recall correctly. And the icing on the cake is that $2 of the $20 goes to SaveNature.org.

He is also too ethical to pimp his own book here so I am going to do it for him. I am doing so because its a damn good book and he's a damn good guy not because there is anything in it for me.

AAAAAAAAAA hahahhahaha. see above your post.

Well since you decided to point it out... Yep. That be him.

It took my girlfriend like 3 weeks of nearly daily arguing to get me to put the banner in my sig. In the 6 years that I had FR sponsorships on any site I never did it, didn't seem ethical. She wore me down being that I wasn't competing with any other sponsors on here and donating to charity, but it still nags me... Not enough to go through the daily arguing again though

Thanks for the kind words too Carson, much appreciated.

i was giving UH a hard time

I know, I'd have been first in line doing the same to you

i ahve made quite a good bit of $$$ off of my sunset monti colony as well as my rainbow monti colony.... good bit of info.

ZOAS!!! demand = high. growth rate = fast. ease of keeping = 10ish. ease of fragging = 10ish...

Bah.

Miguel if it wasn't true I wouldn't be saying it.

That answers a question I had though. That being why with your reputation in the community you didn't say anything about FR or the book. Both were and are valuable assets and should get more attention.

Right. Thank you DTF. That is just what I needed.

id say start about with zoas. try to find some uncommon types not purple hornets or anything like that. just not eagle eyes or regular poyps they dont sell that good.

i was trying to do the samething on duncans. they grow very fast but fragging it is another story. had mine from one head and after a year 25+. but no sign of fragging it cuz everywhere i look theres a head....

right now their easy to sell in my area. but dam cant frag it.
craigslist or a local reef club is your best bet.

zoas are easy to frag just cut them off and glue them. but its very tedious work...
common zoas like eagle eyes or green polyps are useally around $1 a pop less if its sold in bunches.

but iv seen slightly rarer zoas go for $5+ a pop. that adds up cuz a colony can take off producing hundreds in a few months.

I actually suggest starting with the common zoas.

I have been fragging and selling fairly common zoas for a little over a year. I almost never throw names up, I offer them at cheap prices and I frag a lot.

I have gotten to the point where I am getting a smaller, more traditional style frag tank and am focusing on stuff that is middle of the road...nicer zoas/palys, acans and some sps. The first year was about practice with fragging, husbandry, learning how to deal with the issues that inevitably arise and making a name for myself (most important of all). I am now comfortable enough to invest a little more money and see how that goes. I figure I am in this for the long haul and want to use this to save and hopefully pay for my daughters' college education. I want to be able to have an operation that can profit $500 or so a month without being a major investment or PITA.

I really think the best way is to learn the trade and master it before you invest big money. There are tons of these fly-by-night d-bags that just try to flip the popular corals to make a quick buck. I think that method is not very fail-safe. This is strictly my philosophy and my opinion, so anyone doing things differently...more power to you.

i guess u can start out with common zoas but only if u either like them or not sure if u can farm them.
their generally harder to sell even if its dirt cheap. cuz lets face it, its common and everyone already has it. at least a lot of people.

also acans go for a good amount and they grow pretty fast.