Greetings to everyone who spends their time standing in front of the aquarium and admiring the beauty of aquatic life and those who have not yet realized that they are in love with it!
Any aquarist like any hobbyist goes through several stages... fulfilling a dream making mistakes and correcting them gaining useful experience the ability to analyze the situation in one's collection and the market the desire to get a return on one's hobby at least to make it self-sustaining.
Sometimes beginner aquarists jump over all the steps lol and just want their expenses covered and start trying to spawn fish they never spawned and grow plants lacking the experience and the necessary equipment and are often disappointed.
Let's try to find at least some win-win options that after how many months will be able to start covering some expenses for maintaining the aquarium with minimal start-up costs.
Yes in order to sell something you need to buy something, moreover it is profitable.
If you have received and raised the offspring of fish mollusks crustaceans or surplus aquarium plants you will find sales in pet markets in pet stores familiar to aquarists through aquarists forums.
There are many dogmas in the hobby or stereotypes about what is easy to make and what requires tremendous effort such dogmas include the cultivation of very popular fish called guppies by beginners.
Yes an inexperienced salesman in a pet store or simply crooks lol will tell you that it is easiest to grow and breed these fish.
This would be true if we traveled through time forty years into the past but not today.
Then in the markets offspring of guppies close to savages were sold.
Those fish were called indestructible they could live in water of any quality and they were very cheap.
You really could get offspring from them in a short time grow up and sell to the one who sold you the parents of these children.
But many generations of guppies have passed during this time and all that we see is the result of strict selection some breeds enter the market sterile and the price for them tends to space.
Today if you can't find or order wild guppies it's best to refrain from doing so early on in your hobby.
You will need to get a reverse osmosis system be able to prepare the right composition of water focus only on this task get the perfect guppy specimens the price of which will justify the money spent.
A good place to start would be to buy shellfish called Pomacea bridgesii.
These mollusks similar to grape snails take root well in an aquarium with a water temperature in the range of 24-28 degrees Celsius are not demanding on the composition of the water and give numerous offspring that do not require care for them.
There are several color variations yellow red purple and blue maybe some more options have appeared since I stopped doing aquarism as I said this is a necessary measure asthma keeps me at a distance from any aquarium.
Some individuals can be quite expensive but in the long run it pays off.
But there are nuances sometimes they are infected with parasites that slowly eat them from the inside but this does not happen often everything that is alive is prone to disease this must be taken into account.
If you buy one of the many types of moss for your first aquarium or the green balls of Aegagropila linnaei then this can be the basis for breeding Red Cherry shrimp.
This is a hardy species of freshwater shrimp which is undemanding to the composition of the water and gives a large offspring does not require special care.
Marginality of this business is very good believe me it was profitable.
These shrimp look great against the green background of the ground cover.
But please note that not all freshwater shrimp are very easy to get offspring and margin.
For example the Red Crystal shrimp is very demanding on the composition of water its starting price is very high but the probability of getting a herd from the seller which will include both males and females is very low.
Depending on the conditions the composition of the water and the temperature in which they were bred may prevail in one litter either males or females these are subtle points that are best left untouched at the stage of a novice aquarist.
Over time when you gain the necessary experience I'm not talking about what you read in books or hear from someone but gain experience through trial and error set yourself more difficult tasks and you will succeed.
But even for beginners sometimes it turns out to do something that not every specialist can do for example artificially cross a lionhead and a raukin using a glass capillary to get milk from a male and caviar from a female lionhead stroking her abdomen but I learned raise this offspring.
I wish you success!
All photos are taken at my pet store.
Author @stem-shturm