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Does anybody know of any fish careers that could generate a source of income that doesn't take a lot of money and a college degree to start up?

Inky

I've seen businesses that do maintenance services, usually for aquariums that are in offices. i don't think you'd need a degree for that, just an ability to run your own business. Also it could be done on as small or as large of a scale as you could handle. Doesn't seem like there would be a huge start up cost, unless you were also renting/selling aquariums.

DO you mean like a professional tank cleaner?

Inky

Most maint companies also stock their customers tanks....so you figure in QT tanks, meds, etc then the start up cost is more than what you think it would be....not to mention business license fees, etc

tank maintenance would be the best thing i can think of. do it cheap, provide your own gear and additives and know your fish.
I think you could get away with not stocking tanks, or at least not being the fish provider, if you stayed small-scale.

check out www.fishheads.com.au (i think). they are the local ones that maintain most of the tanks in Sydney. do a good job of it too, looks like a real money-spinner.

Another option is mail order fish or live cultures or plants, but it all depends on demand. I could make a mint selling live food cultures and specialised foodstuffs because at the moment there is a hole in the market here, in many sections of the hobby.

Find a hole, or stay simple and do drudgework

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

If I did a small scale tank cleaning service how much do you think startup costs would be?

Inky

There's a guy in my town that set up a large scale SW LFS in his garage

It's awesome... he's got a couple thousand gallons of SW on a central sump... it's all custom plumbed. The system is INSANE! I'm not exactly sure how many tanks he's got, but it's at least 20ish, ranging from about 50 gallons to about 500. All of the tanks have MH lighting and most are stuffed with corals and fish and stuff. He also sets up, stocks, and maintains tanks for people and buissinesses and stuff. That's HIS independant fishy career, and it looks like it works well for him... tho it probably cost him a FORTUNE to get started

You could possibly do something like that... maybe start out small (breeding and selling fish and stuff or something like that), and work your way up? I dunno...

HTH

People who already have a tank may also have the skill to maintain it. One idea would be to introduce the concept of a setup to a shop owner/cafe owner/dentist/Docs and offer to maintain it for a fee. Show them a pic of a setup and say for $___ you can get a setup like that and I will maintain it for a fee of $___ per month.

Do a flyer with a picutre and outline what is included in maintenance. (eg replacement of bulb not included, floss for filter would be included)

On flyer include info about the tank being a tax deduction (if it is - must be a reason Drs have 'em) and relaxing (back that one up).

Good luck! /:'

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