Now before you people jump on me about asking for cheap or free corals I just want to see if there’s an excess or availability of them in the possible future. I am trying to get the most cost effective method of filling a tank or starting a BUISNESS and that’s why I’m asking.
I’m going to have a 75 gallon tank soon and have very few corals left around .
I’m gonna get some at stores and at the frag swap but I’m gonna b drained of money by that time and just wondered if anyone has like som 10$ or less bargain coral peices they could possibly sell me in the near future ( 2-5 months) .
I also might use this method to eventully get enough corals to start an aquaculture operation in 5-10 years and might want to build some BUISNESS relationships .
I’m just asking around and please don’t get on me to bad if I did somthing wrong this post.
I have hundreds of frags which would range in price from $5 to $20. I have mostly zoas. The easiest way to keep indivual frag cost down would to be buy by volume. Once you have established colonies you can frag these and trade/sell frags to aquire more frags increasing your diversity. It is a slow process but for someone on a tight budget it is the best way to get new livestock. The problem I would see with buying 5-10$ frags is most frags offered at that price are very common and would not command a high resale value. To get the same money out of the corals you put into them you need to get corals that are recoginized across the board. Their prices deflate with time but should stay rather consistant unless you are buying the latest craze zoanthid for several hundreds dollars a polyp. Zoas like blue hornets, rastas, sunny d’s, candy apple reds, fruitloops and mandarian oranges have been around a while and have well established names and I would think will continue to hold a value of 5-10$ a polyp depending on how many are on a frag and where you are trying to sell them.
Alot of the guys who list on craigslist who run a buisness from their house start a LLC. Get a buisness legally, licence and stuff. Start a commercial account with a shipper from the Indo-Pacific. Make large purchases to get deep discounts. This requires several things. #1 Capital. #2 a big enough system to hold it all and maintain it#3 a large customer base whom trusts you #4 a good reputation #5 the experience to not kill thousands of dollars of merchandise.
You may want to start much smaller first. A few good size frag tanks, sell on the local level. Good quality pictures of WYSIWYG coral are extremely helpful.
I would advise to make a very well thought out plan of how you will do this FIRST. I see stuff for sale all the time from ideas that never took off or failed fast.
I personally would refrain from talking about acquiring cheap frags from club members and starting a business selling frags in the same thread. Or the same forum or probably in the same geographical location.
You should go to the Reef 2 Reef website, there are plenty of people over there that sell corals and run businesses that can give you all the help you need.
[quote=“houndsbayman, post:9, topic:7095”]
You should go to the Reef 2 Reef website, there are plenty of people over there that sell corals and run businesses that can give you all the help you need.[/quote]
I love R2R! Definitely a lot more ppl with a lot more experience over there. They have weekly email blasts about cool topics too.
Reefcentral.com is another great resource. Their sponsors monitor the forums and we’ll communicate with you directly answering questions, sharing ideas, and providing valuable insight.