Re: [Killietalk] (no subject)-LFS costs

["Bill Shenefelt" <william_shenefelt at verizon.net>]

Hi Markus.  Unfortunately although I have no store overhead, I do have food 
and light and water(forget time, it is a hobby)  I figure it costs me $4 to 
$5 to raise any killie pair(that's the easy ones!).  That does not count the 
cost of acquisition of the initial breeders nor the time, just part of the 
food, and Electric.  Killies just ain't like a lot of other fish.  No big 
spawns, or quick growth so you can raise a few hundred like angels and sell 
them at a couple of months size. No breeder ripoff involved here at all.   I 
have a good friend locally that has re opened a shopl  He was a long time 
killie breeder, and a great breeder in general.  Not much in the line of 
killies in his shop.  Canot afford to raise them and sell them. Has a couple 
of strains, mostly for his own enjoyment and does sell extras, but not a 
profit item.
You are getting some males cheap since most killie keepers have no use for 
overage of single sexed fish and some killies often produce skewed sex 
ratios.  $6 a pr for decent chocolates is a very good price   If they are 
nice fish you are getting "Giffed" not stiffed. . Not many species a breeder 
can raise for that.  I have some Diapterons I sell for $25 a pr at actually 
a loss.  Need air conditioning to just breed them.  Taes over a year to 
raise a pr to decent size.  I can raise maybe half dozen to a dozen pr in a 
year if I do a ton of work for them. $25 is a favor for these.  Many other 
species are sort of  "Tweeners"  $3.50 wholesale for one of a batch of 200 
to 300 discus at an age of about 3 months is high compared to $6 a pr for 
chocolates!!!  My best bet is that the chocolates are 6 months old and were 
from a group of maybe 50 the guy raised at most. That is 1/4 the fish in 
twice the time for less than the discus.  Does not sound quite so bad does 
it?

Bill Shenefelt
http://shene.killi.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Markus Brown" <TheBiologist at charter_net>
. I wouldn't mind getting charged a reasonable price/pair of fish so I could 
sell them at a reasonable price, but I ask you, what should a lfs sell a 
pair of half-ass pair of chocolate australes from a killi breeder when your 
stiffed paying 6$ a pair for? Is the breeder doing this to make money? If 
so, the question of unbelievable profit margin can be reversed toward the 
breeder. Markus


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Archives are at http://fins.actwin.com/killietalk/