Can you make money growing corals?
- Thread starter ninjamini
- Start date
krazekajin
Active Member
I have not sold any yet, but I am working on a frag tank as well as just fragging small pieces in my tanks.
I love to buy frags. I can get them for about $19 a frag. These include two headed hammers, silver dollar sized zoos, silver dollar sizeed zenia or leathers. I just got some two inch tall SPS for around $25 a piece.
If you can get a steady supply, I would think a LFS would be interested in buying from you rather than a shipper. Of course wholesale prices are much lower than consumer prices. Or you could have your own ---- store etc.
I love to buy frags. I can get them for about $19 a frag. These include two headed hammers, silver dollar sized zoos, silver dollar sizeed zenia or leathers. I just got some two inch tall SPS for around $25 a piece.
If you can get a steady supply, I would think a LFS would be interested in buying from you rather than a shipper. Of course wholesale prices are much lower than consumer prices. Or you could have your own ---- store etc.
reefkprz
Active Member
I frag, propagate and sell corals as much as possible, I dont make money persay but every penny I make goes back into my tank (I went from a 20g to a 45G now I'm getting ready to upgrade to a 75G) I have a mix of hards and softs fast splitters and things I have to frag myself. mostly I do it to defray the cost of my hobby. I know a guy that has like 20 marine reeftanks thats all he does is sit home and sell corals. he is an exceptional story. but in theory yes, for most of us no, but you can do it for fun and a little store credit or odd cash here and there.
oceana
Active Member
its simple if you want to go larger scale and import corals then yes you can make quite a bit of money.
if you are just going to wait for your corals to grow and frag them then your looking at a few bucks now and then to help pay for your tank. the key to this sort of sale is to have something "rare" that you can make alot of money selling.
if you are just going to wait for your corals to grow and frag them then your looking at a few bucks now and then to help pay for your tank. the key to this sort of sale is to have something "rare" that you can make alot of money selling.
fishgeek01
Active Member
It is true what all of these guys are saying, its not easy to make a lot of money but you can offset the cost of the hobby
here is what I have done in the past to off set my costs in the hobby, buy a large colony of any coral, i choose to do sps when i do this. Make it something nice and rare, doesnt have to be the rarest. Buy it from an online store so you get the best possible price even when shipped, put it in your frag or qt tank for a few days to make sure it is healthy, then frag it, cut it into as many 1-2 inch frags as you can get, mount them on plugs, and then put them back in your frag tank, wait a few days to see which ones take and which ones need more time, call up your lfs and say that you have x number of frags of x type of coral, bargain with them on a price, start high, sometimes you get lucky, ask for 10 a frag, if you buy a colony at 60 bucks, pay 25 for shipping, so lets say a total of 85 bucks then sell 15 frags at 10 bucks a peice you have made about 65 dollars. obviously by ordering more corals at a time and fragging all of them you can come out way ahead in this game, perfect for store credit, supplies and trading. save one of the frags for yourself and you've made out pretty good.
here is what I have done in the past to off set my costs in the hobby, buy a large colony of any coral, i choose to do sps when i do this. Make it something nice and rare, doesnt have to be the rarest. Buy it from an online store so you get the best possible price even when shipped, put it in your frag or qt tank for a few days to make sure it is healthy, then frag it, cut it into as many 1-2 inch frags as you can get, mount them on plugs, and then put them back in your frag tank, wait a few days to see which ones take and which ones need more time, call up your lfs and say that you have x number of frags of x type of coral, bargain with them on a price, start high, sometimes you get lucky, ask for 10 a frag, if you buy a colony at 60 bucks, pay 25 for shipping, so lets say a total of 85 bucks then sell 15 frags at 10 bucks a peice you have made about 65 dollars. obviously by ordering more corals at a time and fragging all of them you can come out way ahead in this game, perfect for store credit, supplies and trading. save one of the frags for yourself and you've made out pretty good.
murph145
Active Member
fast easy and rare would be a neon green polyped toadstool leather
fast grower easy to frag and u can get about $40 for a 1-1.5" frag
as for sps .... some of the rare torts like the oregon or cali tort.... u can get about 40-60 for a 1-2" frag.... so get a piece let it grow out for ayear then u can start makin back ur investments
also montis are fast growing and u can get some decent $ for the encrusting ones like pokerstar, superman, and sunset montis
also monti caps are fast growers and u can make a lil money for how fast they grow....
maybe some interesting or names zoas can do the trick as well some go for $5-25 a polyp
xenia how be it not rare but is a fast grower and many LFS will buy from u....
same with Green Star Polyps
hope that helps a lil
fast grower easy to frag and u can get about $40 for a 1-1.5" frag
as for sps .... some of the rare torts like the oregon or cali tort.... u can get about 40-60 for a 1-2" frag.... so get a piece let it grow out for ayear then u can start makin back ur investments
also montis are fast growing and u can get some decent $ for the encrusting ones like pokerstar, superman, and sunset montis
also monti caps are fast growers and u can make a lil money for how fast they grow....
maybe some interesting or names zoas can do the trick as well some go for $5-25 a polyp
xenia how be it not rare but is a fast grower and many LFS will buy from u....
same with Green Star Polyps
hope that helps a lil
dejaco
Member
Making money from your hobby? In my experience I think you can off set your expenses, but actually make money - not really. I too wish to set up frag tanks and grow them out for trade and sale. But I don't think you can recoup enough to make it profitable. In a frag tank you might be able to speed up growth rates, but not on a large enough scale to make it worth while. I think for most of us growing in our display tanks, pruning back excessive growth, and selling on a site like ---- is just enough to help deffer costs and help upgrade equipment. It's just my opinion though - capitolists all!
maxalmon
Active Member
Several months ago, I setup a frag tank designed to create "Zoo Gardens". I used some interesting tonga branch LR and superglued various colored zoo's all over the branchs, now they have multiplied and almost totally encrusted the tonga branches. Cost me something like $5.00 for the branch and maybe another $5.00 for the original zoo's to start the colonys. Now I have so may request for these "Zoo gardens" that I'm setting up a prop tank just to create these little gems. I've decided to use Fiji Kula branch as I can get these in huge pieces up to about 24-36" long. Example of what I'm going to do, Take a fan shaped 24" branch and then frag colorful zoo's about 1.5 Inchs apart over the entire surface of the branch, wait about 5-6 months and then the branch should be almost encrusted with zoo's. Consider how much you've seen smaller (5-8") encrusted branches sold for and you get the idea of what something like this is worth. I sold the below zoo garden for $80 it's about 10"L x 2"w. Imagine the 24"L x 12"w covered in Blue, Green, Orange & Pink zoos
maxalmon
Active Member
I should add that the before picture was taken about a month after the initial fragging took place. I tried to use 2-3 polyps per superglued piece. These photos are not very good, the zoo's are electric teal with blue and green skirts, orange and green. I have a rather extensive zoo collection, I've been constantly dividing and fragging to expand my zoo's so that I will have enough livestock to do about 5-6 of these huge (24-36") pieces.
reefkprz
Active Member
love the zoo gardens. its like assembleing a show rock, I do that occasionally for selling take and frag several things on to one really nice lR and get about twice what everything is worth I have3 one I'm building up for my own that has 6 different mushroom types three types of zoo some neong reen striped glove polyp and frogspawn on it so far the rock is huge (35LBS very porous)so there is a lot more to do but its starting to look nice.