Fish room, breed for profit and licencing.

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nathanaldo07
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Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2021 0:13 am

I posted a thread a couple of days ago titles; 'Shipping live aquatics in the UK. How can I do this? Can I do this?' and in that thread I said I wanted to breed for fun on a small scale. However, after looking at figures I have been wondering if I could implement this 'breed for profit' business model into my business, based on eBay. I am unsure as to how much profit is to be made, but this still isn't my priority as my main focus would be on breeding. I would want to only focus on breeding shrimp and snails. I have made this thread today, again to ask for your advice on how I can actually do this properly. I would want to be able to ensure I will not be hit with a fine for not having a license, but also so I can create a setup which can produce high quality, high grade, healthy Aquatic Invertebrates.

My first question is, again, regarding licencing and the 'Pet Shop Licence' specifically. This is because I would be producing and selling enough shrimp/snails to where it would no longer be considered as selling the offspring of a pet. However, I am unsure as to whether I would actually need this licence as The Pet Animals Act 1951 (Revised 2018) states that '“animal” includes any description of vertebrate;', which I'm assuming means that only vertebrate animals require us to have a licence. And given that Shrimp and snails are Invertebrates, I would not need a licence to sell them?

My second question is in regard to the set-up. Where is the cheapest place to get fish tanks, around 45 litres (10 gallons) in size? I have seen many things about the 'dollar per gallon sale' which Americans are lucky enough to get. I was wondering if there are any sales like this that go on in the UK, as a sale like this would mean I'd be spending ~£10 per tank as opposed to ~£50 per tank (which is the cheapest I have seen.)
I was think as far as to try get them from manufacturers and buy them through the business like I was going to sell them myself, just to cut out the middle man. ;)

My third question is also related to the legal side of things, would I be able to have this set up in a shed in the garden without any problems? This shed would be of a size to where it does not require me to get planning permission.
nathanaldo07
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Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2021 0:13 am

Okay so the plan...

Start off with one rack (1800mm high x 1200mm long x 450mm deep) with 3 shelves with an even spacing between each one (maximum weight per shelf is 300kg). each shelf would have 3 45l tanks, so a total of 9 tanks. All of this would preferably be inside of an insulated, heated shed in the garden big enough to accommodate multiple tanks.

Each tank would have a Hamburg matten filter in the shape of a regular sponge filter powered by a shared air pump (shared between the tanks on that shelf.) each tank will be lit by a 10W 800 lumen led floodlight.

Each tank which needs a higher temperature will have a heater but I would aim to just heat the room to save on cost.

I would also want to have all of the tanks connected to a drain for ease when it comes to water changes.

What I would like to breed...

In terms of shrimp, I would want to breed:
Red cherry shrimp
Orange sakura shrimp
Yellow sakura shrimp
Green jade shrimp
Blue velvet shrimp
Black rose shrimp

In terms of snails, I would want to breed:
Bladder snails
Ramshorn snails
Pink variation
Blue variation
Assassin snails
Malaysian trumpet snails
Apple snails (Gold variation)
Rabbit/ elephant snails

I am fully aware that some of these are harder to breed than others, however, these are the best ones I've found in terms of ease of breeding and sales on ebay.

I am also aware that all these species will not be able to fit into just 9 tanks and breed successfully, I would want to do species and variation only tanks (e.g. pink ramshons in one tank and blue ramshorns in another.)

If anybody has any recommendations/ changes they would make to this set up then I would really appreciate hearing them. :)
BigBen
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I've done lots of research over the years on building a fish House from in a shed. The key is to have it well insulated. I'm a heating design engineer by trade and I see a lot of people using polystyrene to insulated their sheds. I wouldn't recommend this as it's not actually brilliant for keeping heat in. Use a rigid foam, like celotex or kingspan. Most sheds have the internal battens supporting the walls which are generally 25mm, so 25mm sheets would be perfect, but use two layers, one to fill between the battens and one to overlap. Have your shed on a concrete slap and don't forget to insulate the base!

In terms of heating, most use a oil filled radiator, a fan and of thermostat, like an inkbird.

Filtration - I'd use a closed loop system with a pond filter and a manifold leading to individual tanks with either sponge filters, or probably more effective, a Hamburg style filter. There are lots of videos on YouTube. I'm sure Andy's cichlids has a video of his shed set up which incorporates a lot of this.

Cheap tanks, Barlow's aquatics. Most cheap tank manufacturers sell them to the public, cutting out the middle man already. I suspect you'd be lucky there for a single rack discount!

In terms of making money, I think you'd be hard pushed hen you consider the initial outlay, electricity, food, water etc. There's a chap that runs Cory's 4 U on Facebook that does it, but if you have a look you can see the scale of his operation.

Good luck!
Instagram - @the.cornish.fishkeeper
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