lighting ???

[amazinganimal]

Hi everyone , we are complete novices to tropical fish keeping we have had some years expirience of pond keeping though.
I run a pet store selling a vast range of products to pet owners, we have had a huge demand for fish within our store and are setting up 6 tanks to keep fish to sell to the general public,We have thought long and hard before deciding to sell live animals and want to provide the best possible instore enviroment we can. We are using 4 tanks for tropical and 2 for coldwater,each tank will run its own filter and heating system.

first question , we are looking at lighting,we are thinking the holding tanks will only contain fish, and we will want to keep the water at perfect clarity for the customer,rather than use the standard aquatic lights which promote plant growth ect would we be better using uv tubes to help kill off algae as in a pond type system. or should we stick to the standard aquatic bulbs such as Aqua Glo Tube 40w 48" X 1".

[Lady Hobbs]

Not sure how you will do with 4 tropical fish tanks. There are hundreds of kinds of community fish and hundreds more species of cichlids. That also leaves no spare tanks for hospital tanks or tanks to quarantine incoming fish. I can't imagine people shopping for fish in a store with has only 4 tropical tanks frankly. If you can't divide certain types of fish, they will simply kill each other before they can be sold.

[Lady Hobbs]

Read your private PM.

[amazinganimal]

i realise i will not be able to carry many species in six tanks , however we have never kept fish so want to start small and expand, we will just keep the most popular and easy to keep species to start with while we learn a little more.

we will carry an extra tank out back for hospital facilities and quarantine.
any thoughts on the lighting issue

[Goes to 11!]

i realise i will not be able to carry many species in six tanks , however we have never kept fish so want to start small and expand, we will just keep the most popular and easy to keep species to start with while we learn a little more.

we will carry an extra tank out back for hospital facilities and quarantine. Take a quick read around this forum & ask yourself if you want to be making these same mistakes in public, In your place of business, Under public scrutiny.. ?
IE: You will certainly need more than one QT tank btw.

Consider this: If you have species that cannot be kept together in the same display tank - You certainly cannot QT them together either.

I suggest you start a private tank [or several] to get keeping fish down to a science before you 'go public' as it were.

any thoughts on the lighting issue The most economical route is to buy the 4' shop light fixtures from the DIY center [Easily resalable later if need be] and purchase bulbs that you like the look of [wrt your fish].

[Lady Hobbs]

Agree with the shop light. Just hang them from the ceilings over the tank on chains.

Another thing that may be of interest to you is a rescue center for fish people can not keep due to aggression, lack of space or too many babies.

Stores can simply take them with no money exchanged or offer a store credit. That way you will have no money up front on fish and you can sell what you receive free. I know here people constantly have fry they can not get rid of or buy the wrong fish they can not return.

[Aeonflame]

Agree totally with the above posters. LH and 850R summed it up nicely

The market is FULL of fish shops that keep fish irresponsibly and have no real knowledge of the animals they are selling. Start your own tanks and learn about the hobby so you can give good advice to your customers.

When you do decide to go public, you would find that several smaller tanks for individual types/species would work better for several reasons. Firstly, it would help to contain the spread of disease. Second, there would be minimal fish loss from fighting/predation among incompatible species. Third, it would allow you to easily manage your stock.

As for lighting, 850 hit the nail on the head about the shoplights

[Goes to 11!]

Hi everyone , we are complete novices to tropical fish keeping

THIS ALONE is reason enough to start privately as opposed to in a business.

[Trillianne]

Being new, I'd start with the ebook and the cycling links in Lady Hobb's signature. You need to be able to understand and explain to a person how the cycle of a tank works.

This is a common flaw with many pet shops... they haven't a clue and end up giving all kinds of bad advice which... while it does sell more fish as the originals die off it also frustrates the customer into potentially leaving the hobby. So when you feel you understand it completely.... Not only employ both methods so you can see how long or short they should take and come up with your own questions, but also find some person you know that doesn't know about fish and explain it to them to see how you did on the explaining.

Take a walk through the forums here and you will see several frequent mistakes that beginners make that you can educate your customer on to help them avoid.... things like putting Goldfish in far too small of spaces. (This will also help you as you will learn there really is no logical reason to actually sell a "fish bowl" so no need to waste floorspace and buying them for your shop) or having plecos in too small of tanks for their size. (In fact you could probably skip even getting common plecos from your suppliers in favor of ones that are more suitable for a much wider range of tank sizes.)