Fish Farming: Gain or Pain?

I have been running PK Endlers fish farm for over 5 years now. I've learned (and seen) surprising things: for example, Nerite snails can get to places you don't expect (like a dehydrator waste water bucket, five feet away from their tank). Nerites also copy other snails' behaviors, like burrowing into gravel (while been housed with Malaysian Trumpet Snails).

Sometimes fish get ambitious/rambunctious/threatened, and can jump out of their tanks, suiciding themselves or messing up the dna in another tank. Female guppies can *SNAP*, and start murdering the males they are housed with, because they've had ENOUGH. And Bladder Snails are crunchy underfoot first thing in the morning, if they escape their tanks overnight (ew!). >o_o<

Although learning about fish behavior is fun (most of the time), fish FARMING is work - not a hobby. The health & happiness of the fish is primary in fish farming; therefore, waste removal, water additions, tank & lid cleaning, equipment maintenance, feeding, sorting of fry, monitoring plant/algae growth, air pressure, heating and light monitoring need to be done for each tank. It cannot be "set aside".

For PK Endlers' 60 tanks, it can take between 6 - 10 hours per week just for fish housekeeping alone. Promotion takes another chunk of time, which can vary week to week. This includes everything from networking to maintaining a website and online stores, newsletters, social media, planning workshops, planning giveaways and designing merch; market research, doing videos and of course photographing the fish themselves.

Then there's inventory and acquisitions (a water filtration system, climate control and a generator were all investments I have made into my business in the last three years), travel, bookkeeping, shipping and zillions of other little time suckers that are part of running a business. And let's not forget taxes! Never forget taxes. And speaking of money, doing business in one of the worst economies since the Great Depression is, well, depressing. I've seen a lot of fish-related businesses close, especially in the past few years.

My life has been a perfect storm of learning, experience and happenstance that has made my fish farm business workable - in New Hampshire, of all places (where electric costs are the highest in the nation)! Many southern USA fish farms have very favorable outdoor conditions that makes outdoor fish farming super easy and cheap (when a hurricane isn't passing through). I expect these fish farms see the greatest profitability.

Is fish farming a pain or a gain? It's both, like so many other things in life. Profit only comes with investment and a fair amount of blessings/luck/rich relatives, lol. It isn't for everyone, and one good natural disaster, government idict or online store vicissitude can put you out of business. I'm Gen X, so I'm down for the fight and the adventure - but if modest profit and hair-raising complications isn't your thing, you do you instead! >o_o<