Overseas Copepods Culture Setup and Sale Possibility? Is This Worth Pursuing?

[livinlifeinBKK]

Hey guys, so where I am in the world we're very limited in the live food department of the hobby and surprisingly live copepods aren't sold by any shops and very few people sell them (no idea if any people culture their own but I doubt it). I'm actually only aware of one company that sells them (tiger pods only actually) and an independent guy who sells one other pod species in bottles online which can be ordered and delivered by mail. I was thinking about starting my own culture of pods and trying to scale it up to levels at which point I could possibly start selling them bottled live like they do in America. I'm not talking about an industrial size operation, just something I could do as a side hustle in my little apartment. I had the idea that if I could appeal to the shops and get them to carry them it could bring on a decent little sum of money on the side. (I don't know how hard it would be to get a shop to carry them though so I'd be taking a risk.) This is why I'm asking here what I could expect the initial investment to be considering the setup I'd need to make quantities large enough to bottle and maybe an estimation on how long it would take the operation to become profitable. I could also culture grindal or white worms which are a great live food source also not sold by shops and only sold online by like 2 local vendors in starter culture quntities....can I have some input? If you guys need any more info feel free to ask!

 

[Jekyl]

I'm sure there is licensing involved when selling anything live. Just something to check in to.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I'm sure there is licensing involved when selling anything live. Just something to check in to.

I can look into that but I really doubt it would be an issue selling to the shops for them to sell to customers if you cultured them yourself...I'll definitely check that out though

 

[LordofCinder]

How many people reef where you are? Of the poeple that reef, what is there interest level in buying copepods? How much money will it cost you to set up this "small operation" in your part of the world? Will the selling cost be low enough to sell higher volume? Any legalities involved where you are?

I don't think we can help you, you need to do the market research to find our the viability of your idea.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

How many people reef where you are? Of the poeple that reef, what is there interest level in buying copepods? How much money will it cost you to set up this "small operation" in your part of the world? Will the selling cost be low enough to sell higher volume? Any legalities involved where you are?

I don't think we can help you, you need to do the market research to find our the viability of your idea.

Not a whole lot of reefers here but there are plenty of dragonets that move through the shops and I know the company selling tiger pods has been in business for years so I'd assume there would be some demand for live foods in general (we have a sparse frozen selection even)...the cost was one of my questions since I know plenty of members on R2R do culture pods and would therefore probably have a ballpark idea of the cost to set up the operation and I doubt it would cost much more than starting a culture anywhere else since the two main ingredients (pods and Phyto are present)...as for the legalities I HIGHLY doubt that would be an issue based upon previous experiences and how the law works in general here.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Ok guys, I've reached out to a couple shops and they actually are interested in the idea but want to know how long the shelf life would be of live bottled copepods which is something I'm unsure of. I know amount of Phyto in the bottle and temperature dictate life expectancy to a large degree...Does anyone know approximately how long they would last if kept refrigerated?

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

There's a lot of factors at play here . You need to consider every factor of over head cost down to the wattage your home uses to produce copepods. Not sure where your from but if taxes are a thing then you definitely need to include that as well . Honest opinion if you don't plan to ship your product it won't be worth the time or money local stores can only get you so far . Pod's can only survive so long in a bottle the reason you see Tig in your area is they can endure being refrigerated for long periods of time .

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I maybe ignorant of your Geography and Natural Resource, but couldn’t you just go to the Gulf of Thailand and collect all you would need? I can go to the Maryland Patuxant River, at the Solomons Bridge, and Collect all I want.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I maybe ignorant of your Geography and Natural Resource, but couldn’t you just go to the Gulf of Thailand and collect all you would need? I can go to the Maryland Patuxant River, at the Solomons Bridge, and Collect all I want.

It would be a minimum of a 2 hour drive to the closest beach and not many people are willing to do that from my experience nor do many people seem to prefer using live rock here from my experience...also collection of anything for personal use isnt legal in those areas

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

When I was a Teenager, living in South Florida, we raised Brine Shrimp in an old Washing Machine Tub. Found out a little bit of rust poking thru the Porcelain, resulted in a better yield. Put the tub under a tree and covered it with a piece of glass, salvaged from an old TV set. There’s someone on YouTube, that raises them in plastic tubs, set in a frame work. Interesting thing is, he tosses in a piece of banana peel.