# advice about stores



## blossom112 (Mar 19, 2008)

thanks all .... what are your experiances with stores and selling your overstock ?
or returning .
pretty soon i am going to have a huge boom in baby cleaner shrimp i curently have thousands and am going to need to sell them no way my tank can take that bio load .lol
but no way im going to get ripped off either from a store ............my friend told me big al's will only give me 3 dollars a peice for them ???? and they sell them for 30 dollars .........i honestly would rather flush them then sell them for 3 bux's each .
I will have to start unloading them in a month or so any ideas???
thanks a bunch (my tank has about 2 to 3 thousand omg they just love my tank and the babies are having babies OMG)
p.s. im thinking 12.50 a peice think thats an ok price ?? they are 30 in store


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## hojimoe (Mar 7, 2008)

the price BA's will pay will depend store to store... which is why having a car ride will help...

I found when I sold off my cichlid fry a few times, that you get different prices each time you call. Scarborough store gave me the lowest rates, with prices of about 25% of the normal retail .... North york yonge/steeles however, gave me the best at 50% of retail... for my yellow labs I got $7/fish (13.99 retail), adults I got $15.00/ fish ($29.99 retail)...or something about that

I found it also depends who you talk to on the phone/meet at the store...hopefully you get the same person, just make sure you ask their name, and when you get there ask for them before you say what you're doing lol

they do only give store credit, which sucks, but it's easy to spend it at big als lol..


I'd expect BA's to give you ~$10/shrimp depending on size...they will tell you "shrimp are more delicate and harder to keep, so we pay you less"

grow them out until your bioload can't take anymore then go to BA's 

but call in the meantime to check prices/if they will take them


can always just charge other members $10/shrimp so you can get cash


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## UnderTheSea (Jun 2, 2008)

It really depends on the size of the stock, what they have on order and demand within the store. Due to BA being more of a box store they have really good purchasing power. They are not going to give you $10 for a shrimp they can get for $5. (No I'm not saying they pay only $5/shrimp this was purely an example)

When you are ready to off load them give me a shout  A baby cleaner shrimp will retail between $15-$20, medium to large ones will go between $20-$30.

Oh and congrats on your babies


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Grats blossom!

I know mark up is about 3 times the purchase price.. I wouldnt doubt more for saltwater because of loss and cost of upkeep.. So you'll see that crazy markup often.

Put me down for a baby??


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Ask Harold at Menagerie. He's always up for locally raised stock, and cultured shrimp would be something I think he'd go for.


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## blossom112 (Mar 19, 2008)

oh thanks all .........
dont worrie their are more then enough to go around lol
I looked last night and im guessing their are way more then i think lol
but are definately in the thousands .
but months ago in doing my research i read lots will die during their final molt ,and they are very hard to rear sw shrimp fry , but knock on wood i have followed the tips and they all seem to be surviving .

I am so pleased to have so many babies , but i cant get any fish or hermits it sucks , so im hoping to get another tank and i want to try different types of SW shrimps .
I will let you all know when they have completed their final molt and are ready to go 

retail for cleaner shrimp is way more then 15-20 i have never seen them under 30 but i dont go to many stores.
I will give you all a shout when ready  im hoping to sell them and get a purple tang 

I baught a purple tang at big al's and it died so now hubby says i have to come up with my own cash lol so will be nice to get some fish .............but have to get a new tank then lol


so my L134 is pregnant and the BN is pregnant ...........and i have no clue on prices (if they survive) so i paid 40 each for my L134 do i sell them for 20 then ? sounds 2 cheap to me .
and what would a store give ? I havent a clue on retail on the BN either............im so lost


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

lol forced to fund your hobby eh?

BTW, NAFB sells cleaners for $20.


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## quangbui (Apr 12, 2008)

i sell my cleaners for 20 bucks too where are you buying these cleaners for so expensive!


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## blossom112 (Mar 19, 2008)

big als and nafb ...........


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## Canadiancray (Apr 27, 2006)

Don't think you are going to make any large amount of money breeding fish or inverts. Unless you have a species that is high demand low supply its just not going to happen. Nobody ever got rich from breeding fish. 

What a store will give you is usually 3-5 times less than they sell them for. Best bet is to sell them on places like aquabid or at local clubs.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Blossom, you mentioned in another thread that the babies have eggs too, and were only about 1 cm in length?

Are you sure you don't have lots of mysid shrimp?


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## UnderTheSea (Jun 2, 2008)

I totally agree with you Craig. Breeding marine anything is no easy task and the returns are very small. Most get into it thinking they are going to make a huge return but quickly find out it's not so. One of the biggest issues in the Pet industry is all the middle men which drives up the cost to the end customer. Most products hit at least 2 places before it's even in your hands (manufucturer\breeder\harvester sells to wholesaler, then to the retail store, then to the hobbyist). The more hands the product touches the more coin we are going to pay.


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## blossom112 (Mar 19, 2008)

not at all , i dont intend on making "big" money ,i just want to get a few things for my tanks lol

I wanted to see if i could actually get the cleaner shrimp to survive as hours of reading was telling me it was near next to impossible and so hard to do .
in my endover i had to move my fish and crabs as to be sure they wouldnt be fish food ,then i had to find food ,cyclopese is easy enough to find but rotifilers are not so easy to finf and cope pods are almost impossible .
and then theres the final molt , and many tend to die just from that alone .
so i may end up with nothing in the end .
i think thats a great idea to get them straight to people instead of going to stores that would save us all money and really im even open to freshwater or saltwater trades (everyone knows that ))))
so any ideas on where would be great as i havent a clue .

so far this has been sucessfull i think im going to look for a few different types of


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