# Starting a Shrimp farm...



## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

> Of course all shrimp sold to members would be half price.


 LIKE! I haven't "farmed" shrimp myself but i hear that you can make a pretty decent amount of spare cash from it... just don't quit your job to become a shrimp farmer. :hihi:


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## Master Se7eN (Aug 23, 2010)

Of course not. This will supply me with endless fun money to spend on my "main" tank I hope.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

If I were in your shoes I'd start breeding more rare shrimp.


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## Master Se7eN (Aug 23, 2010)

I have about $400 to spend to get started. I was planning to start with Cherry reds and crystal reds then use the first profits to move into other shrimp. My question is do you think the profits will be enough to keep doing it?


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## Master Se7eN (Aug 23, 2010)

Also I already have 15 20 gal tanks sponge filters and strip lights from Home depot 48" each (all one t-12 per strip) what else do you think I will need to get this going?


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

Substrate air pumps food and a whole lot of other things. You will start exceeding that $400 very quickly.


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## thirston (Nov 17, 2004)

My advice... pick the shrimp that are best suited for your water supply. The last thing you want to be doing is trying to work the water around the shrimp. Also remember that you are already 6+ months behind in any shrimp game unless you have a direct supplier of rare shrimp. Meaning... nobody sells the prototype. The shrimp you see in the hobby now have been in other peoples possession long enough for them to have mastered the art of breeding them. Any shrimp you buy today that's considered "hot" will take you 6+ months to catch up to the current breeders and by then they will have far surpassed you and may very well be onto the next thing. "If you ain't first you're last!" -Ricky Bobby


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

thirston said:


> My advice... pick the shrimp that are best suited for your water supply. The last thing you want to be doing is trying to work the water around the shrimp. *Also remember that you are already 6+ months behind in any shrimp game unless you have a direct supplier of rare shrimp*. Meaning... nobody sells the prototype. The shrimp you see in the hobby now have been in other peoples possession long enough for them to have mastered the art of breeding them*. Any shrimp you buy today that's considered "hot" will take you 6+ months to catch up to the current breeders and by then they will have far surpassed you *and may very well be onto the next thing. "If you ain't first you're last!" -Ricky Bobby


 Very true. There are already new shrimp coming out as we speak. In 6 months time there will be probably 1-3 different variations being perfected.


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## JCoxRocks (Mar 22, 2005)

msnikkistar said:


> Very true. There are already new shrimp coming out as we speak. In 6 months time there will be probably 1-3 different variations being perfected.


 And probably coming out of your tank. :wink: 

J


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

jcoxrocks said:


> and probably coming out of your tank. :wink: J


 shhhhhhhh!


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## Baadboy11 (Oct 28, 2009)

You could always try to breed a specific trait and see if it becomes "hot" like polka dot cherry shrimp???? * . . NEVERMIND I CALLED IT FIRST!!! . . *.......Anyone have any spotted cherry shrimp they want to sell me? :biggrin:


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## [email protected] (Jul 17, 2008)

Please don't kid yourself that you are going into hobby shrimp to make money. You haven't thought this through. Adding to that You're way under financed. $400.00 won't buy you 5 starter tanks of high quality breeding stock of Crystal anything. 

Start two tanks of the highest quality breeding stock you can get and expand from there if you seriously think shrimp breeding is for you. 

I do know a tiny bit about businesses. I had one for many years. I fully supported my family of five qualified for a home mortgage and paid all the bills for over a dozen years until a foreign supplier put me out of business. They shipped shelf ready product for less than my cost of materials. 

As to shrimp I've kept them for three years. For two years I've put together a group buy for the local "chapter". We keep purchasing as only one of us has had real success expanding our shrimp populations and they're not to the selling point yet. Good luck.


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## tw33kerloki (Aug 24, 2009)

Whatever happened to just keeping them because they look cool? Or wanting to play mad scientist?:hihi: Or maybe Nikki can sell shares in her future BKK farm?


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

[email protected] said:


> Please don't kid yourself that you are going into hobby shrimp to make money. You haven't thought this through. Adding to that You're way under financed. $400.00 won't buy you 5 starter tanks of high quality breeding stock of Crystal anything. Start two tanks of the highest quality breeding stock you can get and expand from there if you seriously think shrimp breeding is for you. I do know a tiny bit about businesses. I had one for many years. I fully supported my family of five qualified for a home mortgage and paid all the bills for over a dozen years until a foreign supplier put me out of business. They shipped shelf ready product for less than my cost of materials. As to shrimp I've kept them for three years. For two years I've put together a group buy for the local "chapter". We keep purchasing as only one of us has had real success expanding our shrimp populations and they're not to the selling point yet. Good luck.


I don't know much about the whole shrimp thing but $400 is a lot of money.. he already has all of the equipment so i think that'll be enough to buy enough good-quality shrimp to get started (based on SnS prices that i've seen). 

I think you're taking this too seriously... he's not looking to make a living off of breeding shrimp but rather something to fuel the hobby (which it'll definitely do if done correctly). Maybe you could look into yellows, snowballs, or green shrimp instead of CRS?


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

400 dollars wont get you very far lets say you buy 100 CRS with that 400 dollars which is probably about right. Let's say you are new to keeping shrimp (sounds like it). Soooo lets say you lose 20% of those CRS leaving you with 80. Out of the 80 you split them into 2 20 gallon tanks making colonies of 40. Take into account the adjustment period and since you bought 100 to begin with they are most likely juveniles or a mix of baby/adult... We're talking 1 month at the soonest (with all adults) to up to 6 months if any juvies are involved. With the gestation period being at 4 weeks average and those babies taking up to 6 months to start producing themselves you've got a VERY long road ahead of you. I'm in the middle now of doing something similar and I can tell you that I've invested thousands of dollars into my setup and shrimp and I'm nowhere near being able to sell any of them (except cherries of course). If you are serious about this I'd start amassing good breeding stock now and not expect any sales or profit for at least 2 years if you're seriously planning on that many tanks and investing only 400 dollars in livestock.


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## rasbora (Sep 1, 2006)

You may consider some sort of fish that is not too hard rather than shrimp. It seems that the availability of a shrimp hits a certain critical mass and then the price goes to basically a dollar a shrimp - which isn't that bad with the numbers you're thinking about but you could also do something like CPD/Galaxy rasbora which take longer to rear but you already have the gear to start and they might earn you more over time.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

lol yeah not to mention CPDs breed every week with a incubation period of 80 hours instead of breeding every 6 weeks with an incubation period of 4 weeks. And really they breed themselves


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## Master Se7eN (Aug 23, 2010)

I already have the tanks filtration substrait lights and basically everything that I need to get started. The money I have alloted is for shrimp only. Also I have around 200 cherries and 20 crystals to help get things moving. I am not looking to make a living from this only to give me more income to supply my main tank and keep the farming going. Everyone has given me some really good ideas so far and I may look into some different types of shrimp to add variaty.

The idea of CPD is looking good too. I may have to look more into breeding them in a few tanks as well.


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## EKLiu (Jan 14, 2010)

I suggest saving up more money for buying some blue bolt shrimp. Breed those and then sell them to me for half price.  Another good suggestion would be to first buy a dozen CRS and make sure you can keep them alive. If you can get them to breed then you can start thinking about a shrimp farm.


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

If that is the case then why have so many tanks? Why not start out with 2-3 tanks and work up from there?


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## Master Se7eN (Aug 23, 2010)

I have this many tanks because I found a pet store going out of bussiness and bought the lot of tanks they had for sale. I don't have to use them all and will probably start out with a few of them at first. Everything came with the tanks except the lights. I got them on craigslist about a week ago for free.(still in the HD packaging)


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

This would be one massive shrimp farm. take a look at how these guys operate.
http://www.aquanet.tv/Video/189-zu-besuch-im-garnelenhaus-die-gebrueder-logemann


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## DANIELSON (Jul 15, 2010)

The way it sounds is that you arent trying to make a huge international interprize or anything lol. So i say go for it. You can always make some money on breeding these guys and if you already have everything i would set up a few get it kick started then have a few other tank set up and when those new shrimps start hitting the market you can invest in some of those and get that going to keep you up to par. If anything i think it would be fun to do and make a little money with it too.


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## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

If it were me, I would want to find out if I could make back any money I spend. So if you spend $400 how quickly will you make that back? If it takes a year to pay it back, not worth it unless this is mostly for pleasure than I say go for it.


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## kimdawg (Jan 25, 2010)

Just do it. I live outside of Athens, Ga. and it would be great to have someone close that was selling CRS or any other kind of shrimp besides cherry shrimp. I cant find anyone local selling anything. Our pet stores around here only have ghost shrimp.


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## irbenson (Jun 14, 2010)

I have no expertise with most shrimp/inverts, but what about CPOs? Their orange color is phenomenal...


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## [email protected] (Jul 17, 2008)

AzFishKid said:


> I don't know much about the whole shrimp thing but $400 is a lot of money.. he already has all of the equipment so i think that'll be enough to buy enough good-quality shrimp to get started (based on SnS prices that i've seen).
> I think you're taking this too seriously... he's not looking to make a living off of breeding shrimp but rather something to fuel the hobby (which it'll definitely do if done correctly). Maybe you could look into yellows, snowballs, or green shrimp instead of CRS?


$400.00 might pay for 40 to 100 quality breeders CRS. Down breeding is easy. Keeping up the quality of your breeding stock takes intensive culling. While those culls are easy to sell, They are more apt to bring in $1.00 than $5.00. 

He is looking at six months to a year before he can start selling shrimp. 
Most importantly - If my post can dissuade him, how serious can he be?


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## TeamTeal (Mar 31, 2010)

it is never easy to get something like this going. but you will never gain anything without actually doing it. so if you are up for it go ahead and give it a shot


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## EKLiu (Jan 14, 2010)

[email protected] said:


> $400.00 might pay for 40 to 100 quality breeders CRS. Down breeding is easy. Keeping up the quality of your breeding stock takes intensive culling. While those culls are easy to sell, They are more apt to bring in $1.00 than $5.00.


 
Even C grade CRS bring in more than $1.


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

Your not far from Gainesville FL!!!!


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## FDNY911 (Dec 6, 2009)

Good luck and have fun doing it! I'm sure you know what your doing.


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## plamski (Sep 25, 2009)

I just started 6 months ago for fun with 4x 20gal tanks.
You will need RO/DI unit, chillers or other source to lower temperature, food, KH and GH supplements, a lot of live stock-hopefully they won’t die like mine, 2-3 hour every day for feeding, cleaning, etc.4-10h per week for water changes. No vacation longer than 3-4 days (-:.If you are still interested you can ask me how much it cost me till now. Of course there is other more important thing-to enjoy the hobby.
P.S. if you are thinking to have CRS with other substrate than Amazonia you are looking for troubles or for very minor hatch rate. Don’t forget a lot of plants too. 
GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAVE FUN


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## gordonrichards (Jun 20, 2009)

Yeah, the going away on vacations part sucks!

That happened to me once, now my tanks are easily accessible for others in my house to take care of when I'm not around.

You really have to feed them every day. Forget about that "wait a day or two between feedings"


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## Jaggedfury (Sep 11, 2010)

Master Se7eN said:


> I have this many tanks because I found a pet store going out of bussiness and bought the lot of tanks they had for sale. I don't have to use them all and will probably start out with a few of them at first. Everything came with the tanks except the lights. I got them on craigslist about a week ago for free.(still in the HD packaging)


All you need is one 55gallon tank. $400 dollars can get you 200 +15 CRS S/S+ Grades or 90 CRS Hino Grades. Interested in information? PM Me.

If Shrimps isn't your thing, try a planted tank with sough out plants that people like.

Such as Eriocaulon species plants and Starougyne repens. That's if you don't kill the plants. $400 dollars is well than enough to get you started, once the plants grows.. learn how to split it and sell it. They make good money.


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

Jaggedfury said:


> All you need is one 55gallon tank. $400 dollars can get you 200 +15 CRS S/S+ Grades. Interested in information? PM Me.


That's a lot of shrimp for a little money, unless you know a wholesaler


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## Jaggedfury (Sep 11, 2010)

I know a wholesaler. Friend of mines. Distant friend lol.


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

LOL, I gather "distant" means overseas hahahaha


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## Jaggedfury (Sep 11, 2010)

Nope, 2 hour drive  I buy some from time to time to pick out better solid coloration for my breeding colonies.


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

SAY WHAT!? ONLY 2 HOURS FROM US!? 

I need more shrimpies!


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## Jaggedfury (Sep 11, 2010)

Yepp. Lol, That's how I got into CRS  I made more than enough selling and breeding it. I still sell some here and there and I definitely used them to eat algae also. It's not really all about profits.. I like their presents in a tank, looks cool and keep tanks clean. Getting a bid tired of them lol. Haven't put any up for sale the last month. Maybe because I bought a new house and the thought of moving all the tanks is just mind blowing! If your interested, I can get some for you too. Not sure if you want S+ and Hino grades, since you have the higher grades 

Lower grades sell way faster which beats the outcome prices of higher grades! 

Oh btw, $400 can get you 90 CRS HINO!

If you guys are local, and you need to get some. Must be alot though, not worth driving there for low quanities. Keep in mind I drive a 300ZX Twin Turbo that eats massive amount of gas 91 all the way. So gas will be budget in also!


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

O_O

PM me with info.


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## Jaggedfury (Sep 11, 2010)

Info sent.


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## EKLiu (Jan 14, 2010)

plamski said:


> I just started 6 months ago for fun with 4x 20gal tanks.
> You will need RO/DI unit, chillers or other source to lower temperature, food, KH and GH supplements, a lot of live stock-hopefully they won’t die like mine, 2-3 hour every day for feeding, cleaning, etc.4-10h per week for water changes. No vacation longer than 3-4 days (-:.If you are still interested you can ask me how much it cost me till now. Of course there is other more important thing-to enjoy the hobby.
> P.S. if you are thinking to have CRS with other substrate than Amazonia you are looking for troubles or for very minor hatch rate. Don’t forget a lot of plants too.
> GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAVE FUN


 
Your description is not of a hobby, more like a part time job.


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## Shelldweller (May 22, 2010)

Read this on shrimp farming. 
http://www.tadege.com/cherryshrimpfarming.htm


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## Jaggedfury (Sep 11, 2010)

Awesome link, Shelldweller! How's the Ventura!? Lovely houses up there! Almost bought a house there near the beach. Looked at Two! Didn't go right =\


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## n00dl3 (Jan 26, 2008)

I would do it but you'll need more than $400. The key is patient. Like everyone says it will takes at least 6 months for you to recoup your money. I would highly recommend looking into an automatic water changing system. It will save you a ton of time, so you'll still have a life.


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## desertVet (Jan 11, 2016)

*What's Hot*

Good luck with your project. Great comments too. The comments brings me to a question. Someone mentioned being six months behind what is hot. Is there a way to keep in touch with what is hot? Is there a newpaper or voice who says what is the latest greatest? Thanks

Bump: Good luck with your project. Great comments too. The comments brings me to a question. Someone mentioned being six months behind what is hot. Is there a way to keep in touch with what is hot? Is there a newpaper or voice who says what is the latest greatest? Thanks


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## liljaime (Aug 25, 2013)

Hey just wanted to add my experience a lot of good advises given here. I started with 2 20g tanks with cherries and yellows breed like crazy but, yes you have to wait months for them to grow to sellable. I think I did to combat this wait time is plants!!! They help the shrimp and they'll help you too. I choose Java moss and Java fern first easy fast growers and great for shrimp takes cut and prune to sellable sizes like 2-2" squares and 3-4 leaf sections again not millions of $ but it was enough for me to pay for food co2 and other equipment. Then once the shrimp where going strong I moved to crystal shrimps but, after lots of work and tears I gave in on them with 2 shrimp tanks and 1 show tank in my apt. Was just too hot and getting the RO-DI water was too much work so went back to neocardina shrimp breeding high grade cherries, yellows and carbons. They need little to no work I feed once ever 2 days and change 25% water per week. I sell shrimp at 1-3$ each and sell around 20-30 every 2 months, plants I sell at 1-3$ a bounce and moss I usually sell at baseball size for ~10$+ I'd say around 30-40$ every 2 months in plants. So enough for me to progress in my hobby for 100% free but again not really making much money. 
So in the end my advise to 
-first check your tap water in the area- much cheaper and easier to work with you water then make your own.
-check your temperature where your tanks will be- remember more tanks you have the higher the temp is going to be and not just the temp at the moment remember the heat of the summer too- lost many crystals in the summer time from heat chillers cut into you profit!
-get some fast and easy growing plants- like crypts, Java fern, Anubius.... great choose mosses! My most profitable Xmas moss! but all mosses sell.
-Save your styrofoam, talk to your local fish store and get there styrofoam boxes after there shipments cut them down to shipping size saves a lot of your running costs for shipping 
-last start slow! You'll have to fight the urge to just jump all in and you'll end up paying for it later. I personally target easy hardy cheap livestock that I breed up to higher grade as I go selling off culls, only make 1-3$ each but they sell every time and never have problems in shipping.
Hope this helps


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## JBreezy (Jan 19, 2015)

Jaggedfury said:


> Info sent.


Just tried messaging you but your inbox is full


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## randym (Sep 20, 2015)

This thread is from 2010. JaggedFury hasn't been on since 2014.


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## JBreezy (Jan 19, 2015)

randym said:


> This thread is from 2010. JaggedFury hasn't been on since 2014.


Holy crap. Didn't realize how old this thread was cause it came up in the "new posts" Sorry!


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