Robin Mannion, managing director of Pholium Mariculture UK, reflects on the basic considerations to take on board if you want to make your breeding hobby into a business.
IF YOU’RE ANYTHING like me, whenever you are thinking about keeping a new species, you’ll immediately start to wonder how they reproduce. Breeding behaviour is one of the most fascinating aspects of fishkeeping and can be incredibly rewarding—and occasionally even lucrative!
You probably won’t be able to quit the day job right away, but in many cases you might be able to offset some (if not all) of the expense associated with the hobby. With the rising energy costs affecting not only our friendly local aquatics shop, but also the average fishkeeper with one or two aquariums. Setting up a couple of breeding projects can go a long way to bringing down the costs.
In this article I’m going to take this concept a bit further and expand from a couple of tanks to an entire area dedicated to the fine art of marine fish culture and help you try and avoid some costly mistakes.
Insulate Insulate Insulate!
The first consideration when planning a fish breeding room is where to locate it. For most this will be an area often neglected by other members of the family, more often than not a garage or a basement. It could be anywhere though, as long as it’s an area that can be easily cleaned and not likely to be in the way.
In the UK, energy is by far the biggest ongoing cost of fish breeding and many species require higher temps to kick off their natural breeding instincts. Proper insulation is the best investment for this project and will pay for itself over and over once winter strikes.
For me, Kingspan sheeting is the most efficient method to stop your precious heat disappearing through the walls and ceiling.
Kingspan isn’t cheap, and while one layer of 50mm sheets would be adequate, two would be better. Kingspan is also relatively thin when compared with other insulating materials and when every inch counts, it’s a wise choice. Once installed you have a choice of materials to finish off the interior but make sure it functions well in high humidity and is wipeable—it will get sweatier than the Amazon rainforest in there and mould could be an issue. My favourite is white PVC cladding as it is easy to put up and gives a lovely clinical feel to the room, but you could just plaster and paint with bathroom paint.
The next major job before the fun bit begins is to
