Economic lesson for my son today

lizardman_u

lizardman_u

Joined
Nov 28, 1999
Messages
1,710
Today my son and I took the dog to the groomers bright and early, bought our groceries, came home, put groceries away and started laundry.

Then about 1:30 this afternoon I had him help me hold a clear plastic bag (the kind you put live tropical fish in) and we put 16 swordtail fish (born on 31 Oct 08) in the bag, went and picked up the dog and took the fish to the pet store that is in the next town over. We sold the fish to the pet store for $2.50 each for a total of $40.00 (which pays for the two aquariums I purchased used back in August 08).

He is seeing how taking care of animals so you can sell the young will eventually pay enough to support the hobby of fish keeping.

My son is eight and has been very helpful taking care of the fish tanks by feeding the fish in the mornings, turning on the tank lights to help me simulate a day/night cycle, and helping me clean the tanks and do partial water changes in the tanks weekly (10% or so per week).

He also was a big help getting groceries and pointed out a savings on cheese when we were buying the groceries today.

Dave
 
Now set your son up with a breeding tank and a couple of others to rear the young in. I didn't have the traditional paper route when I was his age, and into my early teens (50+ years ago).

My Dad had about 1/4 of the basement filled with aquariums on two - tiered 2x4 racks. Below those were the old fashioned porcelain on steel refrigerator liners with the holes plugged with rubber washers on brass bolts. I learned to breed various bubble nesters in aquariums, and raised the young in the fridge liners on a diet of live brine shrimp.

Saturday mornings I called all the pet & aquarium shops in town, bagged the orders, and Dad drove me to deliver them.

Got to spend a lot of quality time with Dad, earned my spending money, and didn't have to go out in bad weather delivering newspapers.

As I recall, twenty five cents apiece was a good price back then.

Thanks for the memory !

Fran
 
Fran,
we have three tanks, two ten gallon tanks in his room and a twenty gallon in my room. All three are planted tanks (have live plants, no fake plants).

In the twenty gallon tank is guppies (and guppy fry), neon tetras and red cherry shrimp. I have already taken a dozen guppies down and sold them to the fish store for $1.00 each. of the two ten gallon tanks one has the pair of swordtails, kuhli loaches, a cat fish, and a couple other fish. and the second 10 gallon tank I use for a rearing tank for the swordtail fry (and guppy fry if they are both about the same size).

The shrimp have already produced a few young and I hope for more so we can sell them as well.

I would love to get a large tank and do more fish breeding, but right now the wife isn't exaclty in favor of that idea (she probably will come around the more this progresses).


This all started shortly before I got married as the boy had a fish tank with two fish in it (10 gallon tank) that I noticed needed a heater, so after getting that tank running properly with all the equipment I purchased two more tanks and equipment (used), and got bit by the aquarium bug.

Right now I am trying to find a good source for cardinal shrimp as they are a new species found in Indonesia last year or in 2007 and are still rare in the aquarium hobby world wide and thus are expensive.

Dave
 
I never heard of the cherry shrimp Dave, but I'm sure there are many new species being kept since I was last involved. The last was a single Jack Dempsey in a 30 gal. tank in the kitchen; 30 years ago. He was about 12'' in length, and I used to entertain guests by tossing big chucks of dog chow in the tank so Jack would splash everyone.

Dad left last July at age 92, and your experience with your boy brought back memories of many great evenings together in the basement.

All the best to you and your son.

Fran
 
Hmm...fish keeping, that might save me from working with really stupid target workers, and wal-mart workers...
 
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