Hey new to this forum, could help all

[PetMax]

Hi, i am new to this forum and i currently own a Pet Store. Its an 8000sq ft store with fish (salt, coral, water gardens, fresh, and brackish), Tank setups, reptiles, birds, small animals, cats, dogs and supplies for all. I am currently working on a website to help fund the store. I can get almost anything as long as it is not illegal in the state of kentucky, since i reside here. I know that i am new to this forum and there will be an initial trust issue. I am a member of many sites and i dont know if this one has a trader ratings section yet or not, but i hope to help contribute to your needs.

Thanks

Kyle
PetMax Plus

[maxpayne_lhp]

Welcome... lol Pet Max... So how's evrything at your shiop?

[PetMax]

Not to bad. WIll post some pics tomorrow of the store. Im hoping to provide alot of insight and learn alot here on this forum too.

[Beerleader]

Hey Petmax good to meet ya! I am in Lexington and we raise Discus. Do you happen to have any? And a good selection/size/color etc? Also if I can't get Just Fish to take my silver arrowana, would you be interested in taking it, its a long story but I am going to have to part with it. Thanks for any response and welcome to the forum.

[PetMax]

Originally Posted by Beerleader

Hey Petmax good to meet ya! I am in Lexington and we raise Discus. Do you happen to have any? And a good selection/size/color etc? Also if I can't get Just Fish to take my silver arrowana, would you be interested in taking it, its a long story but I am going to have to part with it. Thanks for any response and welcome to the forum.

We had a couple. They were about 6", one was a pigeon blood and hte other was a blue. We finally sold them. I can get just about any color you want. The standard size i can get are usually 2-3" sometimes bigger if your lucky. What size is your arowana? They dont really sell down here but they make a good display.

Kyle

[Beerleader]

My Arrowana is only about 6 inches, I only got him a little over a month ago from Just Fish in Lexington. I wanted one large fish and right now he's only in a 55 gallon although I was getting ready to purchase a very large tank for him to grow in. However, we had a sudden death in the family and now we are inherting a pit bull/mastiff that is well over 100 lbs..so now we are selling our townhouse to move to a home w/ a yard etc. It is just not feasible as far as the expense of this dog/training/food etc. for me to buy such a huge tank, so since he's new I figured he would be the one we'd have to sacrifice. Plus we have put tons of money in our discus and would never get our money's worth with them. So the arrowana is sadly the one that is gonna have to be parted with. I'll get back to you on whether Just Fish wants him back, if not I'd love it if I someone like you took him even for a display tank, I just want him to be taken care of. I know its something not a lot of ppl want due to the size of the fish and tank. Thanks so much for the reply, and I'll get back to ya as far as what Tim from Just Fish says. I do make frequent trips to Jamestown and Burnside to the lake so I would be happy to bring him to you if things turn out that way. Thanks again! I totally appreciate it.

[Baby_Baby]

Hey, welcome to the forums! I'm from kentucky too! but i live in Oklahoma!
so, what's the name of ur petstore? sounds really cool

[PetMax]

THe Name of hte Store is PetMax. Our biggest attractions to our store is:

10ft Albino Burmese
10'6'' Burmese
3ft Saltwater Nurse Shark (we hand feed him daily)
Large Blue/Gold Macaw
5ft Iguana
and a Freshwater Stingray.

Pics soon to come.

[fishfreaks]

Welcome to fish forums! hope yah sticka round, if you do, your bound to learn lots!

[shev]

welcome. If I'm ever in kentucky, and not busy eating chicken, I'll stop by your shop. I trust there will be a 20% fish forums membership discount

cant wait for pics! especially of the shark

[maxpayne_lhp]

and not busy eating chicken

Lol I plan too... hah ha, met Sanders several times.

[Fishfirst]

Welcome and I'm glad you are hear to LEARN! I too plan on opening my own petshop. Luckily my store won't be competing with yours , I'm going to be based near chicago, (I also want to work at the SHED aquarium). I'd love to see pics of the nurse sharks setup!

[TheOldSalt]

You're out of your mind, Fishfirst, but since you'll do it anyway, let me give you at least one bit of advice I hope you heed:

Don't get into a position which will allow your store to take you down with it.

[Fishfirst]

Actually I already had written up a buisness plan in highschool for one of my classes. I know the risk of failure, I'm by no means a gambling man, and it's not something I'm going to completely rely on. I also have been collecting a list of original ideas in the last couple years, and of coarse learning a whole lot. I know knowledge alone will not make the store a success but I love this hobby, I can't think of an any better job besides maybe the shed aquarium job I'd like to get.

[Scuba Kid]

well good luck!

[fishn00b]

Welcome to the forums, and I'll be sure to check out your site. Sounds great.

[PetMax]

Originally Posted by Fishfirst

Actually I already had written up a buisness plan in highschool for one of my classes. I know the risk of failure, I'm by no means a gambling man, and it's not something I'm going to completely rely on. I also have been collecting a list of original ideas in the last couple years, and of coarse learning a whole lot. I know knowledge alone will not make the store a success but I love this hobby, I can't think of an any better job besides maybe the shed aquarium job I'd like to get.

Well, since i do own a store already, ill let you in a secret. You will not be able to get a loan from any bank. No Bank will loan you the money for a pet store. They see it as a High Risk deal and they will not do it. You will have to save a LOT of money to pull it off.

[PetMax]

Here are the pics

Banana


Iggy


Bird Setup


Hemmingway


LionFish


Shark


Tiny


Front of my store



ive also got a poison arrow frog display that ill have to get pics for later. The ones i took did not come out that great.

[PetMax]

My shark is in a 220g with 2 emperor 400 filters and a penguin 330. All 3 filters have a dual biowheel setup, 3 powerheads, 3 300watt heaters, a Berlin Xlarge Protein Skimmer, and a Uv Steralizer. Also, with my shark, there are 2 XLarge lionfish. One is a Red Lion the other is black.

[TheOldSalt]

I don't know how long it's been since I went off on my last rant about the pet business, and I'm not going to do one now, but I will say this: petMax is right. The banks know that almost all petshops fail, and fail quickly, and that pet knowledge plays virtually NO PART WHATSOEVER in determining how well a store will do. The bad guys win every time.

It's VERY easy to delude yourself into thinking that your store will be a smash hit just because you know a little something about pets, and easier still to trick yourself into taking stupid risks to get the store up & running, thinking that everythig will work out just fine once the bucks start rolling in... HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHA!!!
There's no money in the pet biz unless you become one of the very scumbags you built your store to fight, unless by chance you build it in the perfect spot, which you can bet some other petshop already occupies. As for your love of the hobby, well, you can kiss THAT goodbye after it starts to destroy you a few months after opening. Once it's a job, and a hard one which pays less than you'd make delivering pizza, you may find yourself never wanting to look at another fish.

Me? Bitter?

If you ever want to show me your business plan, feel free. I'd bet that I can find a lot of things wrong with it that you would never suspect, but the banks know all too well. The pet biz is one of the dirtiest, meanest, most lowdown, viscious, & unprofitably cutthroat ventures you could ever imagine, but no one ever seems to believe that until it's too late. I'm just giving you this heads-up, because I'd hate to see you ruin your life, credit rating, and future.