How one Hobbyist turned his Fish Room into a Business

Once you've fallen in love with aquatics and fish tanks, it is easy to start accumulating aquariums and building that dream fish room. What if your significant other doesn't approve? Turn it into a business! That us what Chris Hardy did with his fish room. With a little over 20 aquariums, Chris has turned his fish room and passion into a little business where he sells everything that he uses personally.
Chris was a great guy to meet and talk with. He is the owner of Triton Freshwater Aquatics. He has being selling hardscape and shrimp products for a couple years now. Chris was nice enough to let us check out his basement fish room, shoot a quick fish room tour and asking him a ton of question!
If you'd like to support us, check out our website:
flipaquatics.com/
If you want to support Chris and see what he has to offer:
tritonfreshwateraquatics.com/
Check out our other Fish Room Tours:
• Fish Room Tours
Support us on Patreon:
/ flipaquatics

[@LupDiesel]

If you want to see fish rooms from around the world, you can support or travels here and help bring this community closer together :) www.patreon.com/flipaquatics

[@lukasseye2541]

Nice👍

[@paulnerlich6099]

Awesome fish room, but was really hoping to hear more about how he turned it into a business vs. just being a business.

[@jenburkholder6541]

Aquariums were my only love, besides reptiles amphibians and birds, really anything that moved. I used to work in a fish shop and despite its ups and downs it was what truly made me happy. Something truly horrific happened to me and led me away from aquariums, but I love your videos because I can still watch them. 😊

[@michaelkosater689]

I have purchased from Triton, couldn't recomend them more. Great service and products. And now that I see what a good guy he is I will definetly continue to do business with them.

[@tritonfreshwateraquatics4090]

Appreciate it Mike!

[@tbbbbbb]

The Christmas Garland is an absolute game changer. I'm glad I found this video.

[@TMAquatics]

Thanks for sharing. Didn’t know about Triton but it’s now bookmarked. 👍

[@tritonfreshwateraquatics4090]

Great video! Was a blast hanging out

[@AqualifeTv]

your L333 wants to breed again, he is fanning. once you got them going, they never stop

[@tritonfreshwateraquatics4090]

Oh yea, they’ve had probably 4 spawns since we shot this video

[@Somethingfishyinc]

Cool vid. Asked me about the ngara.. :/

[@dannyh7446]

Triton Freshwater Aquatics , what was the name the rock at 3.12?

[@shesellsfish]

Another nice guy in the hobby, awesome tour, Rob. Thanks

[@raisinggoldfishonabudget7058]

I love the way you think "don't sell stuff you don't use yourself" that's a GOOD way to be I wish everyone was that way I hate those that will sell or tell you anything just to get you to buy. I just watched your WHOLE video & you have a AWESOME fish room, keep up the great work.

[@ManBearPig1968]

Great tour, Thanks! Loved those Pleco fry!

[@PrairieJournals]

I really enjoy these videos. Fun and passionate about everyone's aquariums. Such beautiful fish. Thank you.🇨🇦

[@tritonfreshwateraquatics4090]

appreciate the compliments, fish always come first, hardscape is second :)

[@viperdrake2168]

Planning soon for business fishroom. Thank you for this video

[@HeatherNielsenScarletAquatics]

Love the Christmas Garland. What a great idea!

[@tritonfreshwateraquatics4090]

the never dying plant :)

[@raisinggoldfishonabudget7058]

@@tritonfreshwateraquatics4090 the wood with the holes in it that you have in your tanks how much is it for like a 3 ft piece?? & can you get it?

[@AquaApprentice]

Great tour. I hope to achieve this at some point. “Take the jump”

[@FridayFishFacts]

Another great video!

[@meanmuggin1899]

Very nice fish room, great video!

[@pittsburghpets3759]

awesome tour and video!!!!!! if your ever in Pittsburgh PA id love to do a tour of my tanks on your channel some day

[@Jbooth96]

I love this dude :D!!

[@mybeesshrimp1687]

Awesome room chris has there :)

[@AqualifeTv]

great fishroom =)

[@artichokez3270]

nice vid id love some of the white w/green shiny sides corys, and the black and white spotty guppies!

[@vspinkboi]

Cool been looking for a fresh water fish guy

[@STLFANSS]

16:25 Well I didn't want guppys until now. Awesome looking.

[@prince151ful]

Take the jump.. I love it👍👍

[@garydalrymple5997]

Setting up my Ghost knife tank. This would the second time I have raised this nocturnal freak. Converting my piranha tank.Thinkin 1900 gallons grow em out. Rare creep fish.

[@Jaywil07]

Yeah BABY FLIPTASTIX

[@diversdown2116]

I better qiut watching videos and get back to workin on the new shrimp room

[@LupDiesel]

Yes you better :D

[@eighthnotch_]

I wonder where he got that christmas garland. I'm nervous Ill get the wrong type.

[@nick_5397]

I love his fish alot but can i get his design of the stand please

[@Shleeeemp]

The. Actual. Dream.

[@maniatikoleal]

24:20 epic!

[@yanjijay6752]

Was wondering do you keep crayfish to & how do you sex & breed them thanks

[@MrRondeezzee]

I know more about African fish then he does. Gives me hope I can do this also!!!!

[@sverreslotfeldt7674]

Great video! I have a question for Chris. The Pygmy Cories tank was particularly interesting to me. I have 5 of these in my community tank, and didn't think of a species tank! I'd like to replicate what Chris did and set up a species only tank. It was kind of hard to hear what Chris said around that segment of the video; is there a web page you can recommend for breeding pygmy cories? I think you said that the trick is to lay a layer of glass pebbles in the corner of the tank? Is that it, or are there any other things that would help them breed, i.e., what's the best food to feed them to get them in breeding condition? What water parameters do you recommend, ph, tds and temperature wise? I can't remember at the moment if the ones I have are the habrasus or the hestatus subspecies, but I assume they are similar with respect to breeding. Fun to watch this video, and I congratulate Chris on being able to turn his hobby and passion into a business! Lots of us who have tried that knows how difficult that can be. I paid attention when you said you started out selling plans and then moved to things that were easier to sell, and I think that's very good advice to anyone trying to start a business: Focus on what the customer really needs and wants. I know of someone who started a GREAT gluten free bakery, but they failed because they didn't want to face the fact that the people in that community couldn't care less about gluten free eating. It seems so very obvious that it shouldn't be necessary to mention, but yet so many so many business start-ups fail to recognize this. I have to admit that I would never consider shipping hard scape via mail due to the shipping costs, but obviously you figured out a way to make that profitable, which means that the demand is there....great! :)

[@tritonfreshwateraquatics4090]

Hello Sverre, for my Pygmy cories the tank set up is: thin layer sand, sponge filter, low light, couple small plants and a layer of clear glass marbles in one area. These cories like to hide under things, so a piece of slate propped up is also appreciated. I kept it cool, around 74-75*, mix my foods up between repashy grub pie and some small omnivore pellets / granulars. Need to understand they are small, so don't overfeed. The rest is patience, I had them 2 years before they bred for me, I do small water changes weekly (like 10%). PH in our area is around 7.4. I hope that helps! And shipping hardscape isn't bad at all, I've set up accounts with shipping companies that make it very reasonable to ship and do what you see is what you get on the website so people can pick their favorites!

[@sverreslotfeldt7674]

Chris, I should be able to replicate that, minus the patience part! ;)That's in short supply, but I realize it's key! It might also be that they'll have to reach a certain size before they breed. I'll check out the repashy grub pie on your site. Thanks for your reply!

[@tritonfreshwateraquatics4090]

honestly I'm not sure how old were when mine bred, a 10g tank and kinda let them be is key

[@sverreslotfeldt7674]

Yeah, probably leaving them in a low light setting on a bottom rack away from disturbances were contributing factors. It's strange with fish breeding, sometimes we try to create the perfect breeding setup, and nothing happens. Then, when we lose interest and move on to other projects, and then one day we notice little fish fry swimming around in the tank! The pygmy corys seem like they're shy fish to begin with; they always hang out among the plants in the back of my community tank during the day time, when they can see me approaching the tank. At night, in a dark room with a lit tank, they seem much more gregarious. So I think you're right about "letting them be."

[@thefishylife6823]

At the beginning I think he meant to say lemon Jake? I don't think they are flame tails but all that aside this fishroom is amazing!!

[@gore1]

The Fishy Life ! Agreed. Not flame tails.

[@tritonfreshwateraquatics4090]

Sadly I think they were mislabeled when I purchased them - why I keep tags on all the tanks. I've since been referring to them as just "Peacocks" with the understanding the jury is out and that they sadly may be hybrids.

[@thefishylife6823]

@@tritonfreshwateraquatics4090 yeah , I have purchased juvenile peacocks several times that have turned out not to be what I purchased...I kinda wish discus and peacocks we're treated like rainbowfish where collection point bloodlines are respected and preserved but sadly they have bred all types of hybrids ... I have never seen a pigeon blood swimming in the Orinoco!!!

[@andrewbowlgarte4738]

i used to breed apistos in a 30 and still had to pull after spawning ,males would always harass the female and fry would get eaten in return, mine were always wild caught mostly macmasteri

[@Derdeakea]

Love this fish room! Those are not Venezuelan Cory cats but I would love to know what type those are. They are really beautiful.

[@tritonfreshwateraquatics4090]

I agree - never was able to get a positive ID on them... the joys of Auctions sometimes

[@exoticaqualife1386]

Why is my wild caught shrimps turning white and dying is there a cure for that I need help.

[@kingkalabok]

I purchased a few rocks from this seller on Etsy a few weeks back: www.etsy.com/shop/AquaDesertHardscapes My shrimp love them. What is cool about the shop is that what you see pictured is the exact rock you get. Looks like he is always adding new rocks to the inventory.

[@ericamezcua9357]

Can I only order two cherry shrimp but not more from you?

[@plecoarmy100]

Is it just me, or does every fish room tour have heaters laying on the bottom of tanks!

[@jamiemullen8141]

This isn’t HOW he did it. It’s just a fish room tour

[@generalwoe359]

Shame to see em gone 😕

[@sih3725]

1:35 they aren't solid black sword tails 🙄🙄🙈