Aquarium Maintenance Service

The Market
Your clients can be businesses that find fish to be relaxing for their customers--doctors, dentists and restaurants are all good candidates--but you’ll also do work for various other businesses. You’ll find that some of your clients will be private parties who love fish but don’t have the time, desire or expertise to care for their finny friends. And of course, you’ll have business and residential customers with ponds and water gardens. Establish relationships with fish-store and pet-store owners and ask them to refer their customers to you. You can offer them a finder’s fee for each successful referral. (Don’t forget to leave plenty of your business cards for them to hand out.) Place ads in the pet section of your local newspaper. Send brochures to interior designers who specialize in commercial establishments--they can refer you to their clients. And if you plan to go the pond route, get in with garden and nursery retailers, and landscape architects and contractors, who can give you referrals.

Needed Equipment
You don’t need a lot to get started--some resource books and equipment like siphons, nets, algae pads, buckets, planting sticks and tongs, and plastic tarps and towels. You’ll purchase fish food, saltwater test kits and any necessary medications but pass the costs along to your clients. You’ll also set up aquariums for clients, so you’ll need to establish relationships with fish stores or wholesalers who can give you good deals, or else stock your own home tanks from which you can draw.