CSB = Community Supported Betta

Just got an idea after watching the "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" where he went through the full process of conversion of his farm to be CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). More references here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture.

Well, the idea is pretty much the same. We loved bettas, bred bettas for its enjoyment, but the associated cost of such hobby is pretty high. So, what if we have something similar to CSA whereby a bunch of enthusiasts pool some cash for a spawn?

It boils down to something very simple:

1. find a pair that everyone interested in
2. acquire the pair
3. "shareholders" pay for part of the cost
4. at the end of 2 or 2.5 months, all shareholders will get their share of the spawn

Deciding the cost is a bit difficult though, so let's run some numbers just for the sake of arguments:

1. buying fish $150 ($80 for a pair in AUD!, $50 for transhipping, $20 for local shipping)
2. electricity $100 (breeding tank, fry tank, growout tanks need to have heater at least for the first 1.5 month for consistent temp)
3. foods $50 x 4 ($50 per 2 weeks pro-rata, fry eat lots of black worms towards 1.5 to 2 months old)
4. breeder salary free (for now, assume it is free)
5. shipping to each shareholder $25 x N

So, the grand total of the cost would be about $450 excluding any shipping charges incurred.

Now, suppose we are looking at 5 people as shareholders, then you'll be looking at $90 for each shareholder to pay up. Of course, the greater the number of shareholders, the smaller the cost. Some cost reductions can be done as well, perhaps by purchasing cheaper parent fish (but remember, shareholders may want to stick with "good quality" fish, hence not sacrificing too much on this). Similarly, foods also fluctuate based on the number of fry etc (and whether it was agreed to use pellets for instance -- though most of our spawns use live worms). Electricity maybe reduced, depending how well summer coming in....

But then you'd think...hold on....isn't that pretty much equivalent (more or less) the cost of buying 1 pair of bettas for myself? Well, yes, but then what you get at the end of CSB would be LOTS of fry to be spread to shareholders. Assume that each spawn yields between 25 to 300 fry, then the bare minimum number of fish each shareholder receives would be 5 ! The breeder may want to keep a couple of fry for himself as well, but you get the idea....

The quality of the fry is usually pretty high, but this depends heavily on the initial seed. Hence choosing good parents would be one of the fun thing for everyone to decide on :)

Let us know what you think of above. If you're interested, we're more than happy to try it out on a single spawn. Perhaps with this approach, we can share good betta genetics much faster in the community, rather than individuals trying on their own.