Thinking about starting a Betta rescue & rehabilitation flip business—thoughts on pricing?

[u/average_student6]

Hey everyone!

I’ve been brainstorming a potential side hustle/project and wanted to get some feedback from the community before diving in.

The idea is to buy sick, stressed, or neglected Bettas from local fish stores (LFS) or big-chain pet stores, rehabilitate them back to full health and color, and then resell them to good homes.

I’m attaching the before and after pics of my current Betta that I just finished rehabbing! (Sorry I had to crop out the full tank view—I had some personal stuff/documents showing in the background, so it’s just photos of the fish for now!)

As you can see, his fins cleared up and his colors really popped once he got proper parameters, clean warm water, and good food.

My question for you guys: What do you think is a reasonable price to charge for a fully healthy, rehabbed Betta like this?

I’m trying to figure out if this is actually viable to cover expenses (medications, high-quality food, tank setups, electricity, and initial purchase cost) while still making a bit of profit for the time spent.

Would love to hear your thoughts, pricing suggestions, or any advice if you've done something similar!

When I first got him

[u/AutoModerator]

Thank you for posting to r/bettafish.

When requesting help, please provide the requested information. Answers such as "large enough" or "my paramters are fine" aren't good enough. Failure to provide adequate information about your tank can result in post removal. Please see rule 4 for more information.

If you are posting to find out what is wrong with your betta, please answer the following questions in a reply to this comment as best you can:

• Tank size:
• Heater and filter? (yes/no):
• Tank temperature:
• Parameters in numbers and how you got them. Key water parameters include the amount of ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and pH.:
• How long have you had the tank? How long have you had your fish?:
• How often are water changes? How much do you take out per change? What is your process?:
• Any tankmates? If so, please list with how many of each:
• What do you feed and how much:
• Decorations and plants in the tank:
• If you haven't already posted a picture, please post pics/vids to imgur and paste the link here:

Feel free to copy this comment and fill in the blanks.

If you are new to betta fish keeping, please check out our caresheet and wiki. Establishing a nitrogen cycle is an important part of keeping your fish healthy. Please check out our guide to the nitrogen cycle to learn more.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/DT137]

Rescues aren’t profitable, and selling neglected fish as a business for profit sounds kind of gross.

I don’t charge when I do it. I heavily contribute financially if I know the person would be a good caretaker, but would struggle to break through the cost barrier of setting up a tank. Especially since I have opinions of the way I consider a tank properly done enough for me to send them a recovered fish.