mikeISright
Aquarium Advice Freak
Love keeping fish and wanted to know if there was anything past the hobby that i could do. I know of careers i just want to know first hand accounts of people with these careers and advice they could offer
christine2012 said:I couldn't own a store. I'd be entirely too honest with customers resulting in no profit!
Samzter said:Agreed.. I know you have ro make money but I could live with the "common pleco" mistake lol.
MrPillow said:There's plenty you can do career-wise related to fish, it just depends on how far from aquariums you are willing to stray.Personally, I spent 6 years in college studying aquatic sciences, and have degrees in coastal ecology as well as fisheries/mariculture studies. I was in line to finish up another program, but ended up opting out partway through due to money/employment opportunities. After/during school I worked for a few years with Texas Parks & Wildlife in their hatcheries programs, working on gamefish stocking, population management, etc. Not exactly aquariums per say, but I did get to deal with big tanks full of big fish Plenty of ways you can go from commercial sales, private businesses, government work, corporate, etc.
MrPillow said:You can make a living with some positions, but rarely more than decent. Often less. I got out of the field because I had trouble making ends meet, especially with the current reductions in government funding. Starting pay with a bachelors for government work seems to fluctuate around the $25-40k area, increases slightly as you inch up the ladder. Corporate would I imagine be the best chance of bringing home any surplus cash, but I never looked into that side of it very much. We did contract work for corporations rather frequently, the trend lately seemed to be in favor of dropping retainer employees in the field and deferring work to gov agencies.
paytertot said:I want to have a fish store in town when I'm older. I'd like to see a store where they know what they're doing. Not to say I know it all, but I honestly think I know more than the lfs employees around here.