Sheridan Man Creates Tropical Fish Oasis In Landlocked Wyoming

SHERIDAN — Dan Hodnett sells brilliantly colored exotic fish from a nondescript building that doesn’t look special at all.

From the outside, no one would ever guess at the tiny worlds of wonder that await inside — 478 of them, each filled with a different species offreshwater tropical fish. 

The aquariums are all fed fresh river water around the clock, and a team of biologists monitor each and every one of the inhabitants, alert to any signs that these fish are not going to live happily ever after.

The aquariums are all part of an unorthodox fish-selling business that has its origins in a 5-year-old’s hobby. 

That’s how old Hodnett was when he first laid eyes on a tankful of glowing, freshwater tropical fish called cardinal tetras.

“I walked into a pet store and saw this tank of glowing fish, and my mind was blown,” Hodnett recalled. “I didn’t know fish could glow.”

From then on, Hodnett has always had tropical fish. Many, many different varieties of them, and all of them are favorites, depending on the day and what the fish are doing.

“I’m endlessly fascinated with all of them,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I can’t pick a favorite. It changes daily. So, we’ll be walking by a group of fish, and I’ll be like, ‘Oh, looking especially good that day,’ and that will be my favorite. And then, tomorrow, I’ll walk by a different group, and like, some males will be displaying, trying to impress the females and I’ll be like, ‘Dude!’ And then that’ll be my favorite.”

Sharing The Wonder

Hodnett’s business evolved organically from his hobby. 

When friends would come over, it was inevitable that he was going to show them all of the different pretties in his basement.

Hatchet fish, for example, with their sharp, angular bodies built for jumping up out of the water and soaring through the air to get away from predators. Or chasing after fruit flies, which they love.

People who keep hatchet fish will want to keep a lid on their aquariums for sure. 

Not into jumpers? No problem. How about blue shrimp instead? They will not try to fly out of the tank ever. They will graze quietly on the tank bottom, like little cattle of the sea, feeding on biofilms and algae, or anything else that drops from above. That helps keep the tank clean, and they will look absolutely stunning while doing it.

Another of Hodnett’s favorites is the Medaka Japanese Ricefish, which is the first vertebrate to successfully reproduce in outer space.

Because the fish is so hardy, it was selectively bred by Japanese aristocrats from the 17th century on, producing some 500 different varieties, some with flowing fins, some with wild colors, and others, like the Marriage Kissing Medaka Ricefish, with glittering scales that resemble sequins.

Despite the flashiness of this fish species, it’s among the easiest freshwater tropical fish to maintain, Hodnett says.

“For centuries, these fish were kept in ceramic pots without filtration or supplemental oxygenation,” he wrote in a blog about the fish.

The adults can withstand icy winters and short periods of 100-degree heat in the summer.

They also don’t mind the hard, alkaline water that’s typical of most tap water in the U.S., which means no fancy equipment is required to keep one alive.

I Used To Have Fish But …

Hodnett wasn’t the only one with fish stories to tell. His guests often had their own little fish tale, and it was a sad one.

“I would usually hear this narrative which was, ‘I used to have fish, but they all died,’” Hodnett said. “I heard that over and over and over, so, at some point, I tried to figure out, why are they all dying and how do I fix it?”

That led him to dive into researching the aquarium fish supply chain, where he discovered some uncomfortable truths about his hobby.

“The typical retail store that sells fish will buy from a wholesaler and bring them in and then immediately they’re for sale,” Hodnett said. “And I would say there are six to nine links in the supply chain, and the goal on each link is to pass (the fish) on to the next person before the fish all die, so they don’t lose any money.”

That leaves the last person holding the bag of now dead fish the end consumer, who doesn’t find out there was anything wrong with the fish until it’s floating belly-up in the fish tank at home.

“Little Johnny or Susie goes, ‘Mommy, I want that one,’” Hodnett said. “And it looks fine, but they don’t know it’s going through so much stress and probably has not had proper care for a while, and it’s immune system is just struggling.”

Fish don’t have obvious symptoms of distress, Hodnett added, because the moment a fish starts to act sick, it’s food for a predator. 

“So little Johnny takes that home, and if they don’t have the skill set — which they won’t — to nurse that fish back and get its immune system back up, it’s going to die,” Hodnett said. 

From YouTube And The Garage

At first, Hodnett mostly just helped friends and family with their fish troubles, offering them a few of his own fish at cost. He also started a YouTube channel for fun, to talk about his cool fish, as well as help other people learn to care for them. 

“People would be like, ‘I want some, I want some,’” Hodnett said. “So, I started selling a few, and then it just kind of grew.”

Hodnett’s first expansion was actually into his garage, but after that, it just kept growing and growing..

“That’s when I realized it might be an actual business instead of a side hustle,” Hodnett said. “While I was doing that, I was keeping data. What are my costs, what are the margins, and how will this work?”

He started shopping for a larger home for the business about three years ago. But he wasn’t looking for a highly visible location where people would walk in off the street. Quite the opposite.

He wanted to be out of the way and as invisible as possible.

“We’re more of a distributor,” he explained. “Like today, we’ve got as many orders as we can possibly pack. That’s with five people packing orders all day. If someone comes in and is like, wanting someone to get fish for them, we aren’t going to make our orders.”

A Freshwater System

The decision not to have a front-facing retail component has helped Hodnett keep his business costs down, while in turn allowing him to focus on an innovative approach to sourcing and caring for fish.

Dan’s Fish uses a sophisticated water recycling system that draws fresh river water from a local creek, filtering it for sediments and sterilizing it with ultraviolet light to remove any coliform bacteria that might be harmful to his fish. A heat exchanger also ensures the water is the right temperature before it goes into his aquariums. 

The cleaned water drips into each tank at a rate that ensures there’s a fresh tank of water every hour.

“Our thesis is that the best thing for aquarium fish is clean, fresh water,” he said. “So, we are drawing in constant, fresh water.”

A parallel system takes old water out of the aquarium, sending it back to the creek. That water goes back through the same cleaning system, getting filtered and treated with ultraviolet light once again.

“The water going back out is a lot cleaner and better than the water coming in,” he said. “So, the water coming in is good for the fish, and the water going back out is good for the river.”

Hodnett also has a different approach for sourcing his fish. He is working with suppliers who agree that they won’t put 200 fish in one bag. 

“When animals metabolize protein, it creates ammonia,” he said. “That is toxic. If you get 200 fish in a compacted space, you’re getting ammonia and that’s really bad for them.”

By packing fish less densely, his fish arrive in better condition, so there’s much less loss of fish life.

Hodnett, meanwhile, ships all his fish out in a single plastic bag that’s been sealed and pumped full of oxygen. That way, if one of the fish dies on the way, its decomposing body won’t be affecting all the other fish in the bag.

It’s dramatically more expensive, Hodnett acknowledged. 

“But it is more profitable in the long run, because people are more successful,” he said. “People will keep coming back to buy more fish, or, if you’re a pet store, buying the food and the supplies, because they’ve been successful. So, it’s not just an ethical argument here. It’s also a good way to do business.”

Nothing Fancy But The Fish

Hodnett is still tinkering with the model he’s using to sell fish to hobbyists but is already operating in the black just three years after starting.

“If you look around, nothing is fancy,” he said. “We built all these shelves ourselves. Our desks are plastic tables from Walmart. Everything is practical and works really well.”

Old music books prop up his computer monitor, donated by his musician wife who no longer need them. The river water system is built from plain PVC pipe which Hodnett put together himself, “drilling every hole.” 

“Back in the 90s, I had a couple of friends who worked for a dot com,” he said. “And I went in there and they had this beautiful office, and they were really excited that day because new desks were coming.”

The desks were beautiful and expensive.

“Everything was just gorgeous,” he said. “But I went back a few months later and bought a desk from them for pennies on the dollar because they’d just gone out of business. That memory stuck with me. These guys spent like I don’t know how many thousands of dollars, trying to impress people, trying to feel like they were successful when they weren’t profitable.”

Long-Term Goal Is Making A Difference

Hodnett didn’t even have to go to a bank for a loan, he added.

“People who are part of our customer base already liked what we were doing and saw the difference he said. “So, they said, ‘I want to be part of this.’”

The business as designed by Hodnett already has lots of room for expansion. He can sell fish more quickly for some of that expansion, but he can also double the size of the facility by using the rest of the lot he’s leasing.

“My goal is to become a forcing function for good in the industry,” he said. “We want to get big enough that the other players in the industry also have to operate in a way which is humane, because if they don’t no one will buy from them. So, we’re trying to be the sample of what that looks like.” 

Hodnett believes he’s bringing this idea of forcing the market to improveat just the right time, too.

“The ethos and expectations around keeping animals has changed since the industry was founded after World War II,” he said. “People are starting to protest how bettas are kept at big box stores.”

For Hodnett, though, his business isn’t really political. It’s just a natural progression of his love for fish, which started with a 5-year-old boy in awe of glowing fish. 

That sense of wonder and awe has never really gone away, and it’s something he loves sharing with the world at large.

“I started this company so that when people get fish, they don’t have to tell a sad story,” he said. “They can say, ‘I love my fish when I get home after a long day of work. They destress me and I’m a better husband or wife or partner or father or parent or friend because I’ve had 10 minutes with a little piece of nature in my house.”

Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.