Cultivating childhood interests and hobbies into a professional career, the "Little Prince of Aquarium" has been playing fish for 15 years, returning to his hometown to open a shop and earn millions of lives | Aquarium | Interests and hobbies
"I am a person who has a connection with fish. I have been playing for 15 years from the age of 8 to 23 now." Every morning, Rong Jiachen's first thing is to reply to customers' inquiries such as "help me choose a clownfish"; Then, he went to his own aquarium shop to start a day of work, measuring water quality, feeding bait, and changing water, busy and happy.
Independent entrepreneurship drives employment. As the 2023 graduate of the Aquarium Science and Technology program at the College of Aquaculture and Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, this post-00s generation couldn't wait to return to their hometown of Taiyuan, Shanxi, at the end of this year's graduation ceremony. "There are still fish and fish friends waiting for me there," Rong Jiachen explained with a smile.
Rong Jiachen recalled that his first encounter with ornamental fish was in the third grade of elementary school. He went to his grandfather's house and saw the goldfish in the fish tank, which made him fall in love with these little elves, and he became uncontrollable thereafter. "Boys often play games, but I am different. I love fish farming. Watching fish swim around in the water, I felt happy and fell in love with fish farming." Rong Jiachen said that in the days to come, he started a practical fish farming career while looking up information. By high school, it was no longer necessary to breed small ornamental fish that spawned fresh water eggs and eggs.
Jiefang Daily's Shangguan News reporter learned that with his passion for aquaculture, Rong Jiachen chose Shanghai Ocean University when filling out his application. Unfortunately, my first choice was not to enter the desired College of Aquaculture and Life Sciences. Rong Jiachen chose to work hard for a year before transferring to disciplines related to the construction of "Double First Class". "I switched to Aquarium Science and Technology because I really enjoyed it, and vowed to 'cultivate' my hobbies into a major."
After changing majors, Rong Jiachen followed the teachers from the College of Aquaculture and Life to study courses such as Aquaculture Landscape Architecture, Aquaculture Breeding, Ornamental Fish Farming, and Aquaculture Chemistry. His more professional studies also gave him a deeper understanding of ornamental fish farming. He believes that in the past, when faced with a fish disease, phenotypic characteristics combined with experience were often used to make judgments. After studying professional courses, more accurate judgments can be made through methods such as fish pathogen isolation and cultivation, as well as drug sensitivity tests.
With the support of his corresponding profession, Rong Jiachen made his interests more professional and laid the foundation for starting his own aquarium store. Professional matching, do whatever you say, within half a month, Rong Jiachen and his classmates designed an online store. With the support of the Shanghai Ocean University Science and Technology Park, Rong Jiachen and his team have also established their own space in it, starting this entrepreneurial history.
Only selling good fish wins reputation. Nowadays, when opening Rong Jiachen's online store, it has been displayed as a gold medal seller with a high service rating of 4.9. The review area is also flooded with positive reviews, with many buyers being repeat customers. Since the beginning of opening the store, Rong Jiachen and his team have established rules and will never mix and sell. "We are one of the first online stores to promise not to sell the broken pattern clownfish."
From a player to a seller, but with it comes an increase in operating costs, with each batch of clownfish experiencing a loss of 5% -10%. In order to reduce losses, Rong Jiachen searched through his professional books, searched for information, and also sought advice from school teachers. Through investigation, questioning, and exploration, Rong Jiachen learned that the main reason for the formation of broken lines was the uneven nutritional source of juvenile fish. After re matching the nutritional sources, the team successfully reduced the fracture rate to 2%.
When shipping, most other merchants can only guarantee that the fish will be compensated within 24 hours and half of the loss will be reported within 48 hours; However, Rong Jiachen and his team can assure customers that no matter how long the transportation is on the road, the losses can be borne. He said that solving the customer's concerns is the first step in gaining their trust. In fact, when shipping, there are specific requirements for the ratio of water discharge and oxygen filling. Compared to other sellers, with professional support, we can do better in these details. With professional reputation, Rong Jiachen and his team achieved a turnover of over a million yuan in the second year of opening the store.
On the occasion of graduation, Rong Jiachen found a partner who was willing to invest and used the first bucket of gold earned during his university years to open an aquarium in Taiyuan city. He also added a colorful coral breeding ground and prepared to work together online and offline. "Aquaculture has become not only a hobby and profession for me, but also a career. I want to spread the beauty of aquarium." Rong Jiachen also loves to share. In his sophomore year, he and his senior started a series of courses on aquarium culture popularization, giving lectures to primary and secondary school students at the China Maritime Museum and Shanghai Ocean University. Now that he has a physical store, his first idea is to set up an aquarium culture corridor inside the store, which not only has ornamental fish, but also places books on aquarium knowledge, and designs a convenient interactive card seat for communication.
"When studying at school, the teacher always emphasized the need to combine the knowledge of natural sciences with history, art, etc., and improve humanistic cultivation on the basis of studying aquatic science. I keep the teacher's words in mind. This" Little Prince of Aquaculture "also plans to open a live broadcast room and do short videos to talk about the origin and development of ornamental fish, share the ups and downs of fish farming, and let more and more people understand the beauty of aquatic culture.". "Am I a new fisherman? How can I be considered a post-00s generation if I'm not trendy?"
