By Bob Sullivan
Morgan County Business Leader
“The Martinsville flood in June caused a lot of levy damage, and we lost half our crop, including half our brooders (male breeding goldfish),” said Larry Cleveland, owner of Ozark Fisheries. “Overall, this business is fairly recession-proof, but then something like that happens, and it’s a reminder that nothing is completely safe.” While the loss of brooders is still affecting the overall fish population in their farms, Ozark Fisheries has, so far, managed to meet the ongoing requests of all their clients throughout the nation. While the floods caused concern for the fishery, the economy has not—at least so far. “Kids have a basic need to take care of pets, and a common goldfish is a simple and inexpensive alternative to a dog or cat.”
Ozark Fisheries maintains two farm locations—one in Missouri and the other here in Martinsville. Between its two locations, Ozark Fisheries is the largest breeder and distributor of goldfish and koi in the nation. “We sell several varieties of gold – fish, and we sell koi in all sorts of colors, in both the regular and butterfly varieties.” Goldfish and koi are the most popular freshwater, coldwater varieties of fish.” Ozark Fisheries also distributes crawdads, Japanese trapdoor snails, bullfrog tadpoles and rosy red minnow feeder fish.
Download the full May 2009 Edition here.
