Roy gave her three contacts and warned her that cheap fish could be the most expensive fish she ever bought if they arrived unhealthy or untraceable. She spent evenings calling managers who either had no surplus or wanted nothing to do with a first-time grower. At the third hatchery, ninety miles north, a woman answered in a voice that suggested she was interrupted in the middle of three emergencies. Her name was Carol Reyes, and she asked Delaney what species, volume, pond conditions, and permits she had before entertaining any discussion of price.
Delaney answered as well as she could, admitting when she did not know something. Carol corrected two assumptions, demanded that she verify the permitted stocking arrangements, and told her to call back after completing the required inspections. Delaney did exactly that, with Roy helping her understand the paperwork and an environmental officer confirming that the ponds were isolated from public waterways. By the time she called again, Carol sounded less suspicious and more curious.
A commercial restaurant-supply order had fallen through, leaving the hatchery with surplus catfish fingerlings and hybrid bream that had been mixed during handling. The fish were healthy enough for approved transfer, but they no longer met the single-species grading standards required by the original buyer. Sorting all of them back into uniform commercial lots would cost more labor and tank space than the hatchery could justify. Keeping them longer meant paying to feed fish nobody had contracted to purchase.
"They're not diseased and they're not a gift from heaven," Carol said when Delaney asked whether the surplus could be used. "They are mixed, uneven stock, and managing that difference becomes your responsibility the moment they reach your property. You'll have to work out what you can safely raise, what you can eventually sell, and what you can't." Delaney asked for the written health and transfer records before agreeing, a question that earned a surprised pause at the other end of the line.
The initial offer involved fewer fish than she needed to justify the transport. Delaney looked at her pond measurements, called Roy, recalculated what each pond might support under a conservative plan, and asked whether Carol had enough cleared stock for roughly six thousand. Carol told her there was a substantial difference between obtaining fish for free and being able to keep them alive. Delaney understood the warning, or believed she did, and promised to begin with enough aeration and monitoring to avoid crowding.
Roy did not sound pleased when she told him what she had arranged. He asked about electricity at the property, backup power, water tests, feed supply, predator protection, and whether she had anyone to call at three in the morning if something went wrong. She had answers for most of those questions and promises for the rest, which Roy plainly disliked. "A promise won't put oxygen in the water," he said, and Delaney wrote that sentence on a card above her desk.