Breeding fish

[Topher91]

What is the best overall fish to breed for money, rapid breeders, easy to sell and other resons

[bscman]

While I can't comment on which is the best, I will say that for the average enthusiast its pretty hard to make money breeding.

If you don't have a LARGE setup, that can support hundreds even thousands of fish, you'll be lucky to even break even. The only way to really make decent amount of money breeding and selling fish is to pretty much let it take over your life, have hundreds of gallons worth of tanks, and more equipment than most people can even dream of having...
You've gotta thinka bout the time it takes you to tend the fish (time is money), the costs of water bills and electricity, filters/water conditioners/food, etc...It adds up quick!

Not something you can do with a couple of 10 gallon tanks, or a big 55 gallon...etc...

Just my thoughts.

[Topher91]

hmm... how does all that come about

[Topher91]

does any one here actully breed fish to sell, other wise what is the point of breeding fish

[bscman]

There are a lot of people here that breed fish. A lot of people give the fry or juveniles away, and some people sell them or take them to local fish stores for "credit" towards other things (different fish, food, hardware, etc).

Some people just do it as a hobby. You can play "God" and control your own little world. Watch the cycle of life in action. Some people breed for feed....breeding your own feeder fish is a lot safer than buying (possibly infected) feeders from your local shop.

Take guppies for instance.
Go to you local store and buy two 10 gallon tanks (one for adults, one as a grow out tank), a trio of guppies, two heaters, two filters, and enough food to feed the adults and the fry.

A month or so later, if you're lucky, you'll end up with a batch (or two) of fry...After a few weeks, about 15 of those fry survive.
A fancy guppy juvenile isn't worth much...maybe a quarter or two. If you take the time to raise them as adults, you can get a buck or two for females and two or three bucks for males.
If you started with show quality fish, maybe more.

But how much investment did that tank? At least 200 bucks considering all the hardware, food, electricity, water, and a few months time....to sell 15 fish for a total (if you're lucky) of $40.

My point in my last post, and this one as well, is that if you're trying to make a living breeding fish you'll need one heck of a large operation to make it work. Otherwise, you just breed as a hobby.

You didn't specify what your limitations or your current setup was, so the door was wide open for opinion. I thought I'd share a little insight.

Thanks for recieving my opinion so well..... :thumb:

[Topher91]

yea thinks for taking the time to type that lol that is one thing i started along time ago is breeding guppies i bought a few for my turtle and i didnt expect them to breed cus well i didnt know much about um i gess and soon i got so menny i couldnt count them so that worked out pritty well kept me from bying more guppies. thinks for your time again and ill try to do the best of whatever im going to do. oh p.s. i got the tanks for free so hehehe lol

[Drumachine09]

Actually, there is another way to make money fish breeding. Breed expensive fish, IE discus. Juvy discus are cheap, because they are extremely hard to take care of, but adults are REALLY expensive, so you could make around $40 a peice.

[Topher91]

cool yea i just was using cheep litle guppies for food but probly like i said to you before ill probly try anglefish

[Topher91]

and what about the fish you mentiond whats the story on them

[bscman]

Actually, there is another way to make money fish breeding. Breed expensive fish, IE discus. Juvy discus are cheap, because they are extremely hard to take care of, but adults are REALLY expensive, so you could make around $40 a peice.

I bolded the important parts in what you said.
They JUVENILES are cheap, and they are hard to take care of...

So to breed them...you buy the small, young fish and spends tons of time and money babying them until they are old enough to mature, hope they spawn, then...in order to make a reasonable amount of money, you have to raise the fry up to adult size, otherwise they won't sell for much.

There is a reason why they are so expensive--if they were quick and easy to breed, you can sure as heck bet they'd be CHEAP to buy as well.
Supply and demand. Rare or Hard to breed fish are more expensive because there are fewer of them out there.

[Drumachine09]

I bolded the important parts in what you said.
They JUVENILES are cheap, and they are hard to take care of...

So to breed them...you buy the small, young fish and spends tons of time and money babying them until they are old enough to mature, hope they spawn, then...in order to make a reasonable amount of money, you have to raise the fry up to adult size, otherwise they won't sell for much.

There is a reason why they are so expensive--if they were quick and easy to breed, you can sure as heck bet they'd be CHEAP to buy as well.
Supply and demand. Rare or Hard to breed fish are more expensive because there are fewer of them out there.



Just because they are hard to breed doesnt mean there arent many out there. Many common species, probobly some that you have in your tanks, havent been known to breed in captivity. They are mostly wild caught.

[GoldLenny]

Another thing you can do is go ask around at your LFS' to see what they have trouble getting as far as quality. I've read many online posts that some stores have trouble getting quality Fancy Guppies and Fancy Bettas.

I just traded in a 10" Common Pleco (L. Pardalis) for $25.00 in LFS store credit since he was getting too big for my 65G tank and I moved last month and did not have room for a larger tank.

I have cherry shrimp breeding like rabbits in a 10G tank and I am planning on trading some of them in for store credit at my LFS also. On Aquabid, cherry shrimp routinely sell for $1.00 each but I got my first batch of 25 as part of a package deal including plants and a BN pleco for only $35.00 (shipping included). 5 of the 25 were females carrying eggs and they have all hatched and are thriving in my 10G planted tank with the moderately hard water down here. I must have 100 babies from 1/4" to 1/2" as well as the adults. If I can get 50 cents each in store credit for them, I'll do that rather than sell them on Aquabid and have to deal with the packaging and shipping issues. I still have several more egg bearing females running around the tank.

I think most people that sell fish do it as a sideline of opportunity when they happen to have fish that breed and there is a demand for them. Aquabid.com is like the eBay of the fish hobbyists.

[bscman]

Just because they are hard to breed doesnt mean there arent many out there. Many common species, probobly some that you have in your tanks, havent been known to breed in captivity. They are mostly wild caught.

Understood.

This is true, but I think even with wild caught fish, the price level of the fish reflects how easily they are obtained.

Hard to find/rare fish are more expensive, PERIOD. They are more desireable and more rare, which means they'll bring a premium price.
The same would be the case with captive bred fish...if it's a common fish, easy to breed/quick to grow/etc it will demand a lesser price than those hard to breed or slow growing fish.

It all falls back to my point that unless you have a large operation and a LOT of time to devote, you just will NOT make money breeding and selling fish.

Fish that are cheap, easy, and quick to breed have already flooded the market (quantity and deman says price will be low).
This means you can breed them all you want, but will get a lot of money for them? No, very little at all as a matter of fact...and will you even be able to sell them? Maybe, maybe not. Without a front like a store, and a lot of advertising/word of mouth, you may end up stuck with many of your juveniles for a LONG LONG time.
Not all local fish stores take fish in for credit, and not everyone in the world is looking for easy to breed live-bearers from people they don't know. The general public would rather buy fish from a reputable dealer, rather than joe blow from the classifieds in the newspaper.

Fish that are hard to breed, take much time to reach breeding age, slow growing, etc are not AS commonly found and, thus, will fetch a higher price...
Simply because they aren't easy to breed, and because many people have difficulty keeping them aline well into adulthood. But these same hard to breed, slow growing fish will also take much more time to breed and grow out -- the longer it takes you to care for and grow out the fish the less profit you will make when it's sold because the more food you go through, the more electricity and water you use, and the more time of yours is spent.

Again, it's not feasible for the average enthusiast to make money breeding fish.
I'm not saying it's not possible to breed them. I'm not saying you can't make money, as an enthusiast either...simply that the odds are stacked high against you.

I don't know Topher91's status...whether he already has everything to breed and grow out fish, or if he is just contemplating the task. Is he a beginner or an expert? I don't know.
I'm simply pointing out that, for all but the serious and well equipped/knowledgeable breeder, making money by breeding fish isn't very feasible. So instead of jumping in head first with big dreams, stop...count your cards...and figure out which had is best to play.

[Drumachine09]

It all falls back to my point that unless you have a large operation and a LOT of time to devote, you just will NOT make money breeding and selling fish.



Unless you are illing to spend alot of money on prime setups, and prime fish. But, like you said, the most logical way to make money is to have a ton of setups.

[bscman]

Yep.
My thoughts are, the more fish you can breed at once and the more fry you can grow out at once, the better the chance of turning a profit.

Breeding one pair of fish, and hoping to make a killing off of selling the first bunch of offspring isn't very likely...
But if you had a dozen or so breeding pairs, and were raising thousands of juveniles, you'd have a much better chance. After all, the majority of fish out there are only worth a buck or three when they are young...and not many people have the room and hardware to grow out hundreds of fry. So to make a few bucks per fish add up, you'd have to sell a TON of 'em!

:ezpi_wink1:

[Topher91]

now just to throw in a thought here, location also has a part in the matter weather or not the sertin fish you are wonting to sell is rare or all over. I went to a cuple local fish stores and none of the soters except one out of 5 hade angles they said people bought them to fast and so they didnt have enouph comming in to keep up with the demand.

[Chrona]

Don't breed fish, breed cherry shrimp for money :)

[cocoa_pleco]

Don't breed fish, breed cherry shrimp for money :)

ditto. large market for those, since theyre cool and some areas arent able to get them

[Algenco]

I bred angels on a moderate scale years ago, 8-10,000 per month and yes I made money. If you to do something like that you will need a couple thousand gallons of tank capacity and be prepared to do a lot of work, 7 days a week, daily water changes, a lot of work!

Shrimp, I would invest in high quality crystal reds:thumb:

[Chrona]

I bred angels on a moderate scale years ago, 8-10,000 per month and yes I made money. If you to do something like that you will need a couple thousand gallons of tank capacity and be prepared to do a lot of work, 7 days a week, daily water changes, a lot of work!

Shrimp, I would invest in high quality crystal reds:thumb:

Crystal reds are hard to breed, especially the higher grade, but if you can pull it off, then it's definitely a lucrative market. Or hell, breed zebra plecos. 250 bucks per fry, lol.

[Algenco]

Crystal reds are hard to breed, especially the higher grade, but if you can pull it off, then it's definitely a lucrative market. Or hell, breed zebra plecos. 250 bucks per fry, lol.

Yep, Zebra pleco, there was a breeder group recently on Aquabid for $15,000