Breeding as business

[jfran]

Hey guys,
I have always wanted to breed fish but then have always wondered what to do with the offspring. Thus i have considered selling. Is there any freshwater fish that is especially easy and pretty profitable too to breed?

Right now I am trying my hand at Firemouth cichlids.


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[FWFishTanks]

I would say shelldwellers or mbunas are the most profitable fish, but I have only done guppies so I'm not sure.

 

[Exigenn]

Shrimp can be good, guppies if you have good genes, i like my endlers. Shellies seem good, there are a lot of options just a matter of how large of a scale and if you can actually sell them.

 

[ghyti]

Like anything else, the better the quality the better they will sell.
Generally, if they are easy to breed they are hard to sell and if they are easy to sell they are hard to breed. Convicts and guppies are easy to breed, but you can't give away the fry. Talk to your local fish stores to see what they will consistently buy.
Bristlenose plecos sell pretty good where I am.

 

[Andy Sager]

Like anything else, the better the quality the better they will sell.
Generally, if they are easy to breed they are hard to sell and if they are easy to sell they are hard to breed. Convicts and guppies are easy to breed, but you can't give away the fry. Talk to your local fish stores to see what they will consistently buy.
Bristlenose plecos sell pretty good where I am.

+1 to this. If you have no place to sell the fish to, you have no chance of making breeding profitable. Mom & Pop shops are usually good for buying locally bred and raised fish. Box stores are usually not willing to take your fish as they get from their main company fish houses. So talk to your local shops first and see what they are willing to buy.

 

[jfran]

How effective is going through Craigslist or this forum?


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[FWFishTanks]

BNPs and angels are always in demand, and go for a good price

 

[TMRC Exotics]

Neither are a huge resource. It's a bit of a conundrum, you must have fish to sell to outside channels, though you must have channels to sell bred fish. FYI firemouths are not going to sell well, my lfs's price on them is 11 cent a piece under 25, 8 cent over 25.

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[Exigenn]

+1 to basically everything posted. Last week i sold 40 endlers for $20. roughly 20 were fully colored/sexed and roughly 20 that will be within probs 2 weeks.(the guy said he would take fry too as long as they were a certain size). There is also a new place that opened up around me that buys from a warehouse but prefers buying from hobbyist and actually pays a bit more then from the warehouse. They say the stock is stronger, healthier and generally looks better. I know a number of people that have sold to them with no problems.

I also know a few others around here will never buy from hobbyists. All about the people and the stock.

 

[sinibotia]

My advice is to not take it so far that it isn't fun anymore. My wife and I have recently started angelfish breeding and are enjoying it immensely. But that said, I know many have gotten this far and realized the endless water changes and brine shrimp hatchings and the shipping and the health issues inherent with crowded fish.... just aren't for them. For some perspective, we have 2 pairs of angelfish. For those angelfish we currently have 7 dedicated tanks and soon will be upping that number to 9 or more. One tank for each pair, and tanks for growouts. The growouts need large water changes at least once every 3 days, and the fry need brine shrimp at least a few times a day until they're a few weeks old. I've treated for spironucleus once and had issues with constipation. We have more than twice as many angelfish breeding tanks as we have regular "fun" tanks. And we've only been breeding since November!

So I would say get into it slowly. Do tons of research on what you want to breed- make sure it's something you can get rid of (probably not firemouths, sorry)- and how much work it will be and how many tanks you'll need. If it seems fun, ease yourself into it. You may find it's not for you, or you may find like my wife and I that it's an awesome new dimension to the hobby.

Hope this helps

 

[coralbandit]

How effective is going through Craigslist or this forum?


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How many fish have you bough from CL or this forum?

I breed and sell.
Making a profit and breaking even should honestly be discussed some day.

 

[sinibotia]

How many fish have you bough from CL or this forum?

I breed and sell.
Making a profit and breaking even should honestly be discussed some day.

We care about the fish too much to make much profit. I find myself telling everyone I talk to to let me know if they get a tank and I'll just give them angels and rams.... There are members here who if they asked I would waive even shipping if they wanted some of my fish, just for the honor of those people keeping fish that I bred

Like I said before... do it and have fun, if you're making a profit but not having fun then what's the point of the hobby anymore?

 

[Andy Sager]

Like I said before... do it and have fun, if you're making a profit but not having fun then what's the point of the hobby anymore?

Because there is a difference between fish keeping as a hobby and fish keeping as a business. Those who can differentiate between the 2 make money keeping and breeding fish. Those who can't spend a lot of money and have a lot of fish which can ultimately end up causing them to leave the hobby due to the expense of having all those fish. That's not to say the commercial fish breeders are just heartless business people. Many I know are pure hobbyists that made a path for themselves into the fish business. But make no mistake, there is a difference between it being a business and being a hobby.

 

[sinibotia]

Because there is a difference between fish keeping as a hobby and fish keeping as a business. Those who can differentiate between the 2 make money keeping and breeding fish. Those who can't spend a lot of money and have a lot of fish which can ultimately end up causing them to leave the hobby due to the expense of having all those fish. That's not to say the commercial fish breeders are just heartless business people. Many I know are pure hobbyists that made a path for themselves into the fish business. But make no mistake, there is a difference between it being a business and being a hobby.

I didn't mean to imply breeding fish as a business isn't fun- but not everyone who has fun keeping fish as a hobby has fun breeding fish as a business. In fact, cautionary tales of people who burnt out on fish breeding are what kept me out of it for so long.

But of course Andy is the expert... OP listen to this guy, he knows better than anyone here what breeding fish as a business means, I'm but a novice

 

[Andy Sager]

I didn't mean to imply breeding fish as a business isn't fun- but not everyone who has fun keeping fish as a hobby has fun breeding fish as a business.

That's all I was trying to say.

 

[jfran]

Thanks for the help guys. Maybe breeding isn't right for me right now because I don't think I have enough time. But all this advice will surely come in handy in the future when I do want to give it a try


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[henningc]

I breed large scale in kiddie pools during the summer. I stick to livebearers, snails, crayfish and shrimp. Find some buyers or look into aquabid. Just make sure you have a store or two to dump mass quantities and sell the rest over the net.