# Working in a Pet Store gets weird sometimes



## thecatdidit (Aug 15, 2005)

..........


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## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

Right now everything I breed is for fun. I currently do not sell anything I breed. 
I have bred
goldfish
guppies
swordtails
various cichlids
gouramis

I do it for the chalange not the money.


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## AshleytheGreat (Jul 24, 2005)

Whats it like to breed goldfish? That seems so wierd.


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## ron v (Feb 24, 2005)

I would say that 95% of the hobbyist out there breed fish for fun. Very, very few make money at it. I have 30+ aquariums and breed lots of fish and most are not common. Most fry stay in the tank until nature takes it's course. If I had an outlet for every fish I raised to 1", it would not be worth it financially.


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## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

Ashley - Its not that I was trying to breed them its just that they did it on their own. That is usually the case with most fish. Keep them happy and they live their own life. 
Just be ready if you ever try it though. They lay hundreds of eggs and the fry are real tiny once they hatch.


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## thecatdidit (Aug 15, 2005)

I suspect this was the situation with this guy selling Danios... my guess is he has 500 near adult or adults right now, with more ready in the coming weeks. I doubt he could sustain 500 a week for more than 1-2 weeks. We'll see if he can even sustain 100 for a while, though that isn't much.
I suspect this started as a hobby and things got way out of control. I see that with livebearers all the time.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Very few breeders I know make any money,the only ones who do concentrate on rare fish and ship directly to hobbyists all over over the county. Us hobbyist sell to pet stores just to make room in our tanks. If we keep are fish right they breed and we are too tender-hearted just to kill the fry or feed them to something huge so we settle for fish food money or fish food in trade.


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## dan20rhino (Oct 2, 2005)

Im thinking of breeding fish to sell on but at the moment im experimenting with African Cichlids. The way i see things is that you can only make any money by breeding species that are uncommon. In the UK its pretty difficult to get hold of species such as African cichlids and Discus for example. So im thinking of concentrating on these to begin with. Cichlids also produce large numbers of fry which would be beneficial for me in terms of the amount i receive for the batch.
African cichlids also spawn frequently which is another bonus and the fry grow rapidly providing you do regular water changes and get the diet correct. I currently have a batch of Johanni Malawi Cichlids that im looking to breed once mature.



Ive bred Australian Redclaw Crayfish, Kribensis, Angelfish, Danios, most live bearers.


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## FortWayneFish (Mar 8, 2006)

Most people can NOT make money by selling fish. Most hobbyists that do sell fish don't sell for Profit but just to help substain there hobby. Last summer for example I was blessed with several (6)female Aeneus Corycats that would spawn everytime we had a thunderstorm roll through our area. 
Just for kicks and because I was involved in a BAP program I started keeping the eggs instead of letting the tankmates eat them. Within 3 months I had over 250 1/2 inch Green Corycats swimming in my tanks.

Now I gave a few to other hobbysists, Auctioned a couple bags at local fish auctions and then Traded the Local Fish Stores the remainer. Now the Local fish stores sell these lil beauties for $3.49 each but will only trade the hobbysits the equivalant of $.25 each for subadults.
One month I traded 50 1" corycats into the Store and got $12.50 in store credit to be used in the store.. which barely fed them for the month...
It might not be worth breeding the Cheap and easy fish but if he can pay for the food and possibly a little extra then why isn't it worth it? 
If we wanted to make $ with fish, we'd open a restraunt as I think these are the only Real people who can make $ with fish.


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## Vip (Feb 13, 2005)

maybe he has a gas heater that he rents from somewhere, thats what my LFS does insted of heaters in every tank. Its like 1000 times cheaper but looks really cheap in the store.


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

I do try to just make the hobby self-sustaining, usually if extra $$ come along i put it right into getting more stuff. 

I am just getting into coral propagation, might be able to just make some extra $$ that way. Since in the same time span takes a fish to get to selling size a coral does as well except a coral is worth much more then a fish.


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## Georgia Peach (Sep 23, 2005)

FortWayneFish said:


> If we wanted to make $ with fish, we'd open a restraunt as I think these are the only Real people who can make $ with fish.



LOLOLOLOLOL - how true!


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

It is possible to make SOME money, but very unlikely. Everyone, even me, at some time think breeding something like disus would pay off because they usually sell for like 50 a fihs, but you have to not only add the breeding tank in, but the starter fish, food, everything in the tank, equipment, extra tanks for raising the fry, the time you spend doing this all. By the time you get to sell them your probably in debt.. a lot. Most fish stores around here either don't buy fish from people, or when they do they expect you to take 5 bucks for a 75 dollar fish. I thought about breeding guppies and making money when I first got into the hobby but you have to think of it. It would take me about 500 guppies (babies) sold before I make enough money to pay off the adult gupies I had to buy in the first place. Who's going to buy 500 guppies and how long will it take before I get that many? How many will die? How much is the food to feed 500 baby fish 3 times a day?

Breeding fish is more for "fun" or like said by someone else, to keep they're hobby alive. Take me for example, I may try breeding bumblebee gobies and needlenose fish in the future. It's going to cost a lot of money but it's not so I can sell them, it's so I can help people better understand them and keep the needlenose or bb goby world alive. ANd to get mroe people interested in them by making the "gene pool" more diverse and just offer them at a cheaper price then going to petsmart and paying 15 for a poorly kept, inbred needlenose fish.


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