# Breeding fish for profit



## k-dawg-

What fish in your opinion is the most economical to breed, why? I am looking into breeding for profit and have narrowed it down to a few, just looking for any opinions. No one fish seems to fit all the criteria for maximum profits, being:

-ease of care
-ease of breeding
-quantity of brood
-individual profit margin.

My ideas so far are:

bettas
endlers
apistos
german blue rams
angelfish
plecos


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## COM

In general, you won't make much of a profit once you factor ALL costs (rent, utilities, food, equipment, etc.) but you probably would be best off with apistos since they are hard to find and you can sell them for more money. That being said, the breeding pair will cost more.


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## emc7

From your list, rams or apistos, or small plecos. Something that is hard to ship alive and doesn't spawn in huge Florida ponds and isn't coming in from asia in huge numbers. Ask you LFS what they can't get or can't keep alive and would pay more for locally bred. Go to the online pet sites like bigs als or pet solutions, or pet smart. Strike any fish in the catalog, you won't be able to compete on price with the big guys.

The profit margin will be higher with fish that aren't easy. And as you'll be devoting a lot of time to it, pick a fish you love. 

The fish that get high $ value have the opposite of your criteria, the are hard to care for or hard to breed, or hard to raise healthy fry.

You should look at salt. The costs are high, breeding is difficult, but the prices are much higher (except for damsel, clowns, again look at the catalogs). I bet you'd make more fragging corals that breeding endlers. But all markets are local. 

Check the laws where you live. In GA, you can legally sell only a small number of 'pets' without a license. The laws aimed at puppy mills apply to the aquarist and one cichlid spawn will put you over the limit. So the pet stores only give store credit for fish and some won't even do that. If your goal is to earn enough to feed your fish, its not too hard. But to actually turn a genuine profit takes luck and skill.


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## IAN

try something you can raise outside in big tubs, that will survive the winter and grow naturally. Something more useful than just show, like paradise fish. They eat mosquitos so they are valuable pond fish (where I live).

Try DISCUS! I've always wanted to try them, but then I couldn't breed mystery snails succesfully either. LOL! with discus, the fry are cared for by their parents, even fed by them. Its just the water quality, and getting a pair that's hard.

Basically, make sure you really want to do this! There are better ways to make money, especially in this economy. If it gets pretty bad, people will choose food and comfort over fish.

Bettas would be a good choice if you don't have much room. Paradise fish are similar to bettas though, and even hardier.

Up to you!

I do agree with everything previous posters have mentioned, and am not trying to take anything away from them:

COM

emc7


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## emc7

Aquatic plants in tubs. Here they go for more than fish do. Hurry, though. The commercial producers are already getting into this game.


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## Sea-Agg2009

Discus generally need alot of attention and high quality maintenance to breed, and last I remember, don't breed that often. 

Killifish are resilient fish that breed readily, and a pair of killi's go for quite a bit. The more colorful varieties are harder to find consistently. I've read articles about keeping an adult stock in a 20 gallon tank, then breeding the pairs in medium gladware platic tubs.


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## wm_crash

Here is what transpired from talking to one very well informed breeder who makes some profit. The assumption is that the sales will be mostly mail order:

1. You want a fish that will sell like hot bread in a sustained manner, lame crap is already available at LFS
2. You want a fish that will go for $20 minimum
3. You want a fish whose entire brood an be grown in somewhat understocked conditions - no point in red jewels giving you 8000 fry if you can only raise 100 to healthy selling size
4. You want to start with a solid breeding group

That basically narrows your sarch down to very few plecos (L46, L134, L333, L66, and possibly some more I don't know), very few bettas (macrostoma, taeniata), very few angels (altums, platinum), and very few killies - I won't tell on those cause I plan to own that market :fun:

If you're going viking and setting up a mini-farm outside, some things will change basically allowing you to consider small price fish.

Now, if the sales will be mostly local, you can also go for less pricey fish . . . but you saturate the market very fast.

cheers,
wm_crash, the friendly hooligan


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## k-dawg-

thanks for the input everyone!


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## lohachata

find a breeding trio of L-46 plecos...juvies will bring you about 200-300 bucks apiece when they reach 1 1/2-2 inches.


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## lohachata

you can do angels and sell locally..only keep a couple of pairs of different color variations...
i used to put ads in the newspaper..sell them at just over wholesale..
or you can wholesale them to shops..i have done that also..but i tell the shops up front... "i do not do store credit ; strictly cash"their wholesale supplier doesn't do store credit ; why should you...silver angels bring the least....... DD blacks and half blacks bring the most....
you can also breed some of the bushnose plecos and sell them..


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## emc7

Saturating the local market is very easy. The killies I've got go for $6/pair even though they are gorgeous and rare. For ease of care, I would breed fish that like your water as is. Discus in Atlanta, tanginikans in hard, high pH water. But then you'd have to be willing to ship. The discus breeder in the hard water area makes more money because hes a rarity. I would say, don't breed fish that are currently easy to get near you. Breed something you have to special order and that will give you a little lead time before the market is saturated.


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