Looking to get into breeding as a hobby (read)

[punman]

I have raised African cichlids over the last 15 years and the fry have come close to paying for the hobby. It has paid for the fish, equipment and food, just leaving me with the utilities.

Pick fish you enjoy. That way if they do not return much in dollar value, at least you have enjoyed the fish.

 

[punman]

I have raised African cichlids over the last 15 years and the fry have come close to paying for the hobby. It has paid for the fish, equipment and food, just leaving me with the utilities.

Pick fish you enjoy. That way if they do not return much in dollar value, at least you have enjoyed the fish.

 

[J. H.]

Tried feeding my BNs carrot. They are not impressed. I think they only will eat cooked veggies.

 

[fisheatfish]

Tried feeding my BNs carrot. They are not impressed. I think they only will eat cooked veggies.

Just like any catfish, they’re drawn to the scent of food. They love blanched zucchini and raw spinach. You’ll have to tie bunch spinach leaves together and weigh it down.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Make sure when breeding any species to not breed closely related fish to each other, try and buy your breeding stock at different stores/suppliers.

A real easy to breed fish is the celestial danio, breeds easily and frequently.

You can grow and breed all the following in a single 150-200 gal pond during the warm months:
(Be sure to add elodea and hornwort)

Celestial danios
Golden longfin white clouds
Albino longfin cherry barbs
Small group of fancy Bettas (1m,2to 6 f)
Showa swordtails
Dwarf neon rainbowfish
Endlers (fancy)

 

[David492]

I think barbs are a really active and fun species to keep, although some are kind of hard to breed. I'd recommend some sort of rare livebearer since they are easier to breed and some are quite expensive.

 

[paulW]

Hey everybody here on the MonsterFishKeeper forums. I am pretty knew to fish keeping as a whole and never have tried to raise the fry. That being said I know this will be a huge learning curve for me and who doesn't enjoy learning knew things that you can watch the feed back grow right in front of you. Now I understand with breeding fish I will need to find a way to sell the fish I am raising. I'm not really in this for the money but being able to help pay for the supplies and new tanks/fish would be a plus. Now when people here someone say they want to sell fish they start naming stingrays and zebra placos. I am no where near ready for those type of fish. I was considering cichlids, guppies, endlers, mollies, killifish, ect... I currently do not have a tank for this yet, would rather think of the species I plan to breed so I can get the right equipment. Lets keep this thread very educational so others can find this beneficial as well. Thanks for taking the time to read this thread and I will try to reply as fast as possible.

I think you have the right attitude.. view breeding fish as a hobby, there is not a lot of money in it. I have no idea where you live, but consider joining an aquarium society. Most will have 1 or 2 auctions per year to sell fish or a "Breeders Awared Program" (BAP) where you can pass fry along to other hobbyists (Some clubs use BAP as a way for people to donate fish for club fundraising, others like ours, do a 70/30 split).. You can get access to a lot of cool fish this way too..

Another thing to consider.. if you have a cool local mom and pop shop.. consider giving them the fish once they reach saleable size. Help them compete against the big corporate places.. IMO, not many stores buy fry from hobbyist anymore, and I can see why it is hard for them to do it.

You can also do aquabid if you are willing to deal with selling stuff online.

Breed whatever you want to.. It is smart to start off with easier fish and have some success. There are some easy fish to breed which are relatively inexcpsnive and are in enough demand so that you are not stuck with excess fry. Stay away from kribs, convicts, etc. If you do guppies , get a nice strain (be careful, some strains are hard to breed).

Have fun with it.