Am I wasting my time?

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wckdkl0wn

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 16, 2008
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All cats love fish but fear to wet their paws
I have been keeping fish for about 10 years or so now. I would like to move up to breeding fish on a semi larger scale for resale. I'm open to breeding anything really but my main goal is to breed L46(zebra) pleco. I have the space and the finances to start this project. I basically want my hobby to start paying for its self instead of costing. Not looking to go extreme with this, but somewhere around 10-20 tanks with various species.
But here is my main question. With selling fish like this, is it considered more of a business or need permits to sell aquatics? I've breed fish before but never sold them so I don't know the legalities of it all. Anyone here breed fish for resale that can answer a few questions for me?
 
If you've got the market, you know that market and you're able to produce for that market you can definetely pay for your hobby if not make a little profit. With L046 plecos you are getting into a big investment, and there is a good chance you wont get them to breed especially if you've never bred fish before. I just got four L046 juvies who are about a year out from breeding size and I've got tons of fish breeding experience and I'm not putting any bets on them breeding for me.

If I were you, I'd start simpler, get used to how fish breed and why and then try your hand at the L046. Remember too, that just because the fish are worth a lot of money that doesn't mean they are your best bet even if you can get them to breed (L046 are one of the more difficult fish to breed by the way). Lots of bread and butter fish that you can sell on scales will yield better profits for you than L046 ever could. Not to mention that most l046 clutches aren't exceptionally large. A lot of people aim to breed what is cool or expensive then end up with a lot of small cool or expensive fish they can't get rid of.

I'd do a bit of research at the lfs, see what sells and go for that. Guppies for example are money fish believe it or not. You can ALWAYS sell guppies. I had them pay for my fish room for a long time. In fact, I'm thinking of getting back into them since I've got a lot of unused small tanks right now since I switched over to larger more exotic fish (which I also sell lots of).

To put it simply, it's a possibility, but it's not a guarantee and the key to making it work will be doing all the neccessary leg work.
 
I have been doing the same thing your talking about for 2 yrs. There are times when it works, other times it does'nt. It can get aggravating, it can be rewarding. No profits for me yet. Breeding does help pay for food and such.
 
I don't know about in the U.S. but here you can sell and ship with no problems within Canada. I know it becomes an issue when selling out of country but I think you'd be alright for the most part.
 
Ditto to Alistriwen...

The Zebras are going to be a huge investment up front, and then you are going to have to wait a couple of years. Go to LFS and see what is hot and going to make you a return. For me, I only breed things to get store credit on food, equipment, etc. I was never into a large scale project since the time wasn't avail. and space was limited. If you have the space and experience, SW is a potential money maker. As for the permits, check local regs. for rules.
 
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