i have noticed that there are alot of fish that are rare or even an enthreatened species breeding. so my question is why are they so hard to get? why when someone breeds them they want to charge an arm and a leg for fry? shouldnt we be helping the hobby out? i know it takes time and money to raise the fry. i have a collection of cichlids that i breed but when they fry are ready i dont charge alot of money for a fish thats under one inch. at that size there is no guarantee that it going to make it. what do yall think?
breeding for profit or to help the hobby????
- Thread starter young_rico
- Start date
In some instances, either the person selling the fry do it for a living and have bills to pay, or they don't want an unexperienced hobbiest to acquire rare fish that may or may not be so easy to breed. Then you risk possible complete extinction in the world of the particular species because the buyer did not know how to care for it.
i understand if thats how that person makes a living, but if you bought some rare cichlids and they bred for you why not share the wealth with the rest of the cichlid hobbyist.
Then why buy from the vendor for $200 when you can buy from average Joe for $20. That kinda screws the vendor guy. Plus if bought from the vendor for $xxx amount then any normal person would like to rcoup their investment
Supply & Demand
Supply & Demand
its just the way it is. Im sure ole mister vendor man hooks up his buddy with 'killer deals' , hey i even know a guy at a vendor. And I basically dont pay for little fish, and pay next to nothing for the bigger ones. But if i find a fish that i want that i cant find anywhere else (rare to the hobby/area/RARE) and its more than im used too , if my g/f lets me , i buy it. Like titan said SUPPY AND DEMAND if you can find it somewhere else get it, maybe next year youll be paying your electric bill with your fry.....
i agree with the original poster, but in the immortal and notorious words of GORDON GECKO, "Greed is good." many a breeder have taken on this philosophy.
Dustonthecabnit;3462417; said:
im sure there are people here who will give fry away to someone they know but then turn around charge someone $10 for a .5" cichlid just because its rare. SUPPLY and DEMAND is more like being stingy or greedy. thats why alot of these rare species are rare. hobbyist wont help spread them out unless they are making $$$. the fry come free. the money is spent on raising and nourishing them, but when you have 400 fry and are trying to sell them at $10 or $20 for a 1" fish its just for profit not to help the species or another fellow hobbyist.
phillydog1958;3462431; said:
thats all i was trying to say. why is a trimac or midas fry so cheap but a istlanum or labridens more expensive. it cost the same to raise they fry from egg to 1"
EdCal;3462451; said:
yes i understand that. if you are a vendor and thats what you do then you have to profit, but if you have a pair of rare cichlids and you get lucky and they breed its different. it wont get your house foreclosed because you sold them cheap. you can loose all the fry and you can always breed them again. Aquamojo has bred his yellow labs and on one of his post he mentioned that he doesnt do it for money. he will even use them as feeders. anyone else will try to sell those at a high price.
It would be nice if breeders would just sell these rare fish for next to nothing but we are talking about money here. I see you live in the U.S., would you sell a fry for $50 or $3 bucks if people are willing to pay 50. It's simple as that really. Also another reason some fish are super expensive (WC) is because the seller doesn't want the buyer to take the fish for granted and let it die in a month. The buyer isn't going to care if it costs $3 and it dies rather soon because they can just get another. While if you paid $300 then your going to treat this fish like a cat/dog or a child, this isn't some fish this is a valuable fish that you will take very very good care of.