Breeding for profit
- Thread starter Kolton13
- Start date
So I like ropefish I have 11 of them currently. I have a good mix of male and female. I would love them to breed. More so just because it means they are happy and healthy....usually. Very few have bred in captivity. Thats another reason I'd like them to breed. The ones that did breed the babies didnt live for more then a couple weeks, yet another reason. And finally I could easily sell them and help keep more alive in the wild, and help further the effort!
I think looking for profit breeders is not quite the right way to go about it. But at any rate good luck its deffinately a good learning experience every step of the way.
I think looking for profit breeders is not quite the right way to go about it. But at any rate good luck its deffinately a good learning experience every step of the way.
Dang, I thought it would be smart to sell some kind of fish on here and to my LFS but I realized that’s probably not a great idea thanks!
That's another thing twentyleagues touched on that is good stuff. This is likely not the same scenario, but in the same chapter. You don't just want to breed and unload. If you sell something you want to be sure it's healthy. His ropefish didn't make it past a couple of weeks, which is well before the time to start selling, but still likely a heart breaker. I bred some nice sb carpintis and literally a week after I finally listed them for sale, they started dropping like flies. Luckily I didn't get rid of any yet. I monitored them for months and they were doing great. I later found the father fish was passing some bad mojo. You want to make sure your lines are strong, healthy, and consistent before you start selling.
Breeding for profit is hard and for someone your age it is nearly impossible unless you meet some very hard to get criteria. The main ways to make profit are as follows.
1. Breed something that is rare and hard to find.
2. Breed something that is very hard to breed.
3. Breed in bulk.
None of those are viable for you except for potentially 3. I will explain why now.
1. If it’s rare then it most likely is very expensive, you are 14, you do not have the money to get enough breeding stock of rare fish.
2. You do not have any experience with breeding fish or not enough to even attempt this. There are people that have been trying to breed a species for as long as you have been alive or longer and still haven’t managed to breed them.
3. Bulk requires space yet just about anything can be profitable if need in large enough bulk. Guppies for example can be profitable but in order to make them profitable you would essentially have to take everything out of your house and use the whole house for nothing but guppy breeding.
3.1 the only chance you have at making a profit (a true profit, that is after taking in the costs for everything ie food, water, electricity, tanks, etc) is breeding shrimp. You won’t be able to keep the operation locally for long as not everybody want shrimp and the market will be over saturated before long so you’ll have to sell online if you wish to keep selling although that brings its own problems such as shipping and shipping costs. There are thousands of people who ship shrimp who all have more experience with shipping live animals than you. Why should people buy from you? You’re a nobody. Bob here has been in business selling shrimp for 10 years, he charges less for the shrimp than you, and the shipping costs are lower as he has is a repeat customer of the shipping company and has gotten better rates from them than what they offer someone who is just beginning to ship with them.
In short, there is not a high chance of you making a *true* profit although you might be able to get some fish food or get a few fish every now and then. Would I try to breed for profit as you? No. Would I do it for fun? Yes if you are interested in the species.
twentyleagues
didn’t you breed mbunas as a kid? Wanna tell your story?
1. Breed something that is rare and hard to find.
2. Breed something that is very hard to breed.
3. Breed in bulk.
None of those are viable for you except for potentially 3. I will explain why now.
1. If it’s rare then it most likely is very expensive, you are 14, you do not have the money to get enough breeding stock of rare fish.
2. You do not have any experience with breeding fish or not enough to even attempt this. There are people that have been trying to breed a species for as long as you have been alive or longer and still haven’t managed to breed them.
3. Bulk requires space yet just about anything can be profitable if need in large enough bulk. Guppies for example can be profitable but in order to make them profitable you would essentially have to take everything out of your house and use the whole house for nothing but guppy breeding.
3.1 the only chance you have at making a profit (a true profit, that is after taking in the costs for everything ie food, water, electricity, tanks, etc) is breeding shrimp. You won’t be able to keep the operation locally for long as not everybody want shrimp and the market will be over saturated before long so you’ll have to sell online if you wish to keep selling although that brings its own problems such as shipping and shipping costs. There are thousands of people who ship shrimp who all have more experience with shipping live animals than you. Why should people buy from you? You’re a nobody. Bob here has been in business selling shrimp for 10 years, he charges less for the shrimp than you, and the shipping costs are lower as he has is a repeat customer of the shipping company and has gotten better rates from them than what they offer someone who is just beginning to ship with them.
In short, there is not a high chance of you making a *true* profit although you might be able to get some fish food or get a few fish every now and then. Would I try to breed for profit as you? No. Would I do it for fun? Yes if you are interested in the species.
twentyleagues
didn’t you breed mbunas as a kid? Wanna tell your story?
Yes I did. Luckily I had a great uncle that actually imported tropical fish for wholesale. So we (my mom and me) always had fish tanks for as long as I can remember. I was joking with her the other day about my "first" tank which in my mind has been a 90g for most of my life. She corrected me it was actually a 150. Anyway I got a 125 at some point and had it in the dinning room. It was mine, I took care of it and I decorated it. Texas holey rock and mbuna my uncle helped me with the fish choices and grtting them. I had 20 pairs in that tank. There was some fighting but overall it was good. They constanly had babies and at first most were eaten but then I started catching them out and putting them in 10g tanks. 3 tanks and when they got to about 1/2" long I took them to one of 3 lfs who gladly purchased them from me at first for about a dollar a piece. Then as I flooded the market they went down to .25 each and finally they really only wanted certian ones that were mostly grown. That cost to much for a kid of about 14 to grow out 30 fish to adult size and get $2 each for them. It lastrd about 1.5years total. Then one day I was at a random lfs I didnt got to often and found a very curious creature they called it an endli or something of that nature. They told me it wouldnt get much bigger then the 5ish inches it was and it was from africa so would go great with my mbuna. Fast foward about a year and that fish was about 15" and not a single mbuna left. So it was sad and happy at the same time I really liked the mbuna but they were becoming overcrowded even though we were letting the babies get eaten by the parents or other mbuna in the tank or feeding them to the Oscar my mom had.
I just wanted to clear something up. My ropes have not bred for certian there was a thing that could have possibly been a breeding event but I didnt see it all and all the other fish were super interested.
The ones that have bred were elsewhere by someone way more qualified to try purposefully breeding them, and even they failed to rear the young ones. So I probably dont have a snowballs chance in hell to do it but if I can give it a shot I will. The previous tank they were in I think they had just gotten comfortable when I had to move. There is also talk that they may not be sexually mature until 10 years of age or older. I have no idea how old a few of them are (really all) but a couple are at least 6+ years. Since they are all wild caught there is really no way to tell that I know of.
most LFS will take your fry for store credit but not cash, some may sell on consignment. Thing is after your first brood you have flooded the market. I was able to unload a fair amount of jag fry and JD fry at there first spawn, again for store credit and sold a few to private buyers for a few bucks, the rest of the spawns nope market flooded. So they became fish food for my Oscars.
As advised get your feet wet by just trying to breed as hobby and hopefully it grows. Keep in mind that successfully breeding quality fish takes ALOT of time. Many well known breeders search a long time to find good quality breeders to begin with and then have to wait a long time for those to mature to breeding age. And then even from there they hand pick the best specimens from spawns to be grown as future breeders. Its a quality vs quantity decision that make a profit sometimes , since u have very limited space...try something and have fun with it and see what happens. Dont rush it, lots of people try to rush the spawn when the thing to do is just sit back , care for them properly, and sit back and let fish do their thing.
Fish breeding sounds like a great idea in theory.
Place value on your time and underwrite a business model. If your model does not support your value, find something that will.
This Hobby is awesome, however I would never rely on it to pay bills.
Place value on your time and underwrite a business model. If your model does not support your value, find something that will.
This Hobby is awesome, however I would never rely on it to pay bills.
