If I bred it, what would people want more of?

[Hybridfish7]

ah, thanks for the tip, yeah i'm breeding to breed what i like and make some money off of it while i'm at it. i've been looking into shelldwellers lately, and i think i might go with those instead of the american cichlids. I'll stick with the pseudomugil though, and the bettas are kinda iffy at this point.

 

[Belly up]

I have a tank right now that is producing platies, red cherry shrimp, blue ramshorn snails, albino bristlenose plecos and two kinds of plants. I supply two stores, one for credit and one my choice cash or credit. The only thing I have to do is water changes and feedings. I am having a lot of fun with the tank trying to keep up harvesting and balancing the different populations. I am kicking around the idea of trying different combinations of fish to see what else I can do this with.

At least initially you should breed something that stores sell a ton of. As already stated Central American cichlids will flood your market in short order. Guppies and platies are sold by thousands so it`s virtually impossible to flood your area. There are many videos on youtube discussing how to go about breeding for profit and I suggest you watch some of these for ideas on how to do it.

The Cherry Barbs are a very popular fish but will take more time and effort than a livebearer will. Still it may be a good choice for you if the species is one you really like.

 

[Hybridfish7]

yeah, cherry barbs would definitely take more time, but i was willing to try a hand at breeding egg scatterers, i guess pseudomugil furcatus fills that role pretty well, but that's still to-be-decided till i actually get the fish. a group of p.furcatus isn't that common, nor is it cheap, but i'll see what i can do.

 

[Gourami Swami]

Have to agree with duanes; unless you are shipping the fish it's going to be impossible to sell more than one spawn of a cichlid. I've been breeding cichlids and various other species for years, and have had good relationships with LFS's where they would buy fry from me. They will only pay small amounts for the fry; by the time you pay for the electricity to run the tanks you'll need to raise the fry, you are losing money whichever way you cut it. Unless you run an operation like Rapps or CoA, where you have many different species available, have a well-known reputation, and can sell to people in markets all over the country, you will always be losing money.
My advice would be to keep what you want for the pure enjoyment of it, and don't worry about selling the offspring.
Or-
If you want to make even a small amount of money, a much better operation would be to set up a bunch of 5 gallon tanks and breed different colors of neocaridina shrimp. They are very trendy right now and there is demand for them, and LFS's sell them for high prices of 5-15$ per shrimp. These things are incredibly easy to breed, and the market for them is there. I used to breed goldenback yellow shrimp and sell them for 1-2$ each to my LFS when they reached about 1/2". I actually made back the money used to set up the tank and then some over time. I think if you had like 5-10 small tanks set up cheap as possible and dedicated to this, you could actually make some decent pocket change.

 

[twentyleagues]

Ive bred african cichlids and what duanes and Gourami Swami are saying is very true. After a couple spawns I was getting 25 -75 cents each if theyd even take them and that was grown out for 6 months. They dont pay for themselves. Ive bred damsel fish too and that ends up being the same you just gotta add the salt water inflation to it. Stores would pay $5 each maybe. I had a group of filamented barbs spawn and I got about 300 babies from that spawn. About 50 survived to the 8 month mark where you could tell what they were finally. I got $100 bucks store credit for them and they are pretty rare around here. With just trying to breed a few fish with little room you wont make much money. If you dont ship you'll make less. Do what you want to make yourself happy, just dont think its going to be a windfall of cash.
You want to make a ton of money? Set up a couple frag tanks and grow and frag some high end colored sticks. I made the most money off growing corals. I also spent alot getting everything set up and time involved. Going to a frag swap and after paying for the space I could bring home $600 to $1000 with a few damsels and 100 or so frags. Most of the time I just traded or bought higher end corals to grow, frag and display or fish. You cant frag a fish and most salt fish are really hard to breed.
Good luck I hope you find a fish that will fit the bill.

 

[Hybridfish7]

not trying to make a lot of money right now, plus I'm 15 so I dont have to worry too much about the bills, but still not trying to go overboard on costs for a (relatively) small project. I plan on being able to ship fish out to people who want to buy em, so it's not like I'm gonna be stuck supplying my lfs completely, but thanks everyone for the advice. at this point i think i'm gonna try to go with neolamprologus similis, albino cherry barbs, and possibly blue-eyed albino bristlenose. just things that I like, that I know other people will like too. the bettas can wait, i have some of the stuff for them already, but then again I'm not trying to spend all of my money in one go.

 

[punman]

Another thing I forgot to mention is the size of your city. I live in a city with over a million people so kind of hard to flood the market. If I were in a small city of 50,000, it might be a different story. I did better selling to individuals than to retail fish stores.

 

[Piscavores:)]

A fellow hobbyist was getting part way outa the hobby and gave me a 30 gal and 5 gal with some pretty high quality yellow neocardina shrimp, first thing I did was got some hornwort and put all the shrimps in the 30(yes there are filters) that is how I pay for all my fish. All I do is feed them and change the water once a week and make bank, I’m 14 so this is totally possible for u.

 

[Junaid8]

Wouldn't bother with the Albino Cherry Barbs at all unless you are breeding them for fun. The stores can all get them for pennys a piece but they are never stocked because nobody wants to buy them. When I was 13 I found that making pleco caves and coconut caves was pretty good money in the fishkeeping hobby. Just need a tile cutter, slate and silicone for the caves. Also breeding L number pleco's and Fancy Goldfish is always profitable and there are many potential customers in those markets.

 

[Junaid8]

Corydoras are a good fish to breed too. Start with the Albino/Bronze variants and if goes well move on to Sterbai. If that also goes well you can move onto green lasers and make bigger bucks. I will always support young people trying to learn or make money in the hobby so feel free to message me whenever you have any other questions.

Edit

If you ever plan on shipping fish, make sure you research all the laws about the fish you are shipping. Many fish are illegal in certain states, and if you are caught shipping to those states you will face criminal charges as well as a hefty fine.