Tough Decision, Betta Breeding.

[NotReallyCatfishGuy]

I'm really tired and I have school tomorrow, so I will probably forget to include important details because I'm in a bit of a rush to get to bed. I will also post a poll just to see. Polls are fun.

Alright so basically I have $80 laying around in a wallet I lost. I was supposed to pick up a 75 with some stuff today for $100 ($20 input from my dad) but since I don't have the money I had to turn it down for now and reschedule. It gave me time to think.

I was going to make up the money by breeding bettas and plecos, they're in high demand. However, I don't have supplies for the breeding processes other than a 10 gallon and a 20 long.


with $80 I could easily get two, maybe three, 5.5 gallon tanks set up, I'm thinking I'll keep a breeding male in one and a breeding female in the other, and if I get a third I will either use that to keep another betta, possibly a halfmoon king or plakat, or as a growout for betta fry.

When I breed I will use a 'test pair' and it'll be a crowntail female with an un-ID'd male. after that I'll try to breed a koi betta with a plakat of some sort.

Which should I go with? I'll be at zero no matter what I choose, but it has to be one of these. I like the breeding idea more, purely because I will be very likely to repay for the 75, but the reason I haven't gone with breeding already is because where I live, this is probably the best deal you can possibly get for a tank that size.

Please do ask questions if I confused you, I'm good at that. Thank you in advance!

 

[skjl47]

Hello; First thing that comes to mind is about the market for bettas and plecos. Have you actually talked to anyone about them taking your stock and at what price?

If you do have a market setup then what about the grow out time for the fry? Will the plan mean that you will have a steady and ongoing stock to sell after a few months or will you only have a limited supply of stock every few months?
To have a steady supply then it seems you will have to have a number of grow out tanks in addition to the breeding setups. My guess is shops will want somewhat mature male bettas so you will have to grow them out.

Not sure what size the pleco fry will need to be in order to sell them. Also not sure you can breed plecos in a 5.5 gallon tank. Not sure you can keep a mature pleco in such a small tank.

 

[convict360]

for betta's, literally any container of decent size will do, I don't even use filters for them anymore, just water changes. That will save you on buying tanks

 

[NotReallyCatfishGuy]

Hello; First thing that comes to mind is about the market for bettas and plecos. Have you actually talked to anyone about them taking your stock and at what price?

If you do have a market setup then what about the grow out time for the fry? Will the plan mean that you will have a steady and ongoing stock to sell after a few months or will you only have a limited supply of stock every few months?
To have a steady supply then it seems you will have to have a number of grow out tanks in addition to the breeding setups. My guess is shops will want somewhat mature male bettas so you will have to grow them out.

Not sure what size the pleco fry will need to be in order to sell them. Also not sure you can breed plecos in a 5.5 gallon tank. Not sure you can keep a mature pleco in such a small tank.

The majority of this is hypothetical, and I'm planning on calling my lfs today once I get home from school. I haven't spent any money yet so I am at no loss no matter what the lfs says. I wanna end up selling on craigslist and fb marketplace but I'm too worried about their policies on live animals, might as well not. I want to sell for like $2 a pleco and $2 a betta if they're that good. won't expect more that 50 cents though.

I was thinking that after I get prices I'll decide if I want to keep going. If I do keep on going, I will have a few 2-3 test batches growing out. once they get big enough, I'll sell them. If they sell out i'll try a few more. I'll keep on making batches until It's out of demand.

The 5.5s would only be to hold a single betta each. I'm keeping 4 plecos in a 20 long, they will most definitely move into a 55 for a breeding "community" at some point. Haven't moved so I can't set up tanks 10g+

sorry but i'm runnin late to school, kinda lost all sentence structure cause I'm in a rush.

 

[skjl47]

The majority of this is hypothetical

Hello; I think you are taking the better approach in doing some checking.
Some more things to consider might be the act of culling undesirable fry. It is my understanding breeders do this often. I had a breeding pair of angel fish for a time and they produced a number of fry. The male died due to wounds he received from the female so I did not have to face this.
I did wind up with about 12 fry that were not shaped right (bent over dorsal fins) or were just very small. I decided to keep them and make room in my tanks. I would not have been able to keep them if the breeding pair had continued.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

With $80 you can buy 8 or so huge tubs of the storage variety

 

[YankeeJack]

Having bred bettas for years, allow me to give my $0.02. Don't go into the hobby to make money. It won't cut it in America. At best you'll break even.

Spend the $80 towards the passion and what you love to keep .. what you are willing to spend your time caring for. Breeding bettas for profit will be very time consuming and require a lot of tank maintenance. I just don't see the economics of it in America. Perhaps if you lived in Thailand, it might work.

If I had $80 in high school, I'd call my girlfriend and take her out on a date!

 

[NotReallyCatfishGuy]

Having bred bettas for years, allow me to give my $0.02. Don't go into the hobby to make money. It won't cut it in America. At best you'll break even.

Spend the $80 towards the passion and what you love to keep .. what you are willing to spend your time caring for. Breeding bettas for profit will be very time consuming and require a lot of tank maintenance. I just don't see the economics of it in America. Perhaps if you lived in Thailand, it might work.

If I had $80 in high school, I'd call my girlfriend and take her out on a date!

Oh I know I won't get too far with $80. I want to get into betta breeding not only because of the money I'd make back (even $5 total would help), but also because of the experience. In my honest opinion, betta breeding is the hardest and most rewarding thing possible that is still in my reach.

 

[GlassDoor_Aquatics]

In my state, LFS only take Donations hardly any trades let alone actual money . You are correct about bettas being in demand but first you need to understand that out of 200 fry you'll have about 5 that'll really sell for a good price and figure atleast one will die so now out of 200 you have 4 good fish Do you really think the lfs will give you the money you're expecting? Maybe, Maybe not In my case I have to cull 75% of them and take the 4 good ones and market them online since that is really the only selling Platform I see myself making any kind of profit and in the end If you break even, You're a winner Its a tough business

 

[NotReallyCatfishGuy]

In my state, LFS only take Donations hardly any trades let alone actual money . You are correct about bettas being in demand but first you need to understand that out of 200 fry you'll have about 5 that'll really sell for a good price and figure atleast one will die so now out of 200 you have 4 good fish Do you really think the lfs will give you the money you're expecting? Maybe, Maybe not In my case I have to cull 75% of them and take the 4 good ones and market them online since that is really the only selling Platform I see myself making any kind of profit and in the end If you break even, You're a winner Its a tough business

I'll keep this in mind if I decide to do bettas again. Last night my male betta died and it made me lose my taste for bettas.