I'm just curious. I will be adding fish to my tank and assume some will be male/female mix so I may get babies. Do you sell them to lfs or what? I've always had one large fish but my new tank will be multiple fish.
What do you all do with your babies?
- Thread starter BugFreak72
- Start date
I'm a breeder so I sell to whoever I can! lol
Lfs's, local forums, online sales.
Lfs's, local forums, online sales.
Somewhat unrelated...sometimes I notice parents of the fry spawn a second time allowing fry to eat eggs. Works well. Babies grow mashaAllaah and male gets his rocks off buying female little more time aggression free.
Generally speaking I keep the good looking ones separated and sell them once they reach a nice size and use the rest as food by letting nature sort it out.
Back when I was breeding mollies, I usually had a nice group of 5-15 to sell that survived and looked good enough to pay for all of my fish food haha. Since I'm now moving my convicts into a breeding tank I will do the same thing but with any marbled convicts that are hatched. I will also start selling any nice babies that show up from my feeder guppy tank too.
I can't remember where I saw it online but one dude had so many baby convicts that he started grinding them up to be added to homemade frozen live food for the rest of his fish hahahaha.
Back when I was breeding mollies, I usually had a nice group of 5-15 to sell that survived and looked good enough to pay for all of my fish food haha. Since I'm now moving my convicts into a breeding tank I will do the same thing but with any marbled convicts that are hatched. I will also start selling any nice babies that show up from my feeder guppy tank too.
I can't remember where I saw it online but one dude had so many baby convicts that he started grinding them up to be added to homemade frozen live food for the rest of his fish hahahaha.
I don't know if you have a local aquarium club in your area, but my area clubs usually had auctions, and swap meets, and different species of fry could be brought in for BAP (breeder award points). I also found it was easy to trade fry for other cichlid fry I had not kept yet with other members.
The LFSs usually give pennies on the dollar, or would swap for merchandise in my area, so unless the store was close, hardly worth the time and gas
The LFSs usually give pennies on the dollar, or would swap for merchandise in my area, so unless the store was close, hardly worth the time and gas
Over the last 12 years I have sold 2288 fry/juveniles for $5274 Canadian. That sounds like a lot of money and a bunch of fish. But it works out to only $2.31 per fish (about $1.75 U.S.) and under $37 Canadian a month and only 16 fish per month.
These fish are all African cichlids. Prices ranged from 75 cents each up to $10 each. Lots of yellow labs at a buck each keep the average at $2.31.
I have "sold" fish a few times to local pet stores but they only give credit not money. Mostly I do not do it much at fish stores as it is a hassle. You have to be there when the manager is in, then they see the fish and don't want them or want to pay less.
I advertise on-line on a local sell everything and anything website, as well on a regional fish forum.
I do not do this a business and I do not make money or a profit. But $37 a month average thus far has paid for food for fry and the electricity/water costs each month for my fry tanks.
If I figured out the time I spend each month catching holding moms, stripping, moving fry from tank to tank, placing ads, cleaning tanks, cost of replacing worn out filters, messing around with tumbling eggs on occasion, waiting for people to come buy to pick up fry - all to get $37and barely cover my costs - my pay per hour would be nothing.
So again, I do this because I enjoy breeding tanks and seeing fry grow. A little money supplements my hobby costs and that is it. No different than the hobbyist gardener who has a greenhouse and sells a few geraniums or tomato plants each summer. If I were doing this as a business for little money it would take the joy out of it.
I have given away a few fry from time to time. The main reason I do not is that I feel most people, if they pay a little, no matter how small, will take care of something better than if they get it free.
These fish are all African cichlids. Prices ranged from 75 cents each up to $10 each. Lots of yellow labs at a buck each keep the average at $2.31.
I have "sold" fish a few times to local pet stores but they only give credit not money. Mostly I do not do it much at fish stores as it is a hassle. You have to be there when the manager is in, then they see the fish and don't want them or want to pay less.
I advertise on-line on a local sell everything and anything website, as well on a regional fish forum.
I do not do this a business and I do not make money or a profit. But $37 a month average thus far has paid for food for fry and the electricity/water costs each month for my fry tanks.
If I figured out the time I spend each month catching holding moms, stripping, moving fry from tank to tank, placing ads, cleaning tanks, cost of replacing worn out filters, messing around with tumbling eggs on occasion, waiting for people to come buy to pick up fry - all to get $37and barely cover my costs - my pay per hour would be nothing.
So again, I do this because I enjoy breeding tanks and seeing fry grow. A little money supplements my hobby costs and that is it. No different than the hobbyist gardener who has a greenhouse and sells a few geraniums or tomato plants each summer. If I were doing this as a business for little money it would take the joy out of it.
I have given away a few fry from time to time. The main reason I do not is that I feel most people, if they pay a little, no matter how small, will take care of something better than if they get it free.
I agree with punman, even with shipping fish, I have found the time, the gas to the shipping point, bags, and other shipping stuff, i have barely ever broken even.
Unless you have some very in demand fish that nobody else has, the amount you get for them will be minimal, and if you count all the food and extra tank space you will need get the fish to a sellable size, unless you are doing it for the love......
Unless you have some very in demand fish that nobody else has, the amount you get for them will be minimal, and if you count all the food and extra tank space you will need get the fish to a sellable size, unless you are doing it for the love......
Probably angels and gouarmis. I origianlly planned to do peacock cichlids but their water conditions will kill my crawfish from what i can tell.
I dont really want babies but i figure i will end up with some because i will have so many fish. Ill have to check my lfs to see if they buy but i doubt it.