What to Breed for Income?

[davo]

You could set up anything and try and make a bit of extra pocket money, but you won't be living off it. Maybe rays? Might make your hobby more self sustaining cash wise though.

 

[Sturgeon]

very true, wolf. good point!
I jus feel like stating you'd see more profit as a dog breeder than as a fish breeder.
Breed discus. some yuppies pay well for them, even tho I wouldnt consider owning one.

 

[sandtiger]

I don't think you would have much luck with rare fish. They are typically rare because people don't want them. Unless of course you breed something difficult to spawn (clown loaches) or in high demand but rare in the wild (zebra plecostomus). Zebra plecos would IMO be a good choice but would require an expensive start up cost. Something always in depend would be your best bet. Angelfish would work, these are always in demand. Perhaps feeder goldfish. It won't be easy. I venture to guess you would have to spawn more then one species.

 

[IITUFFTOBEATII]

Breeding dogs properly and responsably isn't a Money making proposition either...besides we kill over 7 million unwanted dogs a year. The last thing we need are more breeders.

Very true unfortunately

 

[yourockit]

are people breeding gator gars or atfs? is there a steady demand for these fishes in the ornamental fish market?

 

[duke33]

Both red bay and green bay (normal) snooks bring a fairly high price and are in more demand than current supplys can support. They are reasonably simple to breed under the right conditions and can be sold and shipped at a relitivly small size. They fit your eventual size requirements and are in my humble opinion a great addition to almost any aquarium.

Breeding for profit is risky at best and I belive it would be better to branch out a bit. Start up costs can be controled by buying baby fish and then growing them out to form breeding pairs and slowly building an efficiant tank and feeding system to support the program. All of that takes time and patiance however. The changing nature of the market precludes breeding any one fish unless it's an industry staple like Angelfish...discus...Koi...ECT.

Freshwater clams...giant pond and apple snails...and crayfish all ship well and have a fairly good profit margin. They also have a well established demand.
High doller fish like freshwater rays bring a huge price but can be difficult to move on a consistant basis and, of course, have a preportionally higher start up cost.

What you start out breedng NOW may well be a fish that has saturated the market by the time you have young fish for sale so you really need to anticipate the future market carefully. IMO it's unrealistic to set a monthly income goal in ANY kind of breeding operation because you may have one or two MONSTER income months followed by several months of negitive cash flow.

ONE shipping disaster, even one thats not your fault can wipe out 2 or three months of profit. You also need to stay away from any fish thats in good local supply because you can't possibly compete with the huge numbers cranked out by giant comercial fish farms.
Most LFS want to be able to pick up the phone...place an order for a fast moving fish and have it arrive in time for an advertised sale.

You have a good idea and it's one that a lot of us in the hobby think about from time to time but it's VERY hard to pull off for all of the reasons I listed.

The best way to start a small scale breeding operation is to stick with what you know and don't get in over your head. In other words don't go into it EXPECTING to make money...at least at first.
It CAN be done and IS bieng done but once you turn a hobby or passion into a buissness you run the risk of losing all of the joy and pleasure you got into the hobby for in the first place.

Wolf(man)3101 you sure do have patience..Must come with age? jk

 

[sandtiger]

are people breeding gator gars or atfs? is there a steady demand for these fishes in the ornamental fish market?

I think you would be hard pressed to house a brood stock of gator gars or ATF. And though MFKs like them I don't think the general population is into them and they would not yeild much profit. Have you considered rearing a food fish like tilapia and selling to locals? Nile tilapia are very easy to raise.

 

[killerfish]

convicts!

you won't be able to make that much money but you could make some money to make alot of money try breeding
arowanas
stingray
datnoids
certain plecos not sure which but some are worth alot
but those are a little hard to breed you could breed alot of cichlids like
ture trimacs
parachromis species except dovii and jaguar which are common
red terror
get a good looking flowerhorn and you'll make money
true parrots
discus
rare pike cichlids
any rare cichlid really

 

[killerfish]

are people breeding gator gars or atfs? is there a steady demand for these fishes in the ornamental fish market?

yes and no it depends in africa theres not much demand for ATF and in america not much at all for gator gars both are big fish and would be hard to breed but of those two ATF would make a ton more money so if you could breed ATF they may be your best bet i haven't seen any species for under $100 so if you could breed them they would make alot of money but i don't know if any body has ever bredd them before you would need a BIG tank more likely a pond

BUT its important to remember that the market will fluctuiate and the price will go up and down as people buy your fish your best off looking for a SMALL fish thats valuable that alot of people can care for the average person can't keep a 3 foot fish so keep that in mind

 

[bmxer4ever]

Not on your list, but you could try different colour strains of Congo Tetras. Must be one of the easiest tetra to breed (and command more money than most) , big eggs, so easy to raise, popular fish in most areas too. Good in big shoals. I'm thinking of having a go myself soon.

Good luck with it and let us know what you decide to do.