What to Breed for Income?

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A few types of fish that CAN be spawned and raised for a SMALL profit with enough tanks and dedication IMHO:

Angels of good quality are always in demand

Fancy Guppies fixed show strains $20-30+ a trio


Fancy Rainbows higher profit margin than many cheap common cichlids.Fry grow slower.

Some types of African Peacocks bred in colony set ups
 
haha, I didn't read the whole thread but if the originator got banned I bet he didn't like some of the advice. For those interested, I grow plants for trade at local stores. I use cuttings and baby plants to replace full grown plants that are big enough to trade. I don't make money... but I get 'free' food and sometimes enough for something else...

This method works for me, it doesn't require much more than what I'm doing anyway.
 
Recently, I bought out a bunch of tanks from a local breeder/wholesaler. I was talking to him while we were cutting out my tanks from the line about why he got out and how he got started.

First, this guy has around 350 tanks from several hundred gallons down to 10 gallons. SW and FW. He had 8 employees and 3 full time drivers. He moved A LOT of fish in this city.

He got started by breeding rams, angels and piranha. He started in his garage with about 10 tanks and made rounds at all the fish clubs in the city. Soon friends said he should start selling more, so he just went with the flow and bred what was hot. The town he lived in made him shut down the op from home, so he leased a warehouse and expanded to where he was when I bought out the stuff.

He said the biggest mistake he ever made was getting out of the breeding and more into wholesale. Apparently, the piranha were a big money maker.

He shut down for 2 reasons. One, a developer bought the property the warehouse is on for a development project. Two, he said the aquarium industry has shifted. It used to be when this guy got started that importing wasn't as big, and hobbyists were more discerning on the stock they bought. Now, with ebay, aquabid etc. people just buy the specialty stuff online at bargain prices. He said there is too much "garbage stock" on the market. Poor quality fish are the norm in the LFS's and nobody cares. He said it became too hard to turn a profit by supplying the LFS's. He supplied to most of Western PA, MD, WV and OH. I guess some really big wholesalers have come into the market and taken over bigger areas than they should. There are also fewer and fewer LFS in business.

IMO, from talking with him, I wouldn't even think about breeding for profit in this day and age. Maybe 20 years ago or even 10, but not in 2007.
 
to expand on this subject, it's not profitable to breed for money in the US because we're competing with cheap, poor quality, mass produced fish from Asia. Yes, they're cheaper, and yes they're cheaper because labor and resources are cheaper in Asia, but the fish are turning out to be just rubbish.

There are countless examples of this. Breeding hormones, and dye injections with the dye baths too. All in an attempt to out power by way of under pricing to sell more than the next guy. Of course consumers will purchase what's cheaper. It's the "wal-mart" mentality. We want everything for nothing, then complain about why things fall apart, or die for no apparent reason.

I recommend buying from local breeders and off aquabid from small ops breeders. You get better quality in the end. Not cheaper necessarily, but better quality. Maybe the tides will shift if enough people demand better quality in the fish.
 
There really are no fish that you can breed for a good income, you can breed to help pay for aquariums, fish etc., but if you really want to make money your probably going to have to open a large scale breeding operation.
 
I'd like to just make enough to support my habit. I plan on breeding good quality angelfish, and then maybe some Rainbow varieties that aren't common here. Bristlenose Plecos are in high demand.
 
I sell all of my fish online to people in my city and the surrounding area. I advertise them as what they are, high quality, healthy stock better than what is available at the lfs. At least around here, people seem to have an appreciation for quality stock as I am always still receiving e-mails for fish once I have sold all the ones for sale. I don't do anything rare, guppies, barbs, swords, endlers. I just take excellent care of my fish and it shows when people come to view the fish. All of the unfit fry are culled long before they attain any size, unlike fish stores which constantly have deformed or unhealthy stock. Granted, I sell a bit cheaper than the fish stores, but I don't have as much overhead.

At very best, I hope to recover what I've spent and what I continue to spend on electricity before the lease is up and I have to disassemble everything. If I end up back in my home town my mom is extatic about the idea of me raising discus in the basement, so I'd probably do something like that. I think Discus are probably one fish you could make a profit off of, if you are able to raise them efficiently. In my city, only one LFS ever has discus, and only 2 or 3 of size and they arent very nice ones.

Fortunately, even keeping discus is difficult for the average fish keeper and breeding them even more difficult so I can hope the market will remain open. In sum, I think it is possible, if you're good at it, to get it profitable. It just takes time, and a knowledge of your market. The initial poster's ambitions were... outrageous.
 
Can tell you this...I went into breeding bengal cats a few years ago with the thought that I'd break even being in the pet industry..........guess again!

I love them....but what a money pit! What you need to go through in order to turn dollar one is ridiculous. I believe that unless you have a substantial space and monies that it might be a losing proposition.

Lately I've pondered breeding Zebra Plecos. The start up cost would be high, but they are in demand with a high dollar value. They are small and have been bred in captivity, so perhaps this could be an option in your hellbent on doing it?
 
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