Breeders Selling To Shops

[Steve GT]

Hi guys

Looking into starting up a bit more breeding. Mainly as a hobby not looking at doing it to make a shed load of money im happy just to do it for enjoyment at the min

Going to start off easy with live bearers, im already on my 4th batch of mollys which as everyone knows are easy to breed. thinking of doing mollys, swordtails, guppys, platys and endlers fo now.

My question is obviously when the fry grow up i cant keep them there would be well too many. I know a few big chains of fish stores do support local breeders etc. Just want to know peoples experiences with this.

Does anyone on here breed and sell to fish stores? how did you approach this and what do you sell? just really interested to find out who does what and to who?

Lets discuss

 

[ZoddyZod]

the problem with the live barers that you mention is that they are too easy to breed and extremely common, therefore making their young almost worthless in terms of sell-on value (unless you produce a unique and very colourful strain not seen before).

I doubt you'd have much luck selling them on to be honest.

 

[Primous]

Going to start off easy with live bearers, im already on my 4th batch of mollys which as everyone knows are easy to breed. thinking of doing mollys, swordtails, guppys, platys and endlers fo now.

I believe there is money to be made in breeding fish. A Lady I 'met' on an apisto forum said she made a small profit by selling 60+ SA apistos she'd bred in her tank and raised from fry. If I remember correctly she sold them via ebay...

However, you don't 'breed' live bearers. My lfs once told me that livebeaers will give birth in a toilet bowl if you let them. And as a result he rarely has to order them in because the customers (not breeders) replenish his livebeaers supply daily The species can give birth repeatedly for upto 6 months after being seeded by a male.

Personally I'd try and breed a species that requires a small amount of effort as opposed to none at all.

 

[RossC]

One of my LFS buys them for store credit so helps towards buying supplies

 

[snake007]

I agree with the above, when I had my molly fry for sale, none of my lfs would buy, I just gave them away.
I find my lfs are stingy when buying fry of people, I had better luck with ebay.
Try and breed a rarer species of cichlid or try an oddball.

 

[Steve GT]

Cheers for the reply guys

I only thought id start with common live bearers to learn a bit about it first then move onto more complicated things. What about rarer livebearers would that be a bit more worthwhile for now? Just to start off with

Or is it best to stick to something egg laying a bit more worthwhile. anyone got any suggestions of good pretty simple things to try out for now?

 

[snake007]

I'm not sure on livebearers but if you want to get some experience with egg laying species then try convicts.
You won't make any money but it will build up some experience.

 

[onidrase]

I only thought id start with common live bearers to learn a bit about it first then move onto more complicated things. What about rarer livebearers would that be a bit more worthwhile for now? Just to start off with

it's a good thought, but unfortunately, breeding livebearers is nothing like breeding any other fish. They just kinda get on with it regardless of the conditions its kept in. with a lot of other fish, you need to do something to the water to trigger their spawning, or you need to pair them, add decorations related to where they lay eggs, etc etc etc. there are other fish out there which are easy to breed that would give you a bit more experience, and maybe some money in pocket. Apistogramma cacatuoides seems easy, bolivian rams may be as well, and convict cichlids are known to be extremely easy to breed. Of course, getting rid of convicts is about as easy as getting rid of live bearers.

 

[Steve GT]

hmmm food for thought then

Iv got male and female rams dont think there bolivian though what type of rams are they

The Apistogramma cacatuoides look nice. do they have a common name just so i know?

anyone got any other good input/suggestions think il go down the egg laying route then iv got pair of breeding angels too but there not laying in the community tank yet might move them and start with them. there pretty simple arnt they

 

[Primous]

Apistogramma cacatuoides seems easy, bolivian rams may be as well.

I agree with South American Apistos 'seeming' easy. But they can take a few spawns before the fry reach free swimming stage. Also, If you were to go with SA's may I suggest a species other than cacs and agassizi because in my experience they are the most common. The best thing about SA's is that the breeding is a story in itself and pretty amazing to watch.

This is my borellii breeding vid from inducement to fry.

There are many species of tetra that are both popular and require some effort to breed like the seemingly common neon tetra. Green neons are always on order in my lfs but I'd be willing to bet that very few manage to breed them successfully though with a little effort and measurement of water params you'd be onto a winner there.

 

[KrystaK]

I breed live bearers (Well, I don't, they breed themselves) lol, My old Biology teacher is a fish breeder, he breeds a whole bunch of different fish, and I don't get paid to give him fry, but then I also don't have an overcrowded tank full of fry that I couldn't sell or that didn't get taken care of by their parents.
He breeds a whole bunch of different fish, and the common fish (Like the Mollies I give him) He usually gives to other people, he usually just gives them to other teachers, so most of the classes at my old high school have tanks in them somewhere (It's pretty awesome )

And yeah, this is just from someone who doesnt have a single gender tank but didn't want to deal with fry, I think I found a pretty good scenario

 

[MBOU]

You have Blue Rams. You'd probably be able to sell their babies, especially if they are raised in tapwater as they are a pain for shops to acclimatise when imported.

The Apistogrammma cacatuoides is known as Cockatoo Cichlid sometimes same goes for them and their babies.

The chain stores are less likely to buy from you than independant stores just because whats the point, thy can buy fish in and have better guarantees. But also most shops wont give cash for them... it gets too complicated as a chain, when buying something for cash it has to go through the till and paperwork and a VAT number has to be given. You wouldnt be able to give a VAT number so it would be credit not cash.

 

[Harlequins]

Has mentioned livebearers are easy to breed but hard to sell,not many will buy them off,so you'll end up giving them away...

Best bet is to try to breed other species that are more likely that lfs will buy off you,i've had a good experience in breeding & selling corydoras

 

[Steve GT]

cool thanks guys

im thinking at the min start with my angels see how it goes. also use what i have too. i have a known succesful pair of breeding angels, a male and female blue ram and a male and female black widow tetra. iv heared the black widows are pretty difficult to breed though

anyone got any experience in Black widow breeding. Or blue ram breeding? would be good to start off with them

il do some research now

Whats the best easy/worthwhile ratio corydora to breed do people think. iv got 2 virginae corys not sure of the sex of them though damm good cleaners however

Sorry for all the questions here but i think this is a really good discussion and (after a small 2 minute search) i couldnt find a similar topic so hope this will help a few people as well as me out.

 

[Akasha72]

I've just taken 10 baby platies to my lfs. I got cheeky and asked for 2 new fish for free - they said yes. Selling them is a no-go it would seem but asking for something in return is okay. I would strike up a good relationship with one particular lfs then ask them if they would like some fry in return for another fish or two.

If I take anymore platy babies to my lfs I'd ask again for fish or plants for free ... after all they are getting fish for free that they can make money off you deserve something in return for your kindness