Do you sell fishes to your LFS?

[yhbae]

If so, I'd be VERY interested in hearing your experiences. (I'm sure many others on this forum are as well).

I'm definitely not thinking of "getting rich fast" scheme. I'm hoping that by accumulating enough store credits, I can pay for the hobby, and even upgrade some of my tanks.

I've started doing this with platies, and I was fortunate enough to find LFS which pays 1/3 of their normal price. This is enough to pay for the maintenance cost, but I'd like to do more...

So I'm searching for the next species. I don't mind if breeding them is challenging. I don't mind if the upfront cost is not low. (I'm not going to spend thousands of dollars on this setup, though...).

Which species worked (or is working) for you? What kind of setup do you have?

 

[Kossy]

This ain't a good idea to "get rich" because unless you own a plantation you wont make money in fact you will probably spend more money raising them than profit. However if your really eager try discus or bettas (i sell my bettas for around $3.50 male, and $3 female) I don't make much profit to me its more of a hobby

 

[Eelzor]

I'll tell you somethin' yhbae, about gettin' rich quik. Angels when fully grown are worth a lot where I am, and angels grow faster than...well...they gro phast! All of my fish in my sig, in my tank are fast growing fish except for my suckermouth cats(better known as Algae eaters-but they are going back to the store because of harrasment), and my rainbow shark. But Once my fish in my tank are big, I am only keeping my plec and my black ghost knife (because my fav's )Then I'm moving onto marine...my dream tank...finally there - 1 tomato clown, 1 royal gramma basslet, 1 starfish, 1 anenome, 1 clam, 1 cleaner shrimp and maybe 1 more small fish if I can fit it in...Anyway back to the point, (I forgot your question!) *re-reads question* - Oh, i see, well, you say you don't want to go with the 'get rich quick' theme, well, it surely sounds like it is! But i recommend angels - they are one of the best freshwater fish and made it on number 2 on the best freshwater aquarium fish in the world! First being neons. Angels are probably angry that there natural food beat them on the top 20 fish!

HTH!

Edit: Sorry forgot to re-emphasise the question - go with angels!!

 

[Moe]

I sell plants to my LFS, they pay a lot more for my plants than for my fish. They will buy cuttings, and any plants with roots that you have. I went the other day with a bunch of corkscrew vals and he gave me $1.00 a stem. I got about $12.00 for something I was going to throw away. My daughter sells ramshorn snails to LFS she gets $1.00 per full grown snail. They are pretty easy to breed, it keeps her in guppies. I love my LFS they are really nice and fair.

 

[carppy]

another thing to consider about the lfs is how much you love your fish. I know the fish room where I live is excellent, knowledgable and they genuinely care. So I've taken my babies to them for years. The one in your town may not be this way. THey may just be another store thats out to make a buck and keep their stock in poor conditions. Breedin fish isn't THAT profitable but if you want to start somewhere the breed of fish you have is a great place to start

 

[CFC]

Unless you have a large multi tank set up with many breeding pairs of fish pumping out a continuous supply of easy to sell fish and multiple tanks for holding and rearing different species of fry then it is unlikely you will make money from fish breeding. Most shops will not touch fish under 1" long and are unwilling to pay much more than 1/4 of the final retail price for them, so by the time you have fed them 3 times a day for 10 weeks to get them that size they have already cost more than you will earn.
I breed various fish and have a 13 tank set up but can honestly say i have never more than broken even on any fry i have sold, i hope to expand next year and have a 30+ tank set up planned in which i can breed some high value fish like discus, zebra plecs and maybe some rays but the outlay for the tanks and stock will be high.

 

[pondfreak4365]

None of our LFS buy fish, but they will take the fry I bring in and the employees get to take them home for free. It makes me feel good to find good homes for the little ones.

 

[yhbae]

This ain't a good idea to "get rich" because unless you own a plantation you wont make money in fact you will probably spend more money raising them than profit. However if your really eager try discus or bettas (i sell my bettas for around $3.50 male, and $3 female) I don't make much profit to me its more of a hobby

As I mentioned, I'm not looking into finding a way to get rich quickly...

If money was the first concern, I'd be looking for some overtime work which will pay back much better, but I definitely don't enjoy doing overtime as much as looking after fishes after work hours, hence trying to balance a little overall.

Breeding Discus seem rather daunting though. I do have a pair of blue rams which are supposed to live in the similar water condition so my tap water should be close to ideal for Discus, but aren't they supposed to be one of the toughest? (I know I said I don't mind challenges, but going from breeding platy to Discus seem rather big jump! )

As for betas, I need to like the fishes I keep, and for some reason, I don't like betas very much... (no offence to anyone who own betas).

 

[yhbae]

I'll tell you somethin' yhbae, about gettin' rich quik. Angels when fully grown are worth a lot where I am, and angels grow faster than...well...they gro phast! All of my fish in my sig, in my tank are fast growing fish except for my suckermouth cats(better known as Algae eaters-but they are going back to the store because of harrasment), and my rainbow shark. But Once my fish in my tank are big, I am only keeping my plec and my black ghost knife (because my fav's )Then I'm moving onto marine...my dream tank...finally there - 1 tomato clown, 1 royal gramma basslet, 1 starfish, 1 anenome, 1 clam, 1 cleaner shrimp and maybe 1 more small fish if I can fit it in...Anyway back to the point, (I forgot your question!) *re-reads question* - Oh, i see, well, you say you don't want to go with the 'get rich quick' theme, well, it surely sounds like it is! But i recommend angels - they are one of the best freshwater fish and made it on number 2 on the best freshwater aquarium fish in the world! First being neons. Angels are probably angry that there natural food beat them on the top 20 fish!

HTH!

Edit: Sorry forgot to re-emphasise the question - go with angels!!

How long do you raise angels before selling to LFS? How large do they become by this time? What are they willing to pay for them?

I have to admit, I've been spending some time recently looking into marine fishes (clown fish specifically). My 7 and 3 year old girls will love me (not that she doesn't already but you see what I mean - Nemo!... ) and started to look at how people breed them as well. They appear to be feasible, but very high cost.

Few years down the road, I'd like to set up 3 relatively large tanks (75g+), one for Amazon, one for African Cichlid, and one for the Marine species, for show purpose.

Geez, I'm in trouble already - only started this hobby 4 months ago, and already have 5 tanks, largest ones being 33g and 25g... (So far, my wife hasn't blew up on me... yet..)

 

[yhbae]

I sell plants to my LFS, they pay a lot more for my plants than for my fish. They will buy cuttings, and any plants with roots that you have. I went the other day with a bunch of corkscrew vals and he gave me $1.00 a stem. I got about $12.00 for something I was going to throw away. My daughter sells ramshorn snails to LFS she gets $1.00 per full grown snail. They are pretty easy to breed, it keeps her in guppies. I love my LFS they are really nice and fair.

That option is interesting... I did look into it a while back but gave up on that idea because most of the attractive plants appear to need additional CO2 and more lighting. None of my tanks have more than 1w/g except for the 33g which I bought used, and came with 4w/g lighting. (still in the process of being setup)

I am looking into building DIY CO2 as one of my dream tank is the amazon setup, and I want to have all the attractive plants I can find in that tank!

I'll definitely look into this option!

 

[yhbae]

another thing to consider about the lfs is how much you love your fish. I know the fish room where I live is excellent, knowledgable and they genuinely care. So I've taken my babies to them for years. The one in your town may not be this way. THey may just be another store thats out to make a buck and keep their stock in poor conditions. Breedin fish isn't THAT profitable but if you want to start somewhere the breed of fish you have is a great place to start

Yes I agree with you. In fact, when I chose the species for my first community tank 4 months ago, I deliberately chose species that I wanted to breed.

This is what I have in that tank:
- Platies (since this is supposed to be the easiest)
- Blue rams
- Panda cories
- Harlequin rasbora (picked this one since I wanted one of the egg scatters... As it turned out, they don't... )
- Albino bristlenose pl*cos

At some point down the road, I'm going to try to breed all of them... I can't wait!

 

[yhbae]

Unless you have a large multi tank set up with many breeding pairs of fish pumping out a continuous supply of easy to sell fish and multiple tanks for holding and rearing different species of fry then it is unlikely you will make money from fish breeding. Most shops will not touch fish under 1" long and are unwilling to pay much more than 1/4 of the final retail price for them, so by the time you have fed them 3 times a day for 10 weeks to get them that size they have already cost more than you will earn.
I breed various fish and have a 13 tank set up but can honestly say i have never more than broken even on any fry i have sold, i hope to expand next year and have a 30+ tank set up planned in which i can breed some high value fish like discus, zebra plecs and maybe some rays but the outlay for the tanks and stock will be high.

I don't think I will end up with large multi-tank setup (at least not in the current house). That's why I was wondering if I could choose the right species that are challenging to breed, difficult to breed for volume, but may command higher price.

You are right that my LFS doesn't want to touch fries under 1". They have already agreed to take almost any fishes at 1/3 of their cost, and their price is not cheap!

Example: (in Canadian $)
- Platy: $4
- Guppy: $4
- Albino Bristlenose Pl*co: $10
- Panda Cory: $9 (almost never available)
- Sterbai Cory: $14! (also saw only once).
- Blue ram: $7

and most of the drift lake ciclids cost more than $10.

Platies are already giving me a decent return that I no longer spend hard-earned cash buying frozen/other food...

Curious, from your experience, where do you feel you spend most of your $$ during breeding?

I'd be very happy if I can maintain the food/chemical/accesories cost back through breeding, and few years down the road, accumulate enough store credit to get few larger tanks!

 

[Eelzor]

How long do you raise angels before selling to LFS?

Probably 6 months to 1 year.

How large do they become by this time?

In 6 months maybe 4 inches, in 1 year maybe 6 inches.

What are they willing to pay for them?

I don't live in the area you are, you you are truly lucky to have a store that does that type of trading, so I am not sure.

I have to admit, I've been spending some time recently looking into marine fishes (clown fish specifically). My 7 and 3 year old girls will love me (not that she doesn't already but you see what I mean - Nemo!... ) and started to look at how people breed them as well. They appear to be feasible, but very high cost.

They are probably one of the easiest marine fish to breed (even though there not that easy)

Few years down the road, I'd like to set up 3 relatively large tanks (75g+), one for Amazon, one for African Cichlid, and one for the Marine species, for show purpose.

Nice

Geez, I'm in trouble already - only started this hobby 4 months ago, and already have 5 tanks, largest ones being 33g and 25g... (So far, my wife hasn't blew up on me... yet..)

She will soon...

 

[KnuckleHead]

The best breeders I have found are angels. Those are what got me into the whole fish business. Angel fish babies can be sold at 6 to 8 weeks of age. At that age they are roughly dime size. The local wholesale price in my area is 1.85 a piece and I run out very quickly. I offset my expenses by buying supplies such as food in bulk. Using home made foods such as egg yolk also helps in defraying costs. Not only do I supply lfs, I also sell via aquabid and my website. I have gotten quite a few customers from this site as well. There are many more ways to make the venture profitable but I wont get into those. Theyre my little secrets

 

[fisherman9844]

I don't know any secrets for making it profitable but I would have to second (or third) the suggestions for breeding angels. Breeding pairs are prolific - my gold marbled pair are laying eggs every ten days, regular as clockwork. They grow relatively quickly - I have about fifty right now that are ten weeks old with the largest well over the size of a quarter and the smallest just under a quarter. Another week or two and they'll be moving to my LFS who gives be a buck a fish in store credit. Many of the stores in my area will not buy angels until they are at least quarter size.

No way I'm even covering my cost on these guys but the store credit is a nice way of getting that next tank!