Is There Any Profit In Breeding Pygmy Corries

[Ben M]

hi, i would like to set up a breeding tank for some corries. not sure which species yet, possibly dwarf corries. but my parents don't seem too keen to have another tank. is there any profit in breeding corries? if there was, then they may be more likely to let me have another tank. what sort of profit is there, if any, and do shops buy the babies?
thanks

 

[Harlequins]

The time given in care and attention to my fry,i would say no profit ,unless you breed more sought after cories like matts goldstrip etc..

You would have to research your local shops has to buying in fish,alot stick to one breeder,and will only give credit or will take in donated fish.

I don't breed cories for a profit,so i can't help that much

Good luck in what you decide

 

[Ben M]

thanks, i'm not really interested in the profit to be honest. of coarse a bit of money would be great, but i just like trying to raise babies. i'm just trying to convince my parents to let me have another tank so i can breed some. any ideas of persuasion?
thanks

 

[Harlequins]

Christmas present?

 

[kizno1]

you might make a little profit but you will need alot of live foods to feed the fry and condition adults for breeding so thats where most of the money you will get will go. saying that though alot more people seem to be getting pygmy corys resently so you shouldnt have to much trouble selling them.

 

[Ben M]

i'll ask for 1 for christmas, but i'm not that hopeful. maybe if i say there is nothing else i want then they'll feel bad if they can't get me anything else, and then they'll get me 1. actually thinking about it, i can't think of anything else that i want.

do you think that i would make enough money to pay for food etc?
thanks

 

[mattlee]

i dont think that there would be profit for a while after buying fry tanks, heaters, filters, food, grow out tanks, dechlor, electricity etc etc etc. ive been to a few lfs over the last week asking if they would be interested in some of my gold stripe corys, most were interested as they seem quite difficult to get in at the minute but i was only offered store credit from most.... which is usefull but not really cash in the bank if thats what your after! some didnt even want to know as they dont buy from private breeders and 1 offered me 80p each when grown big enough to sell
the lfs sell these corys between £8 and £10 each if they can get any and i know other private sellers selling at £5-6 each but very small fish. if your fish spawn like mad and you have the capacity to grow all of them in a healthy manor then i guess you may eventually get profit.
i started to try and breed these corys because of a lot of my friends wanting some and not being able to get any and to try and let other people have some of these corys and of course for the challenge and experience of it all....
you can have a nice group of corys in perfect water and as healthy as can be but it doesnt mean they will spawn for you, this is what i have learnt and was told many times. fish will breed if they want to not because they are in a nice tank.
its worth trying though if its what you want to do and there are some good people on here that will help with any questions you might need answering ive learnt a lot from several people thats helped me no end.
thanks to them

 

[waxjlp]

Hello! I think you raised an interesting question. Let me just share my thoughts on "profit" resulted from breeding fish. Technically, in order to find out your profit you need find out your break even quantity first, which is an quantity you need to sell without making or losing any money. But lets make it simple. I live in USA, a piece of C. sterbai runs about 4-12 dollars in my LFSs. Online, on aquabid.com, currently I have seen someone sold it for less than $3 a piece. The time takes me to grow my fry to a sell-able size usually 3-4 months. Fry food about $20-50 for 100 fry. (well, this amount will drop per fry if I can rise a larger quantity.) Now, lets account other costs that usually people ignored. Utilities: water (including water conditioner, RO system if you use), electricity per month guesstimate about $20-30. Fry cost: not every fry that are sell-able, some are just genetically weaker than others. My breeders are F0, so no inbred problem IMO. But I still have about 5-10% problem fry that can't sell ( or at least I don't sell) which really means you are adding more costs. Of course, last thing, your fish may take a break from breeding (at least mines do) and the lead time should also be considered. After you have accounted all those (keep in mind, we have NOT account any initial investment yet, ie, tank, heater, filter, light, etc) your break even quantity is fairly high. This really implies you need to bred large quantity in order to recover your costs. Another point, you mentioned dwarf cory. I personally haven't breed those guys yet, but a good friend of mine breeds pgmy cory. He told me they are not so prolific, so this could raise another problem for you to recover your money, worse thing is those cory are considerably cheap in my area, about $2 a piece. In summary, if you treat this as a business and properly account all relevant costs and still want to make money, quantity really makes a big difference assuming your don't compromise quality. On the other hand, if you just want to breed and raise the fry for fun, nothing should be consider (ie, all variable cost and selling price) because it is simply not a business.

 

[Ben M]

thanks for the advice, i don't want to make a profit really i just like the challenge and fun involved with breeding fish. i have always liked corries, but they are not compatible with my kribs, which is why i would like another tank. i thought that if i got another tank that maybe i could have a goat breeding them. but my mum thinks that it is all to costly, and she said she doesn't want another tank in the house, although she's supposed to like animals.

 

[mattlee]

thanks for the advice, i don't want to make a profit really i just like the challenge and fun involved with breeding fish. i have always liked corries, but they are not compatible with my kribs, which is why i would like another tank. i thought that if i got another tank that maybe i could have a goat breeding them. but my mum thinks that it is all to costly, and she said she doesn't want another tank in the house, although she's supposed to like animals.

your mum on this occassion may be right...... especially if she is buying the tanks, heaters, filters etc etc it has cost me quite a bit to set up my 2 cory breeding systems and only have 1 set breeding so far and the fry probably wont be sellable for at least another 4 weeks and they are already 4 weeks old today. the tank i have are all 2nd hand but still not cheap when i have bought 4! along with all the other equipment needed as this idealy needs to be new as you cant trust old used heaters etc (i cant anyway....) and the filters for all you know could contain diseases etc so i wouldnt risk loosing my breeding group to save on a few quid on a new filter.... that has to be cycled of course

 

[Ben M]

so could i just keep another tank with a group of corries in, and just see if they breed. if i did that what fish/inverts wouldn't eat any eggs?
thanks

 

[waxjlp]

Totally understandable that you are not going for profit. In fact, if your current tank is large enough with only 1 type of cory. You really can consider raise the fry in the same tank. I have experienced this with my C. Sterbai. Fry survived in the breeding tank grow very fast and healthy with their parents even without feeding fry food.

 

[Ben M]

thanks, i don't think that any fry would survive in my current tank. it is 4ft 216l but has sae's, kribs, cherry barbs, copper harlequins and some small tetras. do you think any corries would be ok in that tank, and would any fry survive?
i could just keep whining to my parents until they let me have another tank, but i'm not sure that would work.
thanks

 

[StrontiumDog]

Have you considered dividing the tank that you already have just to house the corys in?

 

[waxjlp]

thanks, i don't think that any fry would survive in my current tank. it is 4ft 216l but has sae's, kribs, cherry barbs, copper harlequins and some small tetras. do you think any corries would be ok in that tank, and would any fry survive?
i could just keep whining to my parents until they let me have another tank, but i'm not sure that would work.
thanks

Do you have a lot of plants and furniture in there? Your tank is actually almost twice as big as my breeding tank. You should be able to play with a lot of corys, but I think your tetra will eat all the eggs before it hatch. My approach is to float a plastic breeding box to save the eggs. After your fry grow bigger (about 1 month of age) then release them into the tank. This method may not work for dwarf cory, since they are so small, and their fry are just tiny.