Rubbermaid containers, etc. Small ones are great for newborn fry, but larger ones can be used as they grow more. You can even turn them into incubators lol I've got a video somewhere I think...
The Betta Myth #2
- Thread starter JohnnyReb
- Start date
fishorama
Fishaholic
I have some old thoughts on breeding fish in general & selling bettas. Early on in our fish keeping we had easy breeding CA cichlids & kribensis. Even without trying to raise the fry some survived past parental snack size. We traded the to lfs for store credit; somewhere between 1/4 & 1/3 of what they could sell them for. Great! Until they still had a tank of now larger junior size fry & would no longer take them even for free. We were regulars at our 4 shops & took road trips to more distant 1s. Our fry were fish non grata after a while, lol & there were never 200+ fry!
I don't belong to my local fish club but I've been a few times. A betta splendens breeder had many youngsters (maybe 20-30+) & was selling the larger males for $2, younger 1s & females for $1 after not many bid at the auction part. It's a pretty large club. He had some good-looking fish & I might have been tempted if I had a tank available.
So, in some ways economics & labor comes into the equation. & then there's the culling of less than wonderful perfect fry. That was always very difficult for us even when we had fish big enough to feed them to (sniffle). I'm sure it's different for much more rare fish than we had
I'm very glad we had that experience & the lessons that came along with it. We have fish breed casually now & are always thrilled to have fry show up but only have a few that survive (except maybe bn plecos, lol). If I wanted to tear down my river tank to catch hillstream fry, a lfs will buy them. But that's not in my near future. My 1-4 sewellia fry/year are enough to slightly more than replace any aged out adults, just right!!
So, my advice is to enjoy the experience in your way of doing it & think twice before doing it again!
I don't belong to my local fish club but I've been a few times. A betta splendens breeder had many youngsters (maybe 20-30+) & was selling the larger males for $2, younger 1s & females for $1 after not many bid at the auction part. It's a pretty large club. He had some good-looking fish & I might have been tempted if I had a tank available.
So, in some ways economics & labor comes into the equation. & then there's the culling of less than wonderful perfect fry. That was always very difficult for us even when we had fish big enough to feed them to (sniffle). I'm sure it's different for much more rare fish than we had
I'm very glad we had that experience & the lessons that came along with it. We have fish breed casually now & are always thrilled to have fry show up but only have a few that survive (except maybe bn plecos, lol). If I wanted to tear down my river tank to catch hillstream fry, a lfs will buy them. But that's not in my near future. My 1-4 sewellia fry/year are enough to slightly more than replace any aged out adults, just right!!
So, my advice is to enjoy the experience in your way of doing it & think twice before doing it again!
I'm very surprised at a breeding thing I have going on. I've mentioned I generally only breed my killies to replace couples as they age out as breeders (they slow to close to zero for up to a year later in life). I would usually have 2 or 3 pairs of my favourites, year after year. It's no use producing more.
Suddenly though, they are locally sought after. I've sold five pairs of Aphyosemion ottogartneri over 5 auctions this year, but at the last meeting, the price dropped to basic. So I figured I'd saturated the local market with that one, and that I wouldn't be bringing any killies for a few meetings, as I was largely out of extras anyway. Now I have had 3 requests for them in the 3 days since the meeting, from people who didn't attend.
I know if I breed a pile of them for June or September, I'll probably be stuck with them. The fellow who paid $40 a pair in the first auction now has 30 of them, and his will move to market before mine do again. This is a small city. If I get new species, they'll go like hotcakes. But if I bring ottogartneri, a pair will sell for $2.
I'm pleased. I wanted people to experience keeping killies, with their colours and behaviour. MIssion accomplished.
A home breeder has to consider space, and demand. I have 3 pairs of Parananochromis brevirostris, an incredibly rare species that I may be the only North American with. If I put them in the auction, they would get 2 bucks and someone would add them to a tank with Dempsies or convicts. When I get to 50 3 cm fish available, I'll ship them to a rare fish wholesaler. There's no other way to deal with numbers, for a fish I'd like to see becoming more known in the hobby.
If you sell common fish, you can't compete with the farms. If you sell rare fish the farms don't have, you have to deal with the drop in easily available information on them. It's an interesting squeeze to be in. I breed fish because it makes me learn, and it's a challenge. Finding homes for the fish is hard, and means difficult choices. I avoid fish that produce hundreds of babies.
My Microctenopoma congicum produced clouds of tiny babies. It was quite astonishing how many came out of their bubble nest. In the end, I chose to raise 20, and they were chosen at random partly by natural selection in their tank. I did my water changes and offered quality food, but a 10 gallon tank didn't allow me to raise hundreds I would never have found homes for.
We like to think rare fish would be in demand, but my experience says the opposite. They cost a lot to get, and you then have to do a lot of detailed research and work to get them to breed. The fry often grow and sex out slowly. With common fish like Bettas, you can fill your house with very little effort, but have very hard work after it's happened.
Suddenly though, they are locally sought after. I've sold five pairs of Aphyosemion ottogartneri over 5 auctions this year, but at the last meeting, the price dropped to basic. So I figured I'd saturated the local market with that one, and that I wouldn't be bringing any killies for a few meetings, as I was largely out of extras anyway. Now I have had 3 requests for them in the 3 days since the meeting, from people who didn't attend.
I know if I breed a pile of them for June or September, I'll probably be stuck with them. The fellow who paid $40 a pair in the first auction now has 30 of them, and his will move to market before mine do again. This is a small city. If I get new species, they'll go like hotcakes. But if I bring ottogartneri, a pair will sell for $2.
I'm pleased. I wanted people to experience keeping killies, with their colours and behaviour. MIssion accomplished.
A home breeder has to consider space, and demand. I have 3 pairs of Parananochromis brevirostris, an incredibly rare species that I may be the only North American with. If I put them in the auction, they would get 2 bucks and someone would add them to a tank with Dempsies or convicts. When I get to 50 3 cm fish available, I'll ship them to a rare fish wholesaler. There's no other way to deal with numbers, for a fish I'd like to see becoming more known in the hobby.
If you sell common fish, you can't compete with the farms. If you sell rare fish the farms don't have, you have to deal with the drop in easily available information on them. It's an interesting squeeze to be in. I breed fish because it makes me learn, and it's a challenge. Finding homes for the fish is hard, and means difficult choices. I avoid fish that produce hundreds of babies.
My Microctenopoma congicum produced clouds of tiny babies. It was quite astonishing how many came out of their bubble nest. In the end, I chose to raise 20, and they were chosen at random partly by natural selection in their tank. I did my water changes and offered quality food, but a 10 gallon tank didn't allow me to raise hundreds I would never have found homes for.
We like to think rare fish would be in demand, but my experience says the opposite. They cost a lot to get, and you then have to do a lot of detailed research and work to get them to breed. The fry often grow and sex out slowly. With common fish like Bettas, you can fill your house with very little effort, but have very hard work after it's happened.
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OP
JohnnyReb
Fish Fanatic
Amen.
I do breed some commercially available fish. I will say for me, I sell below market value to make it easier for them to find homes.
That said, making money isn't my goal. I'm content enough if selling a couple plant trimmings or fish babies that it puts a bit of money in my pocket to buy more fish stuff.
An example, currently have hoplisoma paleatum (peppered cories). They're a commercially available fish. Cories sell like hotcakes in my city and you can't keep up with the demand for them, people are always looking for them or asking for them. In store, they're listed for almost $8 each. These guys breed mega often and produce good numbers of fry. I often sell for $5 a piece instead, and on top of that do group discount prices (example, $25 for 6 fish).
Now, domestic bristlenose, they breed on their own and the market is flooded with them. I often sell those for $2 each or even give them away if I have too many.
The market here is full of people trying to get rid of convict cichlids too, they're one I'd not touch with a ten foot pole if I wanted to get into actually selling fish as a living. No way no how.
Store bettas have risen in costs. Even cup bettas, I expect to pay $10-40 on them, it's insane. I've paid $35 for an imported one before the price jumps. Now, imported ones can go for $50+. If I decided to breed those, I'd prefer to keep prices competitively lower, so I'm not stuck with fish I didn't intend to keep as my own pets.
Rarer species of course often are either very much in demand or are a niche market, and you do have to play accordingly.
And with growing out any fry, water changes are a huge thing for proper growth. And smaller enclosures mean even more frequent work even for fry.
Yep. Just a couple years ago you could get a common veiltail in a cup for $5. Now the cheapest is $10
at least for my area. And if you want a fancy smancy variety, you pay the price.
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JohnnyReb
Fish Fanatic
Do you think they do daily water changes set up like that?
Maybe a row per day. There's 7 rows so once a week... I hope.
maybe this is in here already??? I saw a foreign fish farm video, where the bottles were spread in an area as far as the camera could see, all touching each other, & the bare foot workers walked on the tops of the bottles bare foot while draining & refilling the bottle...
I guess she had sandals on... I found the video
video.search.yahoo.com
I guess she had sandals on... I found the video
beta fish farm workers - - Video Search Results
The search engine that helps you find exactly what you're looking for. Find the most relevant information, video, images, and answers from all across the Web.
video.search.yahoo.com
Last edited:
Holy...
You can see a drastic difference between the picture I posted and the video Magnum posted. Their water looks like beer.
These bottles have never been cleaned since inauguration. and... Every fish pulled out where resting face down in the bottom...
Anyway... If you keep a betta standing on it's chin the face in his own poop on the bottom of a jar...
You're out of your freaking mind. And is a sign of Generational Family Entertained Chronic Alcoholism.
You need to drink a lot to expand your operation
You can see a drastic difference between the picture I posted and the video Magnum posted. Their water looks like beer.
These bottles have never been cleaned since inauguration. and... Every fish pulled out where resting face down in the bottom...
Anyway... If you keep a betta standing on it's chin the face in his own poop on the bottom of a jar...
You're out of your freaking mind. And is a sign of Generational Family Entertained Chronic Alcoholism.
You need to drink a lot to expand your operation
That video made me ill. It’s not right to treat a creature like that.
CaptainBarnicles
Moderate Pleco Tolerator
Staff member
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How do they get the fish out of such a narrow necked vessel?
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JohnnyReb
Fish Fanatic
That is a most remarkable video. It looks like they have not cleaned those bottles in 20 years. That is a perfect example of how myth gets stated over here with no basis other than ignoring the most common knowledge and practices of the mass production in Southeast Asia.maybe this is in here already??? I saw a foreign fish farm video, where the bottles were spread in an area as far as the camera could see, all touching each other, & the bare foot workers walked on the tops of the bottles bare foot while draining & refilling the bottle...
I guess she had sandals on... I found the video
beta fish farm workers - - Video Search Results
The search engine that helps you find exactly what you're looking for. Find the most relevant information, video, images, and answers from all across the Web.
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JohnnyReb
Fish Fanatic
Pour them out,,
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