Is Breeding Fish Easy??

Hi!! So I was wondering if I could make a little money on the side to help with my fish keeping, and I was wondering; is breeding fish easy? And if so a list of proper equipment please. And where would I sell them? Thanks in advance!!

 

Some fish are much easier to breed then others. Livebearers being the easiest. Most just require a properly sized tank and a dense area in the tank for the young. Some chichlids like convicts are pretty easy too. Once they figure out they breed like guppies. Now the easier and more main stream the fish is the less the fish its worth. As far as selling if you live in a city you could probably get away with selling locally if not you will have to figure out how to ship fish. Any idea on what fish you would be interested in?

 

Well.....I was thinking danios or like mollies or platties. But if it’s like really expensive then I won’t do it. The only reason I asked is because I wanted to gain a little money. I live in the country.

 

Honey Gouramis are relatively easy to breed with a bit of research and I don't think they're as common as the livebearers. They sell up to about £10 where I'm from. Also not very expensive to set up, a 10 gallon should be enough with some floating plants.

 

The common type danios are a dollar or 2 a piece. So to breed them while its fun is not a money making ordeal. Same with mollies and platy unless you do an uncommon strain. Honey gourami are $6 from aquaticarts so they may be worth trying. Laser cories might be another you could make some money with. Wild betta, pure strain endless and neon rasbos seem to be other fish that are gaining popularity. One fish I can remember but you don't see anymore is the ameca splendens.

 

Breeding fish for any reason besides fun or frustration takes a lot of dedication.
If you are in it to make money it will quickly and painfully loose it's charm .
If you found a pet store to buy from you expect to get 1/4 of what the fish sell for .
If you end up shipping you will invest a lot of time IMO.
Choose a less common fish that you know sells well.
Ask your LFS what they would like .

 

Unfortunately the easy fish are just that, easy. You have the unfortunate issue of a low demand. Although you live in the country and there may not be may fish stores around you, there probably isn't a very high demand for them either. Also, live bearers are like water rabbits. They will breed like there's no tomorrow and you will find that there are plenty of people giving away their pet quality guppies and mollies. Now if you have high quality guppies that you are selling on eBay or something, that's different but as someone said, it's a lot of time you invest in shipping fish. I was give 5 male guppies only 1 of them was a female. That female had over 60 babies that we could count. The fish store wouldn't buy them but were willing to take them. No one else wanted to pay for them either. There was one fish store that was willing to give me $.05/each. They were going to be sold as feeders.

 

Ok that sounds hard!! Any other suggestions on how to gain money for fish?? I wil probably not breed fish then.

 

A second job? How old are you?

 

Several members on here grow aquarium plants and sell them on the BSTF thread. Or you could try breeding shrimp; some varieties seem to be more difficult to breed and keep so they do sell for more.

 

Mollies are super easy, I started with 4 and currently have about 50ish but as others have said you won't get much for them. But I have learned a lot from them.

 

A second job? How old are you?

I’m 19.

Mollies are super easy, I started with 4 and currently have about 50ish but as others have said you won't get much for them. But I have learned a lot from them.

Do I need like a specific breeders tank? Or can I just put a male, and a female, in a tank, and they should breed? (This just goes to show you how much I know about breeding!!)

Unfortunately the easy fish are just that, easy. You have the unfortunate issue of a low demand. Although you live in the country and there may not be may fish stores around you, there probably isn't a very high demand for them either. Also, live bearers are like water rabbits. They will breed like there's no tomorrow and you will find that there are plenty of people giving away their pet quality guppies and mollies. Now if you have high quality guppies that you are selling on eBay or something, that's different but as someone said, it's a lot of time you invest in shipping fish. I was give 5 male guppies only 1 of them was a female. That female had over 60 babies that we could count. The fish store wouldn't buy them but were willing to take them. No one else wanted to pay for them either. There was one fish store that was willing to give me $.05/each. They were going to be sold as feeders.

if I where to breed really nice guppies, could I sell them to my LFS Lynn78too? That thought just acured to me!!