THE MOST Profitable 29 Gallon Aquarium

Hello! So, I will be starting a project with my 29 gallon and make it the MOST profitable I can!

Here is what I will start with:
- 29-gallon tank (obviously)
- Aquaclear 70
- sponge intake
- sponges and poly-fil as media
- Guppy grass
- NO SUBSTRATE, BARE BOTTOM

What I will breed/grow and sell in the tank:
- Guppies
- Ramshorn snails
- Bladder snails
- Guppy grass

If possible, I need more recommendations, whether it is to add some other type of fish/invert in there or a whole new profitable idea!

*I am not doing this because I need money, or for the money. I just wanted to see the profit I could make with a fish tank! The money would probably just be used for aquarium equipment, such as maybe an air pump for the tank or better lighting.

So, any other recommendations?

 

Hello! So, I will be starting a project with my 29 gallon and make it the MOST profitable I can!

Here is what I will start with:
- 29-gallon tank (obviously)
- Aquaclear 70
- sponge intake
- sponges and poly-fil as media
- Guppy grass
- NO SUBSTRATE, BARE BOTTOM

What I will breed/grow and sell in the tank:
- Guppies
- Ramshorn snails
- Bladder snails
- Guppy grass

If possible, I need more recommendations, whether it is to add some other type of fish/invert in there or a whole new profitable idea!

*I am not doing this because I need money, or for the money. I just wanted to see the profit I could make with a fish tank! The money would probably just be used for aquarium equipment, such as maybe an air pump for the tank or better lighting.

So, any other recommendations?

Maybe some floaters? They will grow fast so u can sell and they will keep up water quality. Maybe some other moss of some sort....

 

It is hard to sell guppies to local pet stores since so many people breed them. What I would suggest is, a pair of rams on the bottom and then on the top tetras. I would suggest to have a substrate, that way you could make it basically a jungle tank and have a whole ton of plants in there. And I really like the snail idea.

 

Not to "Dash" your hopes. But... Profit?
Possibly, depends on the fish and demand. Guppy, not sure unless rare specimens.
I was just at a club "Swap meet".
Some beautiful/rare guppies sold well. But the generics not so good. I breed Bolivian and EBA cichlids. I have profited to some degree. It allows me to basically buy/sell/trade/keep/supply my fish for free and paid for a group of Blue Diamond Discus last year. (about $700 fish/extra equipment).
But... Recently the Covid issue has put a dent in my fish outlets, no "Fish Auctions in 6 months, except the recent "Swap Meet". I basically walked away with a $100 profit after selling and purchasing. Taking a "Break for now though, at least until this Covid issue is resolved.

But I say "Why Not" give it a go, but... may need to setup a few more tanks as grow-out tanks to do it properly.

Just my .02

Good Luck!

 

There is no profit. Regardless of what the fish is, you have to feed the fry to get them to a size LFS a will take them at. And feeding fry is expensive, and it takes months to get a fish to LFS size. Even guppies take 3 to 4 months to colour up. I would just give them to the LFS as a freebie. LFS don’t want to buy fish from hobbyists for cash. They rather trade product, so at best you can recover some fish food and break even if your lucky.
To make money you really have to breed something special and in demand.

My last 3 experiences:

50 fish for a $50 of frozen food. Retail value of fish $800

25 fish for 20 percent discount on some frozen food. Retail value of fish $425. That one **** me off.

Problem is I’ve saturated all the LFS with the different types of fish I breed aNd now I’m stuck caring for more fish than they need. So I will separate my pairs into different community tanks and use the fry I have left over as live food for my Oscars. I have one more spawn of a different cichlid ready to go to store and I will be shutting down all my breeding altogether. It’s was a lot of fun, but way too much work.

I bred angelfish, kribensis, bn plecos, firemouths, shrimp, tiger barbs, cherry barbs and fancy guppies. As a side note, the easiest most profitable thing I have ever sold to LFS requiring the least amount of effort and expense are plants.

 

guppies are not profitable unless you're breeding pure strain endlers or high grade endler hybrids. You won't get a dime for bladder snails but might be able to pawn off a ramshorn or a clump of guppy grass from time to time. look into Red Cherry Shrimp, Cories, Plecos, Mystery Snails to start.

I've been doing a lot of research on breeding and what will actually generate income and those seem to be easy to start with while offering low overhead costs. Some fry are notoriously hard to raise; a lot of cories and plecos are beginner level. Of course we know that shrimp and snails are easy too but you need to look into what snails will actually breed and sell easily. For example, did you know that an assassin snail lays one egg at a time and each one takes 2 months to hatch? important information

stem plants. A lot can be propagated by cutting and replanted infinitely forever

 

It is hard to sell guppies to local pet stores since so many people breed them. What I would suggest is, a pair of rams on the bottom and then on the top tetras. I would suggest to have a substrate, that way you could make it basically a jungle tank and have a whole ton of plants in there. And I really like the snail idea.

Sorry, I won't be doing substrate haha. Too much maintenance, I want to keep it real simple.

Thanks everyone for the replies! I don't think I can get back to them one by one or this forum will have like 5 messages from me.

I'm not thinking of selling to a LFS, maybe just on craigslist for cheap. Yes, I'll think about mystery snails and corydoras. I once had cories spawn for me and about 50 hatched but all got eaten

 

Tbh, you're not going to be able to even give away most of this. The guppy graas might have some worth. Mystery snails or assassin snails are about the only 2 you can really make much off of that can breed. Rare ramshorn specimens too. Guppies are just too common.
Neocardinia shrimp are easy breed and command a fair price. Rare guppy species too. As others mentioned, plants are a solid choice. Several species can float in a bare botton amd still be able to be propagated.

 

I think 2 of you mentioned floaters. Any specific ones?

 

You could hatch killifish eggs, those guys are rare and awesome. fyi, hornwart is a nice floating plant.

 

I'm kind of shocked that people say guppies are too common, bad genetics, or just not a good idea. Maybe it's not as good of a market in whatever regions those are, but in Hawaii there's a pretty big market for it. I've been told Hawaii was pretty well-known for their guppies, not sure how true that is but I definitely knew that guppies were very popular when I was a kid and they became very popular again recently. If you can get your hands on one of the newer strains like dragon mosaics, or find out what's in demand in your area, you could try to go for that. Bad genetics are probably due to careless breeding, like unchecked community breeding, or not introducing new stock into the line after a few generations of careful line breeding (selecting strong fish to pass down their genes).

Anyway, ideas... Maybe frogbit, salvinia species, and water lettuce as popular floaters here.

Shrimp are a decent idea. Snails, maybe as feeder snails if people have small puffer species? Another idea would be Shelldwellers, those might be niche though. Plecos, maybe super red bristlenose. Angelfish species. Kribensis cichlids. Other dwarf cichlids like apistos or rams. Convict cichlids. Cherry barbs. Corydoras species.

Hard to say, there are a lot of options but I think what you should do is look and ask around your area and see what's a high demand staple, or see if you can catch onto any trends. Join local clubs if you can find any, ask any mom-and-pop lfs if there's any close by, or see what other people are selling on facebook marketplace or craigslist. Maybe even see if there's any local facebook groups for the hobby. Whatever you decide on, I wish you the best of luck!

 

I dont know if you would make profit but it could be a nice idea. I see people selling guppies on ebay all the time, even generic fancy guppies. Same with ramshorn, I ordered a 12 pack for 13 bucks a few weeks back. I wouldn't expect profit but you could make some money off the tank without a doubt. You could also try posting on one of those local selling apps and see of people near you would buy them.

 

If you want to make a profit try zebra pleco; they are very difficult to breed but if successful you can sell them for $50 or $100 a fish on ebay.

 

If you want to make a profit try zebra pleco; they are very difficult to breed but if successful you can sell them for $50 or $100 a fish on ebay.

Dang, that's a HUGE investment lol That might be something for a more experienced breeder...

 

But it is a lot closer to the subject of the thread than the suggested route

Also apistogramma (some are extremely easy to breed) sell well on ebay; a whole lot more than guppies.

Dang, that's a HUGE investment lol That might be something for a more experienced breeder...

 

Plants will sell for more than fish.
You want barebottom? Getting floating or rhizome plants that aren't as necessarily as common but are of visual interest is your best bet. For surface floaters I'd go with red root floaters and tiger frogbit.
Then get different less common varieties of java fern (trident, windelov, rooster tail, needle leaf) and anubias (Nana petite, pinto, pangolino, gold coin, nana bonsai to name some nice selling, desired types) and propagate them. You can just stick them on driftwood or on a rock, without securing them since you'll just be taking them back out and cutting them in a few months as they grow. They'll grow under the partial light of the floaters.

Ferts? Get some fish in there. If you want to do guppies, fine, just get a pure strain that will sell well. I'd probably do an apisto species on the bottom as well for more fish waste volume and production. But some species are pretty resistant to bare bottom tanks. Hopefully being full of plants will overcome this.

And no snails. Bladder snails and ramshorn snails are PEST snails. People buying plants don't want snails, especially those species. If you want to cultivate those, throw em in a bucket with some yard trimmings and keep em well away from your tank.

 

I have sold a bunch of Italian Vals so far. I definitely agree plants go way better than fish. I bought 2 plants for 2 bucks each and have sold over 100$ worth. I would also agree on the no pest snails.

 

Well obviously i'm not giving enough of the stuff away...

Btw don't forget bruce ... that stuff is expensive.

I have sold a bunch of Italian Vals so far. I definitely agree plants go way better than fish. I bought 2 plants for 2 bucks each and have sold over 100$ worth. I would also agree on the no pest snails.

 

Dean, suggested Angels and Appistogramma Cacatuiodes, as both fish are always in high demand and they can be bred in the same tank. Well, not in a 29 gallon, but the Caucs would work.
I am not in any way able to do breeding right now, but they were an interesting watch.