Wanting to start a betta breeding business

[Luckyscale2003]

so i am 17 and have done the math but I need help on the more legal side of things
I live in colorado and cant seem to find anything straight forward on fees and registering the small buisness
but here's the math I have done for everything else

2 quality males : 44.5 x 2 = 89$
4 quality females : 33 x 4 = 132$
=221$
60 babies x 4= 240 babies
Price for females 25$
Price for males 35$
240 divided by 2 = 120/male 120/female
Female- 120 x 25$ = 3000$ say you sell 8 fish a week 120 divided by 8= 15 weeks for fish to be sold so that would mean a weekly income rate for females would be 200$

Male- 120x35$ = 4200$ say you sell 8 fish per week would be 15 weeks to sell them out
Weekly income for males is 280$
Possible weekly income for selling 16 fish 480$

Packaging
Shipping boxes- amount 25 size 9.5x6x3.75 price 24$ actual price = 230.4$ for one .96$
Styrofoam- amount 6 size 17x11x1 price 18$ actual price= 840$ for one 3$
Heat packs- amount 10 price 35 actual price 980$ for one= 3.50$
rubberbands/zipties- amount 100 price 5$ actual price 13$ = .05$
Breather bags- amount 100 price 10$ actual price 28$= 0.10$
Total per shipping 7.66$ shipping will be 25$ for orders over 75$ and 12$ for shipping under 75

Labels
Live fish label- 500 for 14$
Shipping label printer -100$
Business startup fees
Cost 20$ to register with the state
100$ opening deposit for checking account

 

[ProudPapa]

I'd like to commend you on the details you've listed, but have you researched your market? Are sure you'll be able to sell them at the prices you've used for your calculations?

 

[FishBoy101]

I had the same exact dream, but just insert pleco over betta. I also can't help on legal fees, all I know is pay tax, but I have a few tips listed below.

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My Thoughts on this Idea

Female- 120 x 25$ = 3000$ say you sell 8 fish a week 120 divided by 8= 15 weeks for fish to be sold so that would mean a weekly income rate for females would be 200$

"Say you sell 8 fish a week" not very encouraging. Do some research into the betta market, play to low costs, high quality, and low shipping fee. At the start you might lose a lot of money, but if rates are good and continue to be good(if the online betta market is any good), this could have a lot of potential.

Now think of grow out tanks. Now think of fish tanks for the fry. That is at minimum a 100 dollars more. (+Filter, and heaters, and food, and a lot, lot more)

2 quality males : 44.5 x 2 = 89$
4 quality females : 33 x 4 = 132$
=221$
60 babies x 4= 240 babies
Price for females 25$
Price for males 35$
240 divided by 2 = 120/male 120/female
Female- 120 x 25$ = 3000$ say you sell 8 fish a week 120 divided by 8= 15 weeks for fish to be sold so that would mean a weekly income rate for females would be 200$

This is very, very risky. What if something goes wrong with the breeding? What if the betta don't like one another? What if there aren't as many babies? These worries are all "if" worries. Although we can help the fish breed, we can't make the fish breed.

Where will you be selling? You seem to be interested in online selling. Some crucial question below.

Will you do refunds? If so, what conditions are eligible for refunds?
What will you ship with?
Will it be free shipping?
Is the online market for betta high?

Online selling is extremely risky. Fish can die during shipping; people can mishandle the package(recently had shipping company lose a package); and a lot more can go wrong. Let's look at the other option, selling to local stores.
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Selling to Local Fish Stores

Selling to local fish stores is a safer than online selling, though matters A LOT on location.

In person right now is hard. Many small fish stores are suffering because of the pandemic we are in. That rules out the soon-to-be-closed fish store down the block. What about Petco & Petsmart? Big box fish stores sign contracts with their main dealers to not buy from small dealers (like someone wanting to sell their bristlenose plecos).

A good place to sell to is a fish store that seems to have a good reputation, is popular, and just good overall. Fish stores like to make at least 4 times their money when buying from small dealers, for example, you have a 40 dollar betta, sell it to them, you will get about 10 dollars. This may be less money earned, but a lot more saved legally and shipping wise.
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What About Grow-Out Tanks?

Grow out tanks are quite simple, they are there because you need them, not because you want them. Most of the time they are bare bottom, no plants/not many plants, and are not meant to look good. If I follow your assumptions for fry (240 fry), you will need a few tanks.

Tank Cost
20 gallon tank (x3)- 60 dollars <-- (May need more tanks)
Heater Cost
About 14 dollars for a good heater (for a 20 gallon)- 42 dollars <-- (May need more if more tanks)
Filter Cost
Needs air pump for the sponge filter, so 20 dollars(air pump price) + sponge filter cost (about 8 dollars for 1, so 24 dollars in all), 20 + 24 is 44.
Lights
I got lights at 22 dollars for 2 (11 dollars for one) on my 20 gallon, so 66 dollars spent on lights.
Food
Matters what brand you use to feed and how long you raise the fry.
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Good luck!

-FishBoy101

 

[Quiche]

Hey! I don't know much about the legal side of things, but I do wanna give you a heads up about a couple of things that I think you should know before attempting this.

For context, I'm a junior in highschool who raised and sold ~75 axolotls total in my freshman and sophomore year, and while it was a pretty sick experience watching the little guys grow up, I'm not sure if I'd do it again.

For starters, your math is missing one crucial thing - materials for raising 246 fish. I completely agree with FishBoy, but it's going to be even more expensive than their estimates. It'll take around 6 months for your bettas to be of a sellable size. You'll need an insane amount of tanks, heaters, and filters for that to work, especially in the late stages because the males can't be kept together. At the very least, it'll be $6-800 on a breeding rack setup.

Not to mention food - if you want them to reach a sellable size in 6 months, you'll have to feed them live foods. For 250 fish for 6 months, expect for it to run at the very very least another $500, if you manage to get daphnia and blackworm colonies running or something. You'll again need tanks, heaters, and filters for those, or a whole lotta air pumps if you go the BBS route.

Also, bettas probably aren't going to sell for $25/$35 online. Selling to pet stores will likely get you around $10 a pop max, and online probably $20. Let's average that out to $15 a fish, that's $3600 profit, which is still quite optimistic. Some fish will die at the fry level, some will need to be culled due to deformities, some will pass during shipping, etc. Also, you're likely not going to be able to sell that many fish in a week. It'll take many months to sell off 240 of similar fish that people generally only buy 1 of, because you'll end up saturating the market for your specific type of betta(s).

Finally, TIME. You're going to end up with 40-50 tanks minimum if you overstock and use dividers, and that translates to 40-50 water changes a week or even more frequently. You'd be lucky to spend at most 2 hours a day dealing with all your fish, and then even more on packaging, dealing with customers, and shipping the fish. You're a junior or a senior in high school. Do you have that kind of time and also keep up with your grades for college/prepare for your future job? That's ultimately why I stopped with my axolotls - there wasn't enough demand, and I was spending 9-10 hours a week with shipping, meeting people locally, and taking care of the axolotls.

But, I think I really do get how you feel. I thought axolotls would be a fun way to make some extra cash, but in the end, I think I made $4 profit off each. I loved the little guys but it was definitely not worth the time. I just couldn't keep up with my grades, extracurriculars, and the axolotls without cutting out some sleep, making my family concerned and annoyed. My room was filled with tanks in the winter, and in the summer my axolotls and I occupied an entire room in the basement. Here's my advice from a fellow high schooler who's been through the ringer - if you really, really, want to do it, don't go into it for the money. Go into it because you love bettas, because you're barely going to break even. Buy 1 good male and 1 good female, cull down to 30 or 40 eggs and raise them. See how it goes, and decide whether or not to scale up from there :）

 

[veggieshark]

Here's my advice from a fellow high schooler who's been through the ringer - if you really, really, want to do it, don't go into it for the money. Go into it because you love bettas, because you're barely going to break even. Buy 1 good male and 1 good female, cull down to 30 or 40 eggs and raise them. See how it goes, and decide whether or not to scale up from there :）

Couldn't agree more. If you want to do this for a living, any career is better. If you want to get some money back out of your hobby, it is fine as long as it doesn't consume your life.
However, I applaud you for your enthusiasm and courage. I believe most of us had some version of this dream at some point but didn't act on it.

 

[Luckyscale2003]

I had the same exact dream, but just insert pleco over betta. I also can't help on legal fees, all I know is pay tax, but I have a few tips listed below.

wow you have some amazing information
I live around Denver and there's alit of people that do exotic animals there is very few decent fish stores I would be willing to sell to because I am not selling my fish to petco or petsmart but I do have a scales and tails near me and when I went there they had a beautiful vivarium with a water feature that had a pretty betta

for grow out tanks / breeder tanks
for the breeders i only plan on 2 males 4 females so I have 2 ten gallon tanks for that I figured females can be in a sorority and I can put a divider between males in their own 10 gallon tank
as for fry grow out tanks I have a 20 gal 35 gal and 15 gal tanks and a 8 gal
my family saves large jars so I can jar up the males
since I have reptiles aswell my room stays about 72 to 74 degrees but I do heat my tanks on top of that

the reason I would be selling them at those prices was because I want to try and import the breeder stock from Thailand Nice Betta Thailand.CO.,LTD | Betta Fish for sale | Siamese Fighting Fish

for culls i can feed them to my oscar or red eared slider

for heaters i plan on buying 6 to 8 more

for lighting for most of my fish tanks I have been using led lamps and they get a good 6 hours of sunlight on top

for filters I plan on just using spongue filters on amazon its 4.99 a sponge filter so I want to buy 8 to 12 and for air pump I have been using one made for 200g aquariums and I want to at least buy 3 more airline tubing incredibly cheap at Walmart and I have a bunch of airstones aswell

for food I use fluval bsfl betta flakes

for learning to breed them I bought a butterfly male and a halfmoon a crowntail and a glo betta to play around with breeding i don't plan on actually buying breeding stock until April most likely

I plan on doing full refunds minus shipping on doa and a fish that dies in 24 hours
I wont do free shipping but I will do 25$ shipping on orders over 75$ because I calculated it would be around 12$ a fish just for materials used to keep fish alive during shipping
and I would use usps overnight for a extra 10$ or usps next day air for 5$ and I can do local pickup for free

for fry food I will use baby bites mixed with bbs

and the market from what I have seen its doing good because more and more people are leaning away from big chain petstores that sell bettas they canceled Walmart from selling fish

Hey! I don't know much about the legal side of things, but I do wanna give you a heads up about a couple of things that I think you should know before attempting this.

this is amazing
my mom honestly doesn't want me to do it because I already have loads of animals but I'm confident I can
for feeding my bettas i use bbs and bsfl fluval flakes which is 6$ a pop and could last me a month or so bbs eggs sells for 8$ a pop and I feed that regularly to my guppy fry and its lasting me almost 8 months

I guess I am a bit off on my estimates I talked to a breeder recently and she said sometimes she gets 7 to sellable size sometimes she gets 120 from one spawn so I guess I was trying to average that out

I do rather enjoy bettas as I'm moving away from tropical nano fish and have owned bettas off and on since I was 6

onto time with my animals already it takes about 3 hours out of my week for maintenance and water changing and I'm willing to spend 6 hours a week with my animals

as for breeding/ holding rack my neighbor is a wood worker I can ask him to build me a shelf I also have various large sized jars ranging between 1/2 gal to 1 gal each and in summer my room averages 73 to 75 degrees

I'm willing to take on this challenge because bettas are awesome and I have watched hours of various breeders raising fry
for school i am doing online until February and regularly get A and B with a C in math lol but that is 7 hours a day but I do most of my water changing and matenence on weekends

 

[PNWBettas]

wow you have some amazing information
I live around Denver and there's alit of people that do exotic animals there is very few decent fish stores I would be willing to sell to because I am not selling my fish to petco or petsmart but I do have a scales and tails near me and when I went there they had a beautiful vivarium with a water feature that had a pretty betta

Here are my 2 cents as someone who’s doing something similar, but basically with the goal of making a little bit of money to support my hobby (for now, I will try and scale it if possible.

For foods, you will need more then bbs. When fry are first free swimming bbs will likely be too large for them to eat. And heating the jars is something to take into account, baby bettas need generally around 82 depending on age. Not to mention your adults need frozen and live foods to condition them for spawning. If you can culture life foods it ends up being less expensive but it still isn’t a negligible cost.

one thing I want to ask is how will you gain exposure. How are you going to find these customers to sell too? eBay has 18 year old age minimum, and I’m unsure about aquabid, but they may as well. If you make your own website, how will you gain traffic too it. Just google search won’t bring traction. (Oh also websites? Expensive for e-commerce! It blows, cheapest I found was $168 a year, and that was a sale). Do you have social media to start bringing traction to your name?

I don’t want to discourage you in any way, I absolutely love breeding bettas, and love doing what I do, and want others to love it as well. But I just want to make sure you have all the things you may need to take into consideration. Please let me know if you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them.

 

[Luckyscale2003]

Here are my 2 cents as someone who’s doing something similar, but basically with the goal of making a little bit of money to support my hobby (for now, I will try and scale it if possible.

For foods, you will need more then bbs. When fry are first free swimming bbs will likely be too large for them to eat. And heating the jars is something to take into account, baby bettas need generally around 82 depending on age. Not to mention your adults need frozen and live foods to condition them for spawning. If you can culture life foods it ends up being less expensive but it still isn’t a negligible cost.

one thing I want to ask is how will you gain exposure. How are you going to find these customers to sell too? eBay has 18 year old age minimum, and I’m unsure about aquabid, but they may as well. If you make your own website, how will you gain traffic too it. Just google search won’t bring traction. (Oh also websites? Expensive for e-commerce! It blows, cheapest I found was $168 a year, and that was a sale). Do you have social media to start bringing traction to your name?

I don’t want to discourage you in any way, I absolutely love breeding bettas, and love doing what I do, and want others to love it as well. But I just want to make sure you have all the things you may need to take into consideration. Please let me know if you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them.

i will be turning 18 in march I don't plan on actually starting to sell until November December the females will most likely stay together until sellable size and the males will be jarred for heating them I can just put the shelf in my window which gets water around 81 degrees that's where I keep my brine shrimp

I guess I can sell on ebay then I also have a growing following on my tiktok and my family all has facebook

for smaller foods I did see that amazon and ebay sell starter cultures of many things

 

[Fisch]

Would there also be addition of medication? Or would anything sick be culled? I take the case that you won't use sick fish as a feeder.

 

[Luckyscale2003]

Would there also be addition of medication? Or would anything sick be culled? I take the case that you won't use sick fish as a feeder.

petsmart sells bettafix for 8$
Walmart sells aquarium salt and epsom salt for 6$ for aquarium salt and 4 $ per pound of epsom
and they sell general cures for 6$

 

[PNWBettas]

i will be turning 18 in march I don't plan on actually starting to sell until November December the females will most likely stay together until sellable size and the males will be jarred for heating them I can just put the shelf in my window which gets water around 81 degrees that's where I keep my brine shrimp

I guess I can sell on ebay then I also have a growing following on my tiktok and my family all has facebook

for smaller foods I did see that amazon and ebay sell starter cultures of many things

Ah ok, good luck on your tiktok, it’s a nice platform. I have a decent following there myself, and it has worked well for me.

for heating, the window won’t be enough. Water temp is generally a few degrees lower the air temp, and I highly doubt it stays at 81 through the night. Generally everywhere gets colder at night, even houses well heated, even more so by a window in a colder state. I would look into either heating 1 room, a tub where you heat the water around the jars, or heat lamps/mats.

 

[Luckyscale2003]

yea i think i will try the tub thing i saw that on your tik tok
i know where some large ones 3ft by 1.5ft are they arelike 4 inches tall

 

[PNWBettas]

yea i think i will try the tub thing i saw that on your tik tok
i know where some large ones 3ft by 1.5ft are they arelike 4 inches tall

I quite like the method, and you can get very very long ones. I shal warn you, watcher changes suck suck suck. But you cant really avoid that. I have a friend who keeps about 50+ jarred bettas and she spends hours changing water every day. Breeding bettas is amazing, but the work really is inevitable. Ya really gotta love it to make it worth the cash, which isn't even a guarantee.

 

[SouthAmericanCichlids]

for feeding my bettas i use bbs and bsfl fluval flakes which is 6$ a pop and could last me a month or so bbs eggs sells for 8$ a pop and I feed that regularly to my guppy fry and its lasting me almost 8 months

I was going to message you, but you don't have 50 posts yet, you said that you were getting 8 months worth of BBS eggs for $8, could you send me a link? I've been wanting to start hatching BBS, but don't know where to get the eggs.

 

[Luckyscale2003]

I quite like the method, and you can get very very long ones. I shal warn you, watcher changes suck suck suck. But you cant really avoid that. I have a friend who keeps about 50+ jarred bettas and she spends hours changing water every day. Breeding bettas is amazing, but the work really is inevitable. Ya really gotta love it to make it worth the cash, which isn't even a guarantee.

that's alright my parents describe me as not a normal teenager I have a small friend group of 2 other people 1 is my bf and my animals mean the world to me I take 0 pic of myself and like 200 pics of my animals being silly

Thanks, do you mean this brand or this specific one, this is a 1.8 oz, would this last 8 months (If I had the same fish do), I really have no idea.

the brand. and it really depends on the amount of fish you have to feed my guppy fry between 8 to 40 fish I make 1/4 teaspoon and that lasts me three to four days

 

[jkkgron2]

petsmart sells bettafix for 8$
Walmart sells aquarium salt and epsom salt for 6$ for aquarium salt and 4 $ per pound of epsom
and they sell general cures for 6$

Just wanted to chime in quick, I wouldn’t use bettafix for baby bettas. It can damage their labyrinth organs, and in rare cases, their gills.

 

[Luckyscale2003]

Just wanted to chime in quick, I wouldn’t use bettafix for baby bettas. It can damage their labyrinth organs, and in rare cases, their gills.

i only plan on using it on adult bettas after breeding because of their torn fins

 

[jkkgron2]

i only plan on using it on adult bettas after breeding because of their torn fins

I still wouldn’t use it. It can do the same thing to adults that it can do to fry. Instead I would just keep the water clean and get some Indian almond leaves to help them heal.

 

[SouthAmericanCichlids]

I still wouldn’t use it. It can do the same thing to adults that it can do to fry. Instead I would just keep the water clean and get some Indian almond leaves to help them heal.

Or salt.

 

[Luckyscale2003]

i have a new question
say i sell the bettas on ebay and locally would I need to pay tax or do anything legally?

 

[Cherryshrimp420]

With 60 babies expect 10 to make it to sellable size

Out of those 10, how many are gonna keep the genetics to sell for $25-35 each? Expensive bettas are expensive because the chance of having those qualities are rare. Might need some research on the inheritability of these traits....

With rubber bins and DIY filters you can definitely keep operating costs extremely low. Shipping costs will be the largest expense by far.

 

[PNWBettas]

i only plan on using it on adult bettas after breeding because of their torn fins

Unnecessary, it’s pretty easy to regrow torn finnage in young healthy bettas. Salt, tannins, maybe some vitachem, and very clean water is all ya need. Using meds is only for infections, like fin rot. Which I don’t even use meds for. Torn fins is just physical damage, so using salt to prevent infection is enough.

 

[Luckyscale2003]

With 60 babies expect 10 to make it to sellable size

Out of those 10, how many are gonna keep the genetics to sell for $25-35 each? Expensive bettas are expensive because the chance of having those qualities are rare. Might need some research on the inheritability of these traits....

With rubber bins and DIY filters you can definitely keep operating costs extremely low. Shipping costs will be the largest expense by far.

well my goals are to do yellow hmpk and to also do rainbow vieltail I'm not gonn do any crazy crossings i plan on importing them from thailand

and with the tanks etc I'm just gonna use spongue filters for now

 

[Cherryshrimp420]

well my goals are to do yellow hmpk and to also do rainbow vieltail I'm not gonn do any crazy crossings i plan on importing them from thailand

and with the tanks etc I'm just gonna use spongue filters for now

So I googled betta genetics real quick, and it seems like yellow is the only colour that is not tied to any genotype. This is possibly why it is more expensive.

Given this information, I doubt the babies will all be yellow and getting this colour might be tricky. All in all, just know that out of 60 babies do not expect all 60 to fetch for the same price. I would honestly just treat this as a hobby first and breed these bettas for a few generations and sell some offspring along the way and see how it goes

 

[Sofiafish17]

Just keep in mind that no matter how hard you try, at the end of the day it’s all nature, and you can’t control 100% of it. Honestly, I would start with maybe a male and a female of one certain type/breed, I don’t know the word, and try breeding solely that. I mean in my opinion you can’t go wrong with koi bettas,(I say while sitting next to my koi bettas tank) and with so much variability in that certain kind, you could get a $10 fish and a $40 fish from the same hatch. I think it’s really cool that you’re doin this, and also that your mom is allowing you to(even reluctantly). I barely convinced my parents to let me get a 10g. And also, if this whole thing doesn’t work out for you, and I’m not saying I won’t I think you have a good chance, just really enjoy the animals that you you already have, give them a little extra love. I’m definitely guilty of giving my fish a little bit too many treats. I really wish that I could have as many animals as you do. Also, you mentioned your guppy fry, do you breed them to sell, or do you just breed feeders?

 

[PNWBettas]

one thought, have you considered selling imports? Breeding is great, and I love it, but its a solid 4-5 months of throwing money at a project and tons of work with no guarantee of even making that money back. When you import and sell, you only have to wait a week or so to let the fish rest before they can go to their forever home. Not to mention, imports will always sell for more then home bred, even if they are home bred from imports. They just do it better in Asia, the climate is meant for tropical fish. Just a thought, if you really want to make money from this. Then use those profits from reselling to get into breeding more heavily and add that to your stock. Still requires exposure but would be cheaper and easier overall then breeding for months at a time.

 

[veggieshark]

On a second thought, I think this will be a great business experience for you if nothing. It may be worthwhile losing a little bit money in it. I wish my daughter had aspirations like this

 

[CHJ]

so i am 17 and have done the math but I need help on the more legal side of things
I live in colorado and cant seem to find anything straight forward on fees and registering the small buisness
but here's the math I have done for everything else

2 quality males : 44.5 x 2 = 89$
4 quality females : 33 x 4 = 132$
=221$
60 babies x 4= 240 babies
Price for females 25$
Price for males 35$
240 divided by 2 = 120/male 120/female
Female- 120 x 25$ = 3000$ say you sell 8 fish a week 120 divided by 8= 15 weeks for fish to be sold so that would mean a weekly income rate for females would be 200$

Sorry to kick you in your dreams.
You missed a HUGE thing. That thing makes betta ranching not worth it.
Culling. I'm guessing for top quality you will be culling over 90-95% of your males and a large number of your females. Not as many females so you will have to cull worthy females as most people who want a female want a male to go with it.
How is your eye? By this I mean how much will you have to grow the fish out before you can tell the quality from the culls? Can you tell top end even at full grown? You are going to have hundreds of pails in your house/yard.

After that you compete on craigslist against people who just wanted to breed their betta because they can and thought it would be cool and now have to get rid of a lot of super cheap fish. So getting real money off of things like Craigs will be hard. LFS that caters to the betta crowd is already connected. So Aquabid for you. Then you have to breed fish that will get those people to stand up and take notice. Basically you are digging for diamonds.

Now if you went for plakats you may be able to keep unloading those because low grade are still bought as fodder (feeders of the fighting fish world). You will not get big money and you may have ethical issues with this.

If you want to make money breeding fish, I'd look at just about any other fish than betta.

Look for extremely rare things and breed those. Or expensive things that breed reasonably well. Have you ever bred a fish? Which fish have you already bred? Green Laser cories/longfin BN/etc may be a good thing to try.

 

[SouthAmericanCichlids]

After that you compete on craigslist against people who just wanted to breed their betta because they can and thought it would be cool and now have to get rid of a lot of super cheap fish. So getting real money off of things like Craigs will be hard. LFS that caters to the betta crowd is already connected. So Aquabid for you. Then you have to breed fish that will get those people to stand up and take notice.

I saw someone on here post a thread, and they bred like 458 bettas and they had a thread 11 pages, and a pt. 2 with 5 pages. And they also sold on social media. They started selling in March and finished in October. They had so many sales just on FL. Here's a link, it's really interesting seeing the babies growing up and seeing all the beautiful varieties. Outrageous!! Betta breeding with over 458 baby bettas | Betta Breeding Forum | 446928 So there is also FL.

 

[CHJ]

I saw someone on here post a thread, and they bred like 458 bettas and they had a thread 11 pages, and a pt. 2 with 5 pages. And they also sold on social media. They started selling in March and finished in October. They had so many sales just on FL. Here's a link, it's really interesting seeing the babies growing up and seeing all the beautiful varieties. Outrageous!! Betta breeding with over 458 baby bettas | Betta Breeding Forum | 446928 So there is also FL.

What is FL? FaceList? Florida?
8 months, ouch. As they say with small business "remember to pay yourself" otherwise you life becomes worthless.

 

[SouthAmericanCichlids]

What is FL? FaceList? Florida?
8 months, ouch. As they say with small business "remember to pay yourself" otherwise you life becomes worthless.

FL is fishlore.

 

[CHJ]

Ah! derp.
I never thought of selling fish here, though I have given away fish here come to think of it.

 

[Luckyscale2003]

i br

Sorry to kick you in your dreams.
You missed a HUGE thing. That thing makes betta ranching not worth it.
Culling. I'm guessing for top quality you will be culling over 90-95% of your males and a large number of your females. Not as many females so you will have to cull worthy females as most people who want a female want a male to go with it.
How is your eye? By this I mean how much will you have to grow the fish out before you can tell the quality from the culls? Can you tell top end even at full grown? You are going to have hundreds of pails in your house/yard.

After that you compete on craigslist against people who just wanted to breed their betta because they can and thought it would be cool and now have to get rid of a lot of super cheap fish. So getting real money off of things like Craigs will be hard. LFS that caters to the betta crowd is already connected. So Aquabid for you. Then you have to breed fish that will get those people to stand up and take notice. Basically you are digging for diamonds.

Now if you went for plakats you may be able to keep unloading those because low grade are still bought as fodder (feeders of the fighting fish world). You will not get big money and you may have ethical issues with this.

If you want to make money breeding fish, I'd look at just about any other fish than betta.

Look for extremely rare things and breed those. Or expensive things that breed reasonably well. Have you ever bred a fish? Which fish have you already bred? Green Laser cories/longfin BN/etc may be a good thing to try.

i breed fancy guppies but that's not hard. I'm not looking to make a huge profit I honestly just want the experience and then when I'm done with college maybe fo it for a little extra money but I personally want to watch them grow and develop and then home them and start again and I love playing with genes
I'm fine with with a 3$ profit a week is not bad I make 0$ a week breeding guppies cause I just give them away
im gonna do a test run breeding my pink halfmoon female to my butterfly hmdp male and see what I can do with the babies

 

[Cherryshrimp420]

Not sure about your locality but here in Ontario, Canada there is definitely a shortage of local quality livestock. Everything (including plants) are like half-dead when imported to LFS. At least here, I can say that if you breed any higher pedigree fish, shrimp, or even just plants you will find a market for it. The only question is just the opportunity cost of doing this vs some other full-time job (But you shouldn't worry about this)

 

[Luckyscale2003]

Not sure about your locality but here in Ontario, Canada there is definitely a shortage of local quality livestock. Everything (including plants) are like half-dead when imported to LFS. At least here, I can say that if you breed any higher pedigree fish, shrimp, or even just plants you will find a market for it. The only question is just the opportunity cost of doing this vs some other full-time job (But you shouldn't worry about this)

well personally I'm still in highschool and my mom wants me to get a real job at some chain store but I have heard bad things from people who work at chain stores an I would rather do a job I love because I will stress less even if I don't make a bunch of money

 

[Cherryshrimp420]

well personally I'm still in highschool and my mom wants me to get a real job at some chain store but I have heard bad things from people who work at chain stores an I would rather do a job I love because I will stress less even if I don't make a bunch of money

Ive bought from a few local breeders here who were able to make a small income off of a few tanks in their apartments. But it does take a bit of experience to be able to setup tanks where livestock and plants grow wonderfully over multiple generations. I support you at the very least to try out betta breeding

 

[MasterPython]

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNM4mDAXGxWwC6MUCEY5CDc2en17DEuHu

If you haven't seen this yet it is a very practical guide to breeding fish for profit and actually making a profit.

I don't think a unknown breeders would have a easy time selling bettas. As fish go they are more costly to raise so selling all of them fast is essential for success. Getting known by starting with different fish and making relationships fish sellers would give you a path to actually sell the betas you breed.

 

[CHJ]

i br

i breed fancy guppies but that's not hard. I'm not looking to make a huge profit I honestly just want the experience and then when I'm done with college maybe fo it for a little extra money but I personally want to watch them grow and develop and then home them and start again and I love playing with genes
I'm fine with with a 3$ profit a week is not bad I make 0$ a week breeding guppies cause I just give them away
im gonna do a test run breeding my pink halfmoon female to my butterfly hmdp male and see what I can do with the babies

I'm not sure what the cull rate on Guppies is? I know the LFS is crushed under order load every week when his guppies and bettas come in. I think he normally sells trios of guppies for 75$ a piece. The Bettas are worth more for half moon and giants and all over the board with plakats..
With guppies I'd also worry that the market is very fickle and in constant flux for this week's hotness. Last super hot betta that I can remember was the alien.
The cull rate though is the issue with bettas when I tried breeding them. And locally the competition is rough, he has 2 other stores within like a mile that also have contacts in Asia and all bring in top end. One of the shops is dedicated to Bettas only.
If I was breeding for money rather than store credit I'd go for rare with cull rate ~0 and is reasonably easy to breed. Right now I'm trying to convince L134s to breed, next up is starlights, in 2-3 more years cactus, I'm looking at 5-600$ for a colony of wabenmusters (WANT!!!!). I didn't get on the zebra train when they were cheap (100$ each). I breed lasers, bronzes, sterebs, Emp tetras (I'm considering swapping out the tank full for red eye emps), and other things. I have a bin full of haplos because the local market saturated.
It doesn't take much of an eye with green lasers or wabenmusters to spot a cull (that one has no tail). With Bettas the experts just shove me in the deep end explaining things, plakats are even worse unless you know them well or sell them all as fodder.

Hmm breeding giant bettas is an idea. 75% cull right off the top IIRC when breeding giant to giant (only 25% will be giant). The quality after that is much more tolerant AFAIK. I was going to do macrostomas but fish tank in a closet didn't appeal to me.

 

[Luckyscale2003]

I'm not sure what the cull rate on Guppies is? I know the LFS is crushed under order load every week when his guppies and bettas come in. I think he normally sells trios of guppies for 75$ a piece. The Bettas are worth more for half moon and giants and all over the board with plakats..
With guppies I'd also worry that the market is very fickle and in constant flux for this week's hotness. Last super hot betta that I can remember was the alien.
The cull rate though is the issue with bettas when I tried breeding them. And locally the competition is rough, he has 2 other stores within like a mile that also have contacts in Asia and all bring in top end. One of the shops is dedicated to Bettas only.
If I was breeding for money rather than store credit I'd go for rare with cull rate ~0 and is reasonably easy to breed. Right now I'm trying to convince L134s to breed, next up is starlights, in 2-3 more years cactus, I'm looking at 5-600$ for a colony of wabenmusters (WANT!!!!). I didn't get on the zebra train when they were cheap (100$ each). I breed lasers, bronzes, sterebs, Emp tetras (I'm considering swapping out the tank full for red eye emps), and other things. I have a bin full of haplos because the local market saturated.
It doesn't take much of an eye with green lasers or wabenmusters to spot a cull (that one has no tail). With Bettas the experts just shove me in the deep end explaining things, plakats are even worse unless you know them well or sell them all as fodder.

Hmm breeding giant bettas is an idea. 75% cull right off the top IIRC when breeding giant to giant (only 25% will be giant). The quality after that is much more tolerant AFAIK. I was going to do macrostomas but fish tank in a closet didn't appeal to me.

is there any morph of betta that always breeds true or at least 50%

 

[CHJ]

is there any morph of betta that always breeds true or at least 50%

Maybe breeding a solid red to a solid red sort of thing? Maybe? But where is the fun in that?
You are usually not as concerned about the colors that come out as the fish details. Unless you are breeding for specific color.
The big thing is making sure halfmoon tails are at least 180 degrees and stuff like that.

My "male fins on female bettas" breeding project contracted a plague and I lost the whole thing and quit the betta game. No idea what it was I bombed the tank with everything and it didn't slow the disease I was losing 25-30 a day. Only one survivor who lived as a large ball of slime for a month and then cured up.
There were issues that could have lead to ethical issues. My main breeding male died to his fins. Each of his fins was at least 3" and when he tried to swim all he could manage was sending waves through his fins while barely moving. Since then, one of the experts has informed that in Asia they prune male's fins to avoid this. Breeding fish until they can't swim is personally a no no.
With bettas and serious breeding I like having a goal in mind. Personally I was thinking that if you can get male fins on females you have everything people want with less fatalities in a tank packed with them. If I tried it again I'd breed giants and go for full top end half moon characteristics. The thing is that if it isn't worth breeding, it isn't worth selling, you want your name to be associated with great fish. Unloading garbage for some quick cash may be tempting but don't do it.
It would justify having a purple wolf fish in a tank as my culler (The Culler Purple).

Bettas was such a hassle which is why I just breed other things now. Now if I lived in FL and could shade my yard and fill it with pails.. maybe. Who am I kidding, if I lived in FL I'd be dredging large ponds for plecos and cories in my yard.

Your idea of a business may be good though with selling fish and all. A guy your age I sell fish to is saving up money for college selling fish on line. His personal breeding is really impressive. I believe he is raking it in.
He has offered to teach us how to sell on line rather than locally but we haven't taken him up on it yet.

 

[Luckyscale2003]

Maybe breeding a solid red to a solid red sort of thing? Maybe? But where is the fun in that?
You are usually not as concerned about the colors that come out as the fish details. Unless you are breeding for specific color.
The big thing is making sure halfmoon tails are at least 180 degrees and stuff like that.

My "male fins on female bettas" breeding project contracted a plague and I lost the whole thing and quit the betta game. No idea what it was I bombed the tank with everything and it didn't slow the disease I was losing 25-30 a day. Only one survivor who lived as a large ball of slime for a month and then cured up.
There were issues that could have lead to ethical issues. My main breeding male died to his fins. Each of his fins was at least 3" and when he tried to swim all he could manage was sending waves through his fins while barely moving. Since then, one of the experts has informed that in Asia they prune male's fins to avoid this. Breeding fish until they can't swim is personally a no no.
With bettas and serious breeding I like having a goal in mind. Personally I was thinking that if you can get male fins on females you have everything people want with less fatalities in a tank packed with them. If I tried it again I'd breed giants and go for full top end half moon characteristics. The thing is that if it isn't worth breeding, it isn't worth selling, you want your name to be associated with great fish. Unloading garbage for some quick cash may be tempting but don't do it.
It would justify having a purple wolf fish in a tank as my culler (The Culler Purple).

Bettas was such a hassle which is why I just breed other things now. Now if I lived in FL and could shade my yard and fill it with pails.. maybe. Who am I kidding, if I lived in FL I'd be dredging large ponds for plecos and cories in my yard.

Your idea of a business may be good though with selling fish and all. A guy your age I sell fish to is saving up money for college selling fish on line. His personal breeding is really impressive. I believe he is raking it in.
He has offered to teach us how to sell on line rather than locally but we haven't taken him up on it yet.

you sound like a interesting person lol
I personally am doing a test run
I have a male butterfly hmdp and a female hm Cambodian koi i plan on breeding them and testing the market waters and if that doesn't work may move on to plecos
lol wolffish are cool my culler is a red oscar affectionately names 'boss'

 

[CHJ]

Keep in mind with plecos that their bake time before they are ready to breed is much longer than bettas. If you do not buy proven breeders you are looking at years.
Be careful on Aquabid I have seen garbage sales that say "Breeding pair" which are just a male and female with 0 track recorded.

 

[Luckyscale2003]

Keep in mind with plecos that their bake time before they are ready to breed is much longer than bettas. If you do not buy proven breeders you are looking at years.
Be careful on Aquabid I have seen garbage sales that say "Breeding pair" which are just a male and female with 0 track recorded.

hmm what would you recommend me breeding
my largest tank is a 40 breeder
1 35 gal
2 20 gal
2 10 gal
1 18 gal tub
1 10 gal tub

 

[SouthAmericanCichlids]

Angels! Get 6 juveniles wait for a pair. Get rid of the other 4. They can be very profitable, mine just layed about 50 eggs, and they can breed and lay new eggs every 10-14 days, if you take the old eggs out. If you don't angels have been known to raise their own fry. So you could let them raise the fry to a certain point, to skip the use of the 10g tub, but they breed less often, but you would still need the 20 or 35 g to grow them out to selling size (Because of the size of the tank) Don't be afraid if the parents eat the fry the first few times/the eggs, this is normal, they will eventually not eat the eggs/fry after a few batches. And they are so personable, pretty, and if you get multiple color varieties you get to see tons of cool color varieties.

 

[Luckyscale2003]

sounds awesome i dont trust the lfs in my area whats the best website to buy them on?

 

[SouthAmericanCichlids]

sounds awesome i dont trust the lfs in my area whats the best website to buy them on?

I don't shop online, but I got 1 of my angels from petsmart, and had no problems. Angels are very resilient fish, you can really get them anywhere.

 

[Luckyscale2003]

so i did break down and buy a pair of halfmoons to test the waters...
will probably not breed until early April though

 

[CHJ]

sounds awesome i dont trust the lfs in my area whats the best website to buy them on?

I go to Bizliz (here) for Angel advice. I also got 4 of her blues. They keep trying to breed in a tank full of cats. Oh wait 3 angels I forgot one somehow got itself stuck under a log.

Last angel I considered getting to breed was at the LFS and may have been the first of them to hit the US. The breeder originally said he would never sell to the US or anyone who would sell to the US.
Unbelievably beautiful fish. IIRC 30 or 50 a piece. Sold out as soon as they were out of quarantine, during the initial COVID lockdown.

 

[RelaxingBettas]

one thought, have you considered selling imports? Breeding is great, and I love it, but its a solid 4-5 months of throwing money at a project and tons of work with no guarantee of even making that money back. When you import and sell, you only have to wait a week or so to let the fish rest before they can go to their forever home. Not to mention, imports will always sell for more then home bred, even if they are home bred from imports. They just do it better in Asia, the climate is meant for tropical fish. Just a thought, if you really want to make money from this. Then use those profits from reselling to get into breeding more heavily and add that to your stock. Still requires exposure but would be cheaper and easier overall then breeding for months at a time.

I've thought of this, if I just wanted to do it for profit it's the way I would go, I want a sustainable hobby, and I want to breed because of the joy and curiosity of it.
Another reason I backed off on plecos and went with high end corys.

 

[CHJ]

I've thought of this, if I just wanted to do it for profit it's the way I would go, I want a sustainable hobby, and I want to breed because of the joy and curiosity of it.
Another reason I backed off on plecos and went with high end corys.

Got C111s yet? parallellis? those are dream high end for me. If I can get a herd of 111s that will be a money printing machine.. well a trade in printing machine to get high end plecos from the LFS.

I will never get parallelis due to the water reqs for breeding.