Hey Guys,

I wanted to get some advice on what type of fish to breed. My question is what type of fish would people want to buy if I was able to breed it? I don't really want to breed any type of catfish but am open to most fish. I was thinking of breeding gouramis but I don't want to be stuck with a 100 or so gouramis cause no one wants them.

I have a semi decent size setup to use but don't know what to breed :-? :roll:

Any suggestions are appreciated and welcome.

Thanks

Cam

Hi Suggest you try Blue Rams

Seem to sell well

Regards Ian

Yeah but every time I go to buy some they're in quarantine and lately they've been the long fin type which I'm not so keen on but I'll deffinately be giving them a go when I can find a decent pair of normal finned blues or a nice pair of electric blues.

Try some tetras if you want a challenge, I'm sure there's a market for neons at $1.00 each 8)

tropheus numbers need increasing, dubs are quite commonly breed now so pembas or moliro will be a good start

Try some tetras if you want a challenge, I'm sure there's a market for neons at $1.00 each 8)

its called the wholesale market :lol:

I don't think I have any tank big enough for tropheus. Most are either 60x40x40 or 30x40x40.

lol, $1 tetra. Don't think theats even going to cover the cost of food to rase them . Although I've never tried breeding tetras. What would be a good tetra to try breed?

columbians!

or try rainbows

how about some of the new Tang shell dwellers. You would need to hurry with those though. Probably a few already feverishly trying to breed them right now so they can be first by selling ridiculously small fry at crazy prices

how about some of the new Tang shell dwellers. You would need to hurry with those though. Probably a few already feverishly trying to breed them right now so they can be first by selling ridiculously small fry at crazy prices

With all due respect, please take care with such generalisations. I do believe that most of us who have these new fish have them because we love rare breeds and we want to see them stay in NZ, not because we are interested in making a killing off them.

how about some of the new Tang shell dwellers. You would need to hurry with those though. Probably a few already feverishly trying to breed them right now so they can be first by selling ridiculously small fry at crazy prices

spoken like a true fancy plec breeder

sadly past experience has shown that firenzenz is right.

I'm all for capitalism though so lets see what the market is willing to pay for the little shell dwellers.

lol, $1 tetra. Don't think theats even going to cover the cost of food to rase them . Although I've never tried breeding tetras. What would be a good tetra to try breed?

Well if you can raise 100 neons and sell at $1 ea, that's $100.00 right there.

its called the wholesale market :lol:

Problem is most of us can't access that market, or can we?

They are cheap enough at retail. :lol:

They are cheap enough at retail. :lol:

I'd rather pay $50 for 50 than $150 or more!

You could try cardinals or rummy nose tetras but they are quite hard to do.. Maybe some danios or nice barbs or something like that?

I do hope there are some people out there feverishly trying to breed the shellies, they have already paid crazy prices for fry so hopefully they can breed them and get them out there.. I managed to get 2 and they are such awesome fish, I am still hoping I have ended up with a pair but even if I didn't I am happy to enjoy them until people can breed them and I can get more From my experience of getting 3 and putting them in a 100L tank and having one killed would lead me to believe that your tank is not big enough unless you could guarantee a pair.

Ok at this stage I'm seriously considering cardinals. I'm thinking shell dwellers are going to be a bit hard as there $48 ea and I have no idea how to sex them so it could be a total waste of money if I buy one sex. Whats everyone think. Is there a market for NZ bred cardinals if I manage to do it? Also whats the retail of cardinals? Is it cheaper than rummynoses or about the same?

Cardinals are around $10+ each at the local Animates here, less if you buy in more. I'd say rummynoses are cheaper, I'd rather have cardinals though.

How do you intend to breed your Cardinals?

There is an excellent article, on how to breed cardinals, in the article section on the home page

If you are starting out to breed for $$$ then you will loose.

Start by breeding what you like and if you can sell some then so be it.

From there look at other styles of fish

I breed and sell 60 species of fish but I barely cover costs

Yet I know of others who make a "killing" but then they are also not active here.

Whilst I would like to earn more from this, it is a hobby not a business for me, so breed the fish you like and go from there.

Good luck and if I can help let me know

Nav

You cover costs!!!

My accountant is convinced I have the most power hungry computers on Earth

Of course I cover costs

But I dont count time, food, heating, light, power, freight, bags, boxes, heat pads, tanks or purchase price of fish.

I considered including in my sales price losses, chemicals and meds, % of set up like pumps and stands and paint and flooring and plants and substrate and caves and the rarity of the fish to begin with but I quickly discarded that idea and thought to myself

"no no I shall just let the market dictate to me what the price of these fish should be I mean who am I to worry about outlay and expense when it has taken me 25 years to gain the knowledge and the networks to get the fish and then breed them before setting a $ value on them as well" and decided to just do that instead

Well I mean dont you all do it that way?

:roll:

I don't want to breed to make money I just don't want to have fish that I can't get rid of and then having all my tank space taken over with unwanted fish.

Yeah I was reading that article on breeding Cardinals and it's really great. My plan to breed them is to buy as many as I can afford at the moment (5-6 :roll: ). I'll then set them up in a BB tank and condition them with BBS flake and blood worms until I can sex them. I then move them to their own tank (males in one, females in the other) for further conditioning on only blood worms and BBS. I'll have 3 tanks pre setup (40x30x40) 1/2 filled with aged water and an airstone with a 2cm layer of peat. Tank will have sides covered in paper except for a small slit as a window for checking for eggs. I'll cover lid 3/4 covered so not much light gets in. Once I see eggs in peat I'll remove parents and keep tank dark for 5 days which means fry should be free swimming by then. Thn just try my hardest to raise the fry.

Bryan, the article's author, was so successful using that method he was raising hundreds of cardinals at a time to supply his lfs.

From the limited research that I did you would need to have extremely soft water to breed the Cardinals so it has to be rain or even RO water to get it as soft as required.. How soft is the water you are planning to use? Another common issue I found when I looked around at how to do it was sourcing young enough fish, apparently the ovaries harden and the females become unable to lay eggs if they aren't spawned from young, and if they are grown in the wrong conditions they never spawn.

Regarding the breeding for money thing, I only keep and breed species I like that way you actually put the effort into them. I would love to say I cover my costs but I am not sure if I took into account everything that I would, but I do know that I can pay the increase in the power bill and for fishfood and sometimes even cover some new ones so that is awesome After all it is just a hobby but it is always good to cover costs along the way and breed and sell some nice fish meet some nice people..