looking to breed some chiclids
- Thread starter aidena-b
- Start date
If you're thinking of turning a profit breeding fish at a hobbyist level good luck! Any fish easy enough to produce is available cheaply enough to preclude making any money on them. You can always find a store willing to buy locally produced Angels and they're easy enough and prolific enough to generate a bit of income, but they're not going to pay much and you need lots of space to raise the vast #s they produce. At the other end of the scale are stuff like Apistos that are more difficult to produce, not as prolific, worth more per fish but harder to sell. I would suggest you pick a fish you like for its own merits and let the money fall where it may. Otherwise your hobby will turn into a job.
I suggest breeding for the joy of it, not for the money, because that wont happen 
My lfs sells over 200 angels a week (huge store) so they are always looking for local breeders of those, they go for 8 bucks, and they give me $3 per fish. I've made over $100 there before, but it was all store credit.
My lfs sells over 200 angels a week (huge store) so they are always looking for local breeders of those, they go for 8 bucks, and they give me $3 per fish. I've made over $100 there before, but it was all store credit.
Rare species are usually the best bet for making a few $$ with small-scale breeding. However, you have to know what you're doing well enough to raise the fry to a decent size after they spawn. Some of the pleco's now on the banned list for export from Brazil are selling for a good price, but Hypancistrus take several years to mature if you buy young ones. The adults are harder to find, particularly females.
i would start off with spelling cichlid correctly...then, like everyone else has said don't really expect to make much money off of it if you are going to do it as a hobby....invest thousands for lots of tanks and lots of offspring of the right fish (e.g., angelfish) and you will probably see profit in a few years.
There's nothing off the top of my head that will put you in the green automatically without investing a lot initially.
I agree, I know I sound like a broken record with this, but alto. comps "sumbu dwarf" for example, will fetch you a nice profit if you're willing to drop around $120 for a wild caught pair, you very rarely see these shellies anymore.
I suggest maybe, Yellow Convicts, or Electric Blue Jack Dempsey "EBJD", but it's hard to find a EBJD blue gene male. Yellow Convicts bring in about $10-$15 per fish, EBJD's bring in about $20-$30 per juvenile.