Supporting my habit...

ChicoRaton

ChicoRaton

Se?or Member
Jun 5, 2004
968
0
0
38
Idaho, USA
www.hazy8.com
I've been trying to find a way to soften the financial blow of fishkeeping. So far, I have a few ideas. I can't decide which to devote my time to though...

1) Sell live food cultures on ebay/aquabid
I am going to do this one for sure, with vinegar eels. I plan to head down to my local recycling center and pick up a bunch of plastic soda bottles and once my current cultures get going, set up several more cultures and sell them on ebay and aquabid for maybe $7.50 for an established 16 oz culture? I don't know if I should put the effort into a different live food culture though... how time vs. return effecient it would be.

2) Breed fish
This is what I need help with. I have 4 unsexed slightly larger than silver dollar sized angels, so I'm not sure about the m/f ratio, or if I even have both sexes, but that is one option. It'll be a while before they're able to breed though right? Other ideas of fish I'd like to try breeding are Kribs, bettas, or fancy guppies. All 4 are pretty easy right? Any other ideas of fish that aren't incredibly difficult that I should try raising?

I'm not trying to turn a huge profit here, just trying to make something I love to do help pay for itself:p

If you have any other ideas of fish I might enjoy breeding or anything let me know. I might send a few your way if I'm successful:D
 
Guppies are the easiest fish the breed, just as long as you can keep the parents/ other guppies away from the fry. I think that Bettas and Kribs are supposed to relatively easy also, but I'm not sure.
Anyhow, good luck with your quest. :)
 
I didn't have to keep my guppy parents away from the fry. but mine are in a 30 gallon tank, so maybe that helped. I have about 20 or 30 of the little buggers going around.
 
how does one go about selling fish to thier LFS and how does one sell fish online, as far as packaging goes? like on aquabid.
 
To sell to your lfs, just call them up and tell them " I have x number of x species that I bred and raised, they're healthy blah blah other important facts, would you be interested in taking them for store credit?" pretty easy. usually they'll say yes unless they're big aggressive fish. those are harder to sell to most lfs's because they don't have the space. If they say yes, put them in a bag about 1/2 water 1/2 air and drive down to the store.

To mail them you need insulation to slow down the temperature swings, usually that insulation should be absorbent to comply with postal regulations. Double bagging is good too. Try to send overnight, though some hardier fish can easily be sent 2-day priority mail. you'll need heat packs if it's during the winter, and shipping during the hottest weeks of the year probably isn't a good idea. A google search should give you some other good articles on how to ship fish through the mail.

[EDIT] Any other ideas?:)
 
many pet shops wont buy fish from you unless you have a hatchery license.
Click to expand...

Seriously? I've never even heard of that problem, not to mention run in to it.

maybe it's just in your area?
 
Like Kikuchiyo said, many places won't take guppies or bettas there are just too many around. They are both fairly easy to breed, but you have to keep a close eye on bettas. Also Angels are not the easiest fish to breed. The fact that you have 4 Angels Chico, is not much help, even if you do have a male and female doesn't mean that they will breed. And they are nearly impossible to sex untill they come into breeding condiditon. And once they do come into breeding condition they have very specific needs to breed, and the eggs can be very touchy. It isn't impossible by any means at all, but it is challenging. Before you even think about doing it, buy a good angelfish breeding books try "Freshwater Angelfishes" written by the grandfather of the aquarium hobby, Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod.
 
many places won't take guppies or bettas there are just too many around. They are both fairly easy to breed, but you have to keep a close eye on bettas. Also Angels are not the easiest fish to breed.
Click to expand...

I'm aware. If I bred guppies or bettas I would stick to the rare show-type strains and focus on quality, not just whipping out oodles of pet-store bettas, and sell on aquabid. At the moment I'm leaning towards kribensis, as they seem to be very difficult to find around here. In fact, I've been trying to get an adult pair for a month+ now.

I know angelfish are more difficult than say guppies or kribs, and about the special care the eggs require, susceptibility to fungus etc. I didn't say I didn't want a challenge though. Though at this point I am more enthused about breeding kribs than angels. I plan to just let my angels grow until they are adult and if a pair of excellent parents happens to form, all the better. I might have to buy some rubbermaid tubs if I get krib and angel fry at the same time though, hehe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom