Breeding Aquarium Fish and How to Sell Them for Profits

Breeding aquarium fish can be costly, changing, and time-consuming at the beginning. But, I am pretty sure it will be an interesting and rewarding experience when time passes.

However, numerous fish keepers have established lucrative fish aquariums and are consistently reaping big.

So, that begs the question; how do they manage to get such huge returns on investments while navigating this colossal challenge?

Perhaps, you’ve given some thought to it and want to make it one of your passive incomes. Or, it could be that you want to go all in and make it your lifelong career. The glad tiding is that it’s entirely possible and you can earn big cash while at it.

This article digs deeper into breeding aquarium fish and how to earn huge profits in the fishkeeping business.

Why Do You Want to Breed Fish?

First off, it all starts from somewhere. And mainly, your motive behind keeping fish will determine whether your story can be among numerous fishkeepers’ successes.

Remember, keeping aquarium fish isn’t a five-finger exercise since it’s incredibly demanding and costly. Worse still, you’ll hardly get any ROI if you’re aiming at commercializing it without a clear motive.

So, before getting your tanks ready or pondering about the best aquarium fish breeds to keep, any of the above reasons should fuel your motive to venture into it.

– Breeding Fish Feels Exciting for You

Most aquaria fish are exciting to watch with their beautiful rings of colors and mesmerizing hues. Better yet, their jumpiness and unmatched energy are a joy to lock your eyes on all day.

So, if you’re finding it incredibly exciting breeding fish, please don’t pinch yourself hard with the hypnosis they give you. To say the least, it’s your best motive to have these aquarium friends and will urge you forward through the challenges.

A vast majority of fish keepers install aquariums in their homes to spruce up their indoors. They do that to create a wow factor and add a unique aesthetic touch.

Some fish keepers do it for home improvement, class, or to add value to their homes, which excites them.

Whichever reason excites you; it should be your best motive and a driver for success in fish keeping. If it doesn’t exhilarate you, there’s no point in breeding aquarium fish.

– To Support the Fishkeeping Hobby

Fish keeping is a good hobby and an ideal pastime activity. As such, people install aquarium tanks to support their pursuit.

Hobbyist fish keepers have an incredible chance of being good at it since passion drives them. And if that’s your motive, you have every chance of succeeding.

Fish keeping can seemingly be time-demanding, but rest assured that it won’t cripple your daily activities since you only need to devote a few minutes tending to your aquarium friends.

– To Breed Rare Fish

Rare fish have a knack for fetching significant profits in the market, but sometimes, that’s not always a motive for keeping them. For most rare fish keepers, it’s the class of keeping these fish and the value they offer.

Conservationists are always on the front line to prevent rare fish from becoming rare because people hunt them massively. So, perhaps, the wild may not be safe enough to sustain their numbers.

Aquariums are havens for rare fish, giving them a chance for safe spawning and multiplying. However, most aquarists may later sell them when their tank capacities don’t fit their numbers, making it an opportunity to make extra cash.

– To Supplement Your Income

Fishkeeping is a lucrative business and guarantees high ROI, whether doing it on a small-scale or large scale. Also, despite fishkeeping requiring huge initial capital in money and labor, it becomes more seamless with time as it picks up pace.

It’s a great way to make extra cash to seal the financial loopholes your regular income can’t cover adequately. Many aquarists make fish an alternative income source, dedicating a chunk of their time to it.

So, if you’re aiming to do the same, know that it won’t be as challenging as many believe. If you have the suitable capital and resources, making fishkeeping an alternative source of income should be achievable.

– To Make Fish Breeding a Career

Numerous fish keepers have made a career out of this business, tending to fish and caring for aquariums for most of their lives. Others have established aquarium fish depots, supplying vast populations with all fish species.

Please note that fish keeping doesn’t entail keeping fish alone, but other lucrative careers tag along with it. For instance, you can be a fish keeper and a fish vet simultaneously, running parallel careers at a go.

Other careers associated with fish keeping, especially if you make it your full-time venture, include being a fish tank installation expert, fish diagnosis specialist, academic researcher, and numerous others.

What Fish Can You Breed at Home

You need to breed fish that are easy to keep, especially if you’re a novice aquarist. And despite your fish being pretty manageable and straightforward to keep, you must ensure that they fetch high prices in the market for a more reasonable income.

Of course, numerous easy-to-keep fish exist, but they aren’t enough to keep for the best profits. You don’t want to incur high costs feeding and maintaining your aquarium fish only to fetch low prices and perhaps, plunge you into losses.

Exotic aquarium fish breeds should be your go-to to guarantee high ROI if you’re making fish while keeping your full-time job.

Here are the best aquarium fish breeds you can keep at home and eventually fetch better prices.

– Discus Fish

Discus fish are one of the most profitable fish you can put at home despite having their drawbacks. Keeping this fish as a hobbyist can be some leg work, but it can be best if earning huge profit is your motivation.

Discus can be somewhat demanding, requiring consistent water change, deworming, and treating flukes and feeding.

However, if you have the time or you’re running a fishkeeping career, that should be the least of your concerns. Discus spawns vigorously and can yield up to 200 fries at once.

Each fry can retail between $15 and $50, yielding high profits. For a good income, you can get a pair of Discus fish for spawning and sell the fries for profit.

– Plecos

Rare Plecos are hard-to-find fish, breed less, and are incredibly exotic and beautiful. If you’re a beginner, Rare Plecos can be an ideal alternative to Discus since they’re somewhat low demanding and easy to keep.

They spawn less but their fries retail at incredibly high prices, each costing between $50 to $100, while adults may cost a couple of hundred bucks.

They’re territorial and can get significantly huge, making them unideal for partnering with other fish. One thing with Rare Plecos is that they’re hard to source and require high monetary capital to start.

Besides, they take quite a long time to grow about two and a half years, and aren’t ideal if you want to make quick cash.

– Freshwater Angelfish

Angelfish are also relatively easy to keep but need vast tank spaces and grow-out tanks since they spawn vigorously. These fish guarantee high ROI, low maintenance, are hardy, and fetch considerably high market prices.

However, if you can’t provide sufficient grow-out tanks for their fries, you’d hardly contain them. But if you have a ready market for the fries and can sell them after hatching, you have a high chance of making good cash.

– Ram Species

Rams are tiny fish, easy to keep and maintain. They aren’t as demanding as Plecos and Discus and can exist in considerable numbers in a tank. They also spawn vigorously, hatching about 100 fries at a time.

The good thing with these fish is that they don’t require a separate grow-out tank, unlike the Angelfish, making breeding them quite a breeze.

A fully grown Ram costs about $5 to $40, and thanks to their vast numbers, selling each Ram promises enormous returns.

– Corydoras

Corydoras fish also promises a high turnover once you’re familiar with the best ways to raise them. These fish are tiny but less demanding, and low care. The varied kinds, including the bronze and peppered albinos, are incredibly lucrative.

You can focus on spawning and raising hundreds of them and selling them out at a wholesale price since these fish spawn quite frequently, and their numbers may overwhelm you in the long haul.

– Other highly profitable fish species

Including freshwater Shrimp species, Bristlenose Plecos, Guppies, Black Mollies, Goldfish, and Kribensis Cichlid. Other low-care but moderately priced fish you can also include Tetras, such as the Buenos Aires Tetras and Serpae Tetras.

Also, Sterbai Cory fish, Redtail Catfish, and Blue Dolphin Cichlids can be ideal, although they won’t usually guarantee incredibly high profits as the rest.

Setting Up a Breeding Tank and How to Breed

Setting up a breeding tank can be some legwork, but that depends on your preferred scale. For a beginner, a tiny to medium-sized, 20 gallons to 30 gallons tank is sufficient.

But if you’re venturing into it in a wholesale capacity, you need a much sizeable tank, or perhaps a few more for breeding various species.

Also, remember that fish have various preferences for habitat conditions, and those for a single type cannot be cross-cutting for every breed.

Therefore, a little research and acquaintance go a long way into setting up an ideal tank for correct breeding. The goal of breeding fish is to enable them to multiply and distribute them to shops or individuals at a profit.

So, ensure that you have both sexes of a fish species to make that possible. You may also need two separate tanks; a spawning and breeding tank and perhaps a grow-out tank for fries.

You may sell your fries at a profit while still young and raise them to maturity, provided that they promise a good ROI. Also, don’t forget about caring for your fish by properly feeding, deworming and treating them, and spawning.

How to Care for the Fry (Baby Fish) Until They’re Ready to be Sold

Baby fish (Fries) are incredibly delicate and need your utmost attention to thrive and be more sturdy. Therefore, knowing your fish needs is essential since you’ll have to care for them differently depending on the breeds you rear.

However, here are the general care tips that every fry species would welcome.

– Use A Small Grow-Out Tank

Most people prefer giving their fries vast spaces to explore, which is good. However, it’s a challenge for baby fish since they have to swim over long distances to grab floating food.

A tiny tank, perhaps about 10 gallons, is sufficient until the time you want to transfer them to the main aquarium.

– Feed Them Adequately

The best food for fries is flakes ground to fine sizes, almost powdery. That makes it much easier for your fries to eat them whole other than biting from huge flake chunks.

Also, be sure to scatter the food so it covers the entire water surface area for your fries to reach them easily.

– Treat, Filtrate, and Change the Water Frequently

Fries are incredibly sensitive to dirty and unfiltered water. So be sure to change regularly and replace it with fresh water. You’ll also need to do it more frequently or treat it, so no sediments and uneaten foods risk their health.

You may also skim off excess food from the surface to keep the water nice and fresh. installing a small aquarium canister filter will reduce the frequent water changes.

– Add Plants to Your Tank

You can add a few types of live aquarium plants such as Java Fern, Anacharis plant, Java Moss, and Dwarf Sagittaria in your tank to provide cover for your fries. Also, artificial plants would be good to give them hideouts for cover.

– Heat the Tank

Always ensure the tank’s water temperature doesn’t fall below the survivable levels. But remember, various fish require specific temperatures to survive.

So please do a little due diligence for a proper acquaintance of the ideal temperature ranges for your baby fish. Find a reliable aquarium water heater that does the job.

Tips on Getting the Best Prices When Selling Your Fish

One big headache for aquarists is finding a good market for their fish. However, people are always ready to buy, and you can find the best markets for selling your fish, whether matured or young.

Here are the best tips for selling your fish.

– Find Local Fish Stores

Local fish stores need consistent fish supply, and while most may already have running contracts with large fish farms, they might squeeze you in a bit if you offer them better prices.

However, it’s not a great way of fetching high profits, but it helps you move your fish quickly. It’s a hassle-free way of moving your vigorously spawning fish like the Rams and Angelfish, and you won’t get stuck looking for a market.

Pros:

• It’s pretty convenient
• It offers a guaranteed market with a vast customer base
• It’s a relatively steady income stream

Cons:

• It fetches lower prices

– Putting Your Fish On Craigslist or Other Classified Sections of Local Fish Clubs

Selling your fish online can also be a quick way to move your fish out of your aquarium. The digital market wave has opened up a significant opportunity to tout virtually any product to customers, and so are your fish.

Therefore, you can put your fish on Craigslist or other fish clubs’ classified sections and be sure to capture a few customers.

Pros:

• It promises a steady income
• You have incredible flexibility with significantly high prices

Cons:

• Inconvenience in meeting customers if you don’t have the time to

– Participate in Local Fish Club Swaps and Auctions

Local fish club swaps and auctions may not be so sought-after but are perfect for fetching reasonable prices for your fish. Therefore, you can stay all ear for any fish auctions in your area and avail your fish for sale.

Pros:

• It’s incredibly convenient
• It can be a steady income source if the auctions are more frequent

Cons:

• Auctions don’t offer fixed prices, and your expensive fish can go on a cheap
• No guarantees for selling all the fish, requiring you to return some home

– Selling Fish Online and Shipping Them

Like putting your fish on Craigslist, selling your fish online is the best way to reach customers far and wide. But, that means you need to prearrange for shipping, sometimes the costs being your responsibility.

This option works better in areas where internet connectivity is good, and people use the digital space to buy and sell things.

Pros:

• Promises significant returns, especially for exotic and rare breeds
• Reaching high-value clients is relatively easy

Cons:

• Shipping can be tedious and costly to maintain their living environment
• Fish can die in shipping, plunging you into losses

Conclusion

Breeding Aquarium Fish is a lucrative business if you approach it with knowledge and caution. A vast majority of fish keepers attest to fish breeding being a viable alternative source of income, and rightly so.

You only have to nail down the best fish breeds to maintain so they thrive and appeal to your customers to urge high prices. That way, churning out colossal ROI is feasible and can be a decent start to establishing a fulfilling fishkeeping career.

Hopefully, this guide will help you make aquarium fishing a sustainable income source as you keep them for profit.