What do you do when it's time for the fry to leave home?

[BadHairDay]

I have around 30 young Anomalochromis thomasi fry (I'd post a picture but they are so fast it's impossible - I may do a screen grab from a video later), now ten weeks old and I really need to move them on. At least one local fish shop has said they would take them, but what do you do? Would you expect a fish shop to offer anything in exchange? A couple of barrels of RO water perhaps?

 

[Magnum Man]

most do a store credit, for an agreed upon amount

 

[gwand]

My lfs gives me store credit starting at $1 per fish for TR Platy and Molly. I will be bringing them TR Apistogramma cacatuoides and a. thomasi in about 6-8 weeks fetching $3 per fish. Anomalochromis thomasi can get more than that if you hold on to them until they start to color up. F1s are worth more usually.

 

[BadHairDay]

Thanks both, it hadn't actually occurred to me to ask for money for them, but maybe I'll give it a try. Here they are at ten weeks.

 

[gwand]

Beautiful fish. What did you feed them in the first weeks of fry life? My fry are growing slowly. In your first post, you called the common name of a. thomasi as Rainbow cichlids. I read that the common name is African butterfly cichlid. Rainbow cichlids are Herotilapia multispinosa.

 

[BadHairDay]

Beautiful fish. What did you feed them in the first weeks of fry life? My fry are growing slowly. In your first post, you called the common name of a. thomasi as Rainbow cichlids. I read that the common name is African butterfly cichlid. Rainbow cichlids are Herotilapia multispinosa.

Thanks, and good grief, of course, you're absolutely correct, butterfly cichlid it is - I don't know where I got rainbow from. Initially I fed them on Ocean Nutrition "instant baby brine shrimp", which isn't anything of the sort, then Hikari first bites, and very quickly onto copeopods, which they hoovered up. Brine shrimp as soon as their mouths were big enough, and now they are eating as much Tetra Min mini and vegetable flakes as I can supply.

 

[BadHairDay]

In case anyone's interested, the youngsters went to the LFS shop yesterday, one UK pound per fish as a store credit, which was a nice bonus. I'll go in next week and see what they're asking for them!

 

[gwand]

In case anyone's interested, the youngsters went to the LFS shop yesterday, one UK pound per fish as a store credit, which was a nice bonus. I'll go in next week and see what they're asking for them!

That is great. What is a UK pound worth in dollars? By the way, since I last posted on your thread, my thomasi had fry again. I have fry born on Christmas Day and fry that were just born 72 hours ago. These new fry are from another pair. In another 2 to 3 months I will be taking some of these guys to my local fish store. They are such beautiful fish. I wish I could keep them all.

 

[GaryE]

The store credit deal works well, as they sell to you with their markup included. You're actually getting much less from them than you think, but it's a very fair deal all around given we could get nothing. The corporate stores in many places won't buy hobbyist bred fish.

I once sold 50 juvenile (1.5 inch) rainbow cichlids (H multispinosa) to local store for 65 cents a fish, and he sold them out in 3 weeks at $9.99 each. It can be a shock to see, but I was simply glad to have rehomed growing fish before they had totally overwhelmed my resources. I'm not a commercial breeder. This isn't a money making business. That wasn't the fairest deal I've encountered, and I never sold to him again, but his store is still there, and he did give me fair prices when I bought fish or equipment.

 

[BadHairDay]

That is great. What is a UK pound worth in dollars? By the way, since I last posted on your thread, my thomasi had fry again. I have fry born on Christmas Day and fry that were just born 72 hours ago. These new fry are from another pair. In another 2 to 3 months I will be taking some of these guys to my local fish store. They are such beautiful fish. I wish I could keep them all.

A pound is about a dollar 25, I was sorry to see them go, and at that age/size (12 weeks or so) they were like little jewels, but I guess there will be another brood along in a minute - good luck with yours!

 

[BadHairDay]

The store credit deal works well, as they sell to you with their markup included. You're actually getting much less from them than you think, but it's a very fair deal all around given we could get nothing. The corporate stores in many places won't buy hobbyist bred fish.

I once sold 50 juvenile (1.5 inch) rainbow cichlids (H multispinosa) to local store for 65 cents a fish, and he sold them out in 3 weeks at $9.99 each. It can be a shock to see, but I was simply glad to have rehomed growing fish before they had totally overwhelmed my resources. I'm not a commercial breeder. This isn't a money making business. That wasn't the fairest deal I've encountered, and I never sold to him again, but his store is still there, and he did give me fair prices when I bought fish or equipment.

Exactly my position, I just needed to find a home for them, and would have given them to the store without blinking, but as someone on here suggested it, I asked, and they went for it. The money is going back to them in the long run, so everyone's happy.