dwarfgourami
Fish Connoisseur
This is a topic that comes up every few days on the forum, somebody has laid their hands on a spare tank, and wants to go into breeding. Personally, I am not in a position to moralise on this subject or to preach abstinence to fish or man - being a complete sucker myself when it comes to breeding: I simply cannot resist the swishing of tiny fins (which is why I now have 5 fish tanks instead of 2)
But it seems to me that certain popular fish come with a lot of problems, breeding-wise, and that other more promising avenues remain unexplored. So I thought I'd start making a little list of what seems to me the more problematic common species, and another of the more promising. Please, everybody with experience, do come and challenge my listings or add more species!
I am assuming for the purpose of argument that you are in a position to set up a separate breeding/growout tank- at least 10 gallons for the smaller fish on the list, and bigger for bigger fish. Also, that you can afford conditioning foods and baby foods, that you have the energy to do very frequent water changes on fry tanks, and are prepared to spend time researching any species before you breed. I am also only listing fish that are at all likely to breed in your tank: little point in worrying in advance about how you are going to raise baby hypostomus or RTBS. Also, please note, these lists are only for relatively inexperienced breeders with no special contacts. Obviously, if you have been breeding convicts for 20 years and have a well established market, then it would be silly to stop just because someone on a fish forum says so.
With these reservations, I would say:
think twice before breeding:
convicts- breed like rabbits but difficult to sell due to aggression problems and over-saturation of the market
kribs- d
veiltail bettas- require quite a lot of work, but have large batches, which can then be difficult to sell due to aggression problems and saturation of market; quite space-consuming while waiting to be sold, as males will need to be separated; unlikely that one shop will be able to take all males if you have a decent survival rate; if you are desparate to breed bettas, it is better to get some really good quality variety from a breeder- and study the genetics first
breed with reservations:
platies, guppies, mollies and swordtails- not aggressive or difficult to place as such, but market easily becomes saturated as so many people breed them; they can store sperm for several pregnancies, so when you decide you've had enough may not be when they decide they've had enough; will require separate tanks for male and female siblings unless you are able to sell them very young; there are already problems with inbreeding/overbreeding, so please only breed strong healthy individuals
dwarf gouramis- need quite a bit of tlc, prone to disease and difficult to rear fry
why not try breeding:
corydoras- should be easy to sell, always popular, non-aggressive, once you have gained experience with the easier species, you could potentially make a bit of money with the more expensive ones
cherry barbs- small egglayers, suitable even for small tanks, so likely to stay popular
bristlenoses- as easy as livebearers, but you can call a halt to these, by separating male and female, popular fish and non-aggressive both towards other fish and their own fry, can breed in community tank
danios or WCMs- won't make your fortune, but won't cost the earth either
whiptails- attractive and unusual-looking fish
peacock gobies- beautiful and very fashionable atm
goodeids- if you have hard alkaline water (not all make good community fish though)
the less common poeciliid livebearers: such as heterandria formosa, girardinus metallicus etc
or if you want a challenge, why not try these:
fancy plecs- there is plenty of literature (online and in places like PFK magazine) about breeding things like flash peckoltias and leopard frog plecs, you'll need the space evidently, but if successful, they should sell
khuulie loaches- have been bred in captivity (though not very often), and should sell easily enough
tetras or rasboras- if you have soft, acid water
But it seems to me that certain popular fish come with a lot of problems, breeding-wise, and that other more promising avenues remain unexplored. So I thought I'd start making a little list of what seems to me the more problematic common species, and another of the more promising. Please, everybody with experience, do come and challenge my listings or add more species! I am assuming for the purpose of argument that you are in a position to set up a separate breeding/growout tank- at least 10 gallons for the smaller fish on the list, and bigger for bigger fish. Also, that you can afford conditioning foods and baby foods, that you have the energy to do very frequent water changes on fry tanks, and are prepared to spend time researching any species before you breed. I am also only listing fish that are at all likely to breed in your tank: little point in worrying in advance about how you are going to raise baby hypostomus or RTBS. Also, please note, these lists are only for relatively inexperienced breeders with no special contacts. Obviously, if you have been breeding convicts for 20 years and have a well established market, then it would be silly to stop just because someone on a fish forum says so.
With these reservations, I would say:
think twice before breeding: convicts- breed like rabbits but difficult to sell due to aggression problems and over-saturation of the market
kribs- d
veiltail bettas- require quite a lot of work, but have large batches, which can then be difficult to sell due to aggression problems and saturation of market; quite space-consuming while waiting to be sold, as males will need to be separated; unlikely that one shop will be able to take all males if you have a decent survival rate; if you are desparate to breed bettas, it is better to get some really good quality variety from a breeder- and study the genetics first
breed with reservations: platies, guppies, mollies and swordtails- not aggressive or difficult to place as such, but market easily becomes saturated as so many people breed them; they can store sperm for several pregnancies, so when you decide you've had enough may not be when they decide they've had enough; will require separate tanks for male and female siblings unless you are able to sell them very young; there are already problems with inbreeding/overbreeding, so please only breed strong healthy individuals
dwarf gouramis- need quite a bit of tlc, prone to disease and difficult to rear fry
why not try breeding:
corydoras- should be easy to sell, always popular, non-aggressive, once you have gained experience with the easier species, you could potentially make a bit of money with the more expensive ones
cherry barbs- small egglayers, suitable even for small tanks, so likely to stay popular
bristlenoses- as easy as livebearers, but you can call a halt to these, by separating male and female, popular fish and non-aggressive both towards other fish and their own fry, can breed in community tank
danios or WCMs- won't make your fortune, but won't cost the earth either
whiptails- attractive and unusual-looking fish
peacock gobies- beautiful and very fashionable atm
goodeids- if you have hard alkaline water (not all make good community fish though)
the less common poeciliid livebearers: such as heterandria formosa, girardinus metallicus etc
or if you want a challenge, why not try these: fancy plecs- there is plenty of literature (online and in places like PFK magazine) about breeding things like flash peckoltias and leopard frog plecs, you'll need the space evidently, but if successful, they should sell
khuulie loaches- have been bred in captivity (though not very often), and should sell easily enough
tetras or rasboras- if you have soft, acid water
