Just really curious and tbh a bit
People think it'd be so "cool" to breed them, but it's so much more complicated than that!!! It's not just about having a lovely male that is so gorgeous it HAS to be bred, and having a spare tank (gee, that'll go far with all those fry that need separating...
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Why can't people just enjoy keeping a fish as a pet? Go and breed mollies
Its a challenge, gives something to do besides watching tv and playing on the computer
It makes me gain extra money if lucky, depends on what was bred and how they look mostly, also gets me to communicate with others local meetings, Auctions etc......
I also get to control the breed and ontop of that I get the best fry I get to pick for myself, means Lady of 8 or more I keep not sell, try and find someone selling a lady of 8 and of good quality goes for 1k USD if a good strain and young. I also get the chance of owning a OHM again it depends on strain that is being bred. Other than that its a hobby, its done to teach my youngers girls respect for others and animals and for my pleasure. My wife breeds dogs I breed fish meh its a hobby.
You state breed mollies or something, well why not go the extra mile and do discus way more money in it or setup a saltwater project or buy 2 dogs or 2 cats and breed them? Whats the difference between betta fish and a discus fish being bred? No difference no special care needed, its all about keeping water with fish and feeding the fry, so bettas need to be seperated at a certain point, discus do as well when they get to a certain age inch per gallon rule applies big tanks are needed for them especially if you end up with a big batch as most breed them in a 20-30 gallon tank and we know you can't house them in that tank for 3-6 months.
For me its always been about breeding them, this year was going to do discus but opted out of that the money invested in discus is well ALOT,
(Maybe the depression is getting to everyone find a quick way to make money, unfortunitly its only the ones with experience that will make the money, they already been through it and know the ups and downs)
Where I am from there isn't alot of people who breed bettas, especially PK, Halfmoons, theya re considered rare fish and sell when available for 20-60 ea(not including your imported ones), not only that with technoligy and the internet sales in the last 3-5 years have picked up for selling stuff like fish through shipping. Half my supplies I don't even buy at my LFS because why would I pay 2-3 times the amount when I can buy online at the fraction of the cost? I think within the next 3-5 years you will see a major change in the hobby, I think you will see only the breeders survive and very few LFS actually stay open and not talking your local PetSmart etc, talking fish only stores, one tried to open near me and looks like it won't last another month. I have noticed at the LFS in my area alot of prices are jumping up on fish, the normal cardinal tetris use to be $1 ea now its $3 ea, I think this is showing hard times for them already, tank prices have even went up in price use to be 100 for a 120 where I am now its more than triple in price in the last 2 years Besides if you look at it, isn't it better to buy a betta from a breeder? I support highly dealing with transhippers and dealing with breeders they have way more information on your fish than a lfs would. They know the Gene pool and a lfs don't, or they don't give that out.
Your post is kinda the same thing why do people post rants about bettas being in a 1 gal tank or less and why do people post min should be 5 gal,the way they are kept at your local walmart so be the fool buy it make them money they will stock them back up again next shipment(This is why I would always recommend someone to buy from a breeder because they spend so much on setups for there fry the ones that actually do are your real breeders), yet I see alot here that have sick fish someone that is already attached to something they own and yet I see not many posts on something like that to help the person out on the disease, but yet stuff like this gets posted and a ton of replies compared to the sick ones!? Why not reply and redirect them to the sick area there is no excuse to not reply to them weather you know what it is or not, even a reply to go to the sick area in the forum?. Reading Kekmets reply I agree! This area seems the worst for rants and raves, really there are more speimens than just Splendens .............
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