What is a good expensive aquarium fish to breed and sell?

Question

Been looking for a fresh water fish that's expensive so i can breed it and sell it. Looking for prices that range from $60-$120

Answer 1

The reason the fish are expensive, is the difficulty to breed it. I have a friend that breeds Angel Fish. He has about $5,000 invested in equipment and livestock, a small operation.
He's been doing this professionally on a part time basis for about 5 years now. Marketing, traveling to shows and shops, plus utilities and upkeep add up to about $5,000 per year as well.
His fish sell for $10-15 each generally, sometimes $20-25 at shows. He has has yet to make a profit great enough to pay himself minimum wage. One thing that is killing him is energy costs. He drives a Kia Spectra wagon. On the highway, that's about 33-34 mpg to travel with the fish. With the price of gas, this makes travel expensive. Electric rates are way up. Heating oil is up and down, but certainly a lot more up than down.
His expenses of doing business go up about 10% per year just from energy costs, even though his tanks remain the same number, he drives an efficient vehicle to the same places as he always has.
This is an expensive business to be in. He's not getting rich. He's retired. This is the main thing he does to keep busy. He'd make more money working at a fast food joint. He's not in it for the money. Most small time breeders aren't. If they are, they soon leave the business.

Answer 2

If you are asking the opinion of people on Yahoo Answers you don't have the know how to breed. Most breeders are degreed professionals. Usually expensive fish are the most difficult to breed. You will also have to invest 10's of thousands of dollars just to get started. You will need many tanks and filters and an air system installed. R.O. filtration system installed as well. The best the home aquarist can do is breed betas, or those fish who readily breed on their own in a tank, and none of those are expensive. However there are pricier breeds of beta, you will have to order a pair and see what you can do with them.

Answer 3

The Zebra plecos(L-046) breed "fairly" easy and can sell for $90-140 US. If you want a challenge, look no further than the Synodontis Granulosus. This fish has been bred only 1 time I know of in aquaria(dont know if its documented yet,but have seen pics of the fry). This catfish sell from $150-300 US. I own 1 and dropped $180 on him. Prolly the best looking catfish in the world(IMO).I was gonna try it myself(breed Syno Multis & Petricola)but I cannot get a supplier to sex them for me(easy to sex,mine is male), and would have to get 4 or so, to make sure I get a female. That would be $600 without any guarantee of breeding. But there inlies a challenge. Have fun.

Answer 4

There is no get-rich-quick solution in fish-keeping. Without experience, investment, and time you could very easily lose money rather than make it.

However that is not to say that you can't make a profit from your fishkeeping.

My advise is to consider tropical fresh water fish as:
...they are in demand all the time
...profitable fish to breed are out there
...you have a better chance of finding suitable breeders.

Raising fish however demands much time and space, and the availability of plenty of fresh water of high quality. If you live south of Queensland you need to carefully consider the cost of heating or provide an insulated room.

You have two options as to the choice of fish to try:
1. You can opt for fish that breed a few of the more expensive young at a time so you can more easily manage them, or

2. You can raise a more prolific fish and try to make more profit out of numbers than individual sales.

In view of the rather perilous state of natural systems around the world due to man's damage to the environment I favour, and encourage, breeding relatively new fish to the aquarium world so I can make a contribution to saving the wilderness by providing a home bred alternative.

There are, for example, relatively easily bred examples of new catfish from South America, which bring high price at the moment, and which need to be bred locally so the demand can be met without them being driven to extinction in their native rivers by over-fishing. Many come from areas that are being spoiled by man clearing the jungle for timber etc. and could be lost to the world as a species if aquarists don't keep them.

Some of these are new corydoras species becoming available all the time, and particularly new plecostomas and related ancistrus species, which are relatively expensive, breedable, and profitable, and with breeding information available on the net.

Other examples include some of the Rift Lake cichlids from Africa.

Answer 5

Most fresh water fish don't sell for anywhere near that amount unless they are very good sized and usually a year or two old.
The ones that do sell for this amount are usually very difficult to breed. Saltwater fish tend to be much more expensive when they are small, however they are very difficult to take care of and breed.

Answer 6

Generally breeding fish in a aquarium is a money losing operation. The expensive fish are expensive as they are hard to breed. Often they are wild aught, or raised in ponds.

Answer 7

Flowerhorns, Cichlids and arrowanas are good deals, but new hybrids that can survive longer and better even in poor water conditions are better. However, these are hard to achieve as you have to keep experimenting with various fishes.

Answer 8

Discus and FLower Horn-Chocolate Gourami

Answer 9

Angelfish.

Answer 10

rare and large cichlids, most large fish that are native to south american rivers, arouanas.