Breeding for Profit.

I wrote an article on Breeding for Profit. It comes up often enough at work that I wrote an article I can point people too. Just thought I'd link it here for you guys too.


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Good article, you do some good topics on your website.

Nice Cory, very true on the guppies.. You see every lfs you go into has a few tanks FULL of them.. That's for a reason..

Intreasting read.

I often find myself thinking about the breeding possibilities when buying a fish... lately I've been trying to back off on that thinking and just enjoy them.

Three weeks into the hobby and I couldn't help myself. I felt I had to breed lol. I couldn't help myself. I've only had one batchnof fry but I'm hopeful. I think it's very exciting seeing a holding mother hold her own and color up nicely

I have a question. So when breeding fish. Is it only for a profit or do people breed them to better the breed so to speak? Some people bred dogs for money and others claimed to better the breed move away from genetic defaults and such. People that bred soley for the money would breed any two dogs of the same breed no matter the quality of the animal. Do people that breed fish look at the quality of stock that they are pulling there genetic information from or will any two fish do? Just a curious question is all.

I breed for profit and purity. I strive to get really good genetic stock from 2 sources on all of my breeders, if not more sources if they can be found. I don't breed fugly defective fish.

If you are breeding for profit you are breeding for the wrong reason. It should be about conservation and the hobby. NOT $$$$$$$$$$$

Well.. if I compare to a reputable dog breeder that I know who makes some nice change with those annoying little wrinkle dogs. It is all about breeding to get the perfect defect free puppy from champion stock. The puppies are worth a lot more if the parents win dog shows which gets really fierce between competing breeders. A perfect Sharpe dog has a black tongue... he has seen people use a black marker to make their dog look perfect for a win... some freaky people out there.

Nothing wrong with making some $ for your efforts and help support your hobby. Not to mention helping fellow waboxers get some of your cool fish.

KMX wrote:If you are breeding for profit you are breeding for the wrong reason. It should be about conservation and the hobby. NOT $$$$$$$$$$$

Same could be said for anything. See how quality your house would be, if someone built it for free.

Likely you wouldn't have a house.

Same goes for fish, people start breeding because they love fish. They then try to make a profit so they can preserve more species of fish.

Yeah I've seen some crazy stuff in the world dogs. But it just became too much in the competitive mode. I mean damn man it's a freaking dog let him be a dog. Left that wrold met some great people though. I was just curious if breeding the two
types of animals were similar. I was trying to relate it back to something I understood.

I used to breed for fun then supplementthe hobby when I turned it into profit I loss interest.
Keeping a few to breed for challenge but loosing interest due to photography picking up.

I often breed fish for the challenge..... I like to try and breed the more difficult species just to see if I can..... I never make any money, Im lucky to have broke even any month.

Great article Cory. Dang it... my scheme to make my millions breeding guppies has been exposed! It is cool to see something written from an "insider" view. Seems I keep coming back to a few favorites, and depending on the LFS environment will keep a tank or two of "trade fodder" to support my habit ( heh). Killies and dwarf cichlids , in my experience are the best for that. For me they are interesting enough to keep for multiple generations, and not too labor intensive most of the time. Guppies are great..( I have a tank full too) but growing out those darn tails on the males... If you have a decent pair of apistos and good baby brine shrimp pipette delivery skillz you can go a long way. I would expect the same is true for Rift lake fish; although I have no idea what the nb fry eat.
Oooh, there is a whole other topic about letting a hobby turn into something-for-profit.
Wolfkeeper has an interesting point. For my part, I try and find the best phenotype (looks) and genotype (genetics) that is rationally available for my budget, and see what happens. I enjoy coaxing the fish I am keeping to breed, because what it says is that they are healthy and comfortable enough shift back to what they do in the wild... sigh.. or maybe they are just so stressed that they are driven to spawn before they die as a last ditch effort to save themselves and their species.