Plecos, guppies and shrimp hobbyist

Hello there everyone. My name is Jeff. I have been breeding, raising, selling, and shipping fish going on 15 years now. I am a hobbyist at heart and love keeping and breeding fish. But, there comes a time when fish have to be sold. At one time I had around 35 aquariums in my basement. I have downsized a lot since then and currently have 10 aquariums. I keep and breed bristlenose plecos, neocaridina shrimp, and fancy guppies. I have been lucky to get really good stock from other breeders that has kept my lines of fish going for years.

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Welcome to the forum and Light Fish!

Do you have any tips on selling fish.

Hello :slight_smile: What tips do you have for raising Red Cherry Shrimp? I am new to them and only recently returned to maintaining aquariums , but am crazy about the RCS. I have a couple of berried females and am awaiting the shrimplets. :slight_smile: I have my tank planted with java moss. I have a foam cover for my filter. I hope these two features help the mommas feel safe and give the babies places to hide. I have found that a black substrate and background really help them keep a dark red. As well, they seem to be more relaxed with the black background on two sides of the tank(back and a side). I am using Glas Garten prepared shrimp foods, mineral supplements very sparingly. I change about 10% of the water every week or so. What is your opinion about how many RCS one can have per gallon? I recently found an actual study that indicated 3 per liter resulted in the maximum size and apparently healthy behaviors around grazing,etc.

To be honest I do nothing special for them, and I have thousands of them. However I do keep them with plecos. They seem to have a symbiotic relationship together. I do feed a ton of food and water change 50% twice a week. I probably have over 1,000 in each of my 40 gallon breeders, so in my opinion you can keep thousands of them in a tank as long as you are doing big water changes. I have no plants and barely any substrate just a few pieces of wood. I don’t feed anything special, just flake food and pellets but like I said I feed a lot of food. I add nothing to the water, water changes are done with straight tap water and fritz dechlorinator. Let me know if you have any other questions

Establish yourself as a reputable breeder before you sell anything. When I first started selling 15 years ago, I would give fish away for free, just to establish myself that I bred quality fish. As time went on and more people wanted the fish I bred that’s when I started putting a price on my fish.
Learn how to pack fish perfectly. Learn how much water to air ratio, learn what bags to use for certain fish. Learn how to tie the bags properly. Learn what shipping services to use. Learn what boxes to get and how to pack them. Learn what payment services you will take for customers. All this takes time, and I am even still learning 15 years later. It’s trial and error. Breeding fish is easy, selling fish is hard.

Thank you. That is really helpful. :fu:

Thank you that is really ENCOURAGING and helpful. :slight_smile:

Do you have ant tips on breeding bristlenose plecos? Thank you.

They need a lot of food and a lot of water changes. Its contrary to what most people think, most people think plecos don’t need that much water changes. However for constant successful breeding they need very clean water. They originated from the rivers of the amazon, those rivers get a 100% water change like every 10 minutes. So I recommend at least 50% twice a week water changes on pleco tanks.

Thank you that is really helpful

That’s interesting I thought that water changes could kill fish if done too often I guess plecos are extra hardy, anyways would you be interested and buying some of my fish I have some electric yellow cichlids just wondering Thank you, Micah

Lol no. I don’t keep cichlids. I have thousands of fish already.

Yeah I know I am trying to sell them too

Do you think you could help me get my word out there to get some sells you don’t have to just asking.

I don’t know you or the quality of your fish. Are you a breeder or a hobbyist? How long have you been breeding/selling fish? Do you have 1 tank or 50 tanks? Where is your stock from? Do you ship, if so what are your shipping rates? Do you have a youtube channel or a page to view your fish? Do you sell on aquabid or just local? Are you an established breeder/seller/hobbyist? What type of fish do you sell? What are your prices on your fish?
These are some of the things you need to take into consideration. You can always start at your local fish store and see if they’ll buy your fish. Go to a local fish swap and try to sell there also, rent a vendor table see anyone buys the fish you have. Like I said before, breeding fish is easy, selling them is hard. Plus you are in competition with 100s of other people who are established that have fish stores and businesses that sell quality fish. Good luck

You mention getting good stock from other breeders. What do you think about getting stock from different breeders from time to time to keep your line hardy?

I am sorry I did not want to seem invading the local fish store won’t take my fish I have tried online but nobody wants them I honestly don’t know what to do because I can’t go to a local fish swap or rent a vendor table I am really out of options right now I mean I guess I could try lowering the price of the fish or doing bundles or something like that, what would your advice be. Thank you, Micah

Yes I do that if I need to. Every few years I might refresh my stock with some new shrimp of the same quality if appears that I need to. I also keep 4-5 tanks of the same color. So technically I am constantly refreshing my lines by pulling 15-20 shrimp from one tank and adding them to another. However, I know some breeders that have never refreshed their lines of shrimp in decades and they are still going strong.

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Well I mean I see that you have only been keeping fish for a year or so. To be honest with you it will be extremely hard to sell those fish to anyone. Where did you get your stock from? What makes your stock stand out from professional breeders? Are you selling those fish higher than professional breeders do? If you are just a hobbyist and breeding for fun then just give those fish away for free.