hi there people...
i have a tank that im breeding convicts in....and ive been doing so for ages now...
and i just realised i have no idea what im gonna do with them once they grow out of the community tank and start killing everything in there....
i figure fish stores will take em....but i was wondering can you actually make any money selling fish that youve bred, would fish shops pay any money for it....or would that only apply for fish like discus and stuff....

thanks chaps

~jack~

Hi Jack,

Unfortunately, (at least in my area) there is no shortage of Convict Cichlids. In fact, none of the stores around me will take them for any thing but feeders. However, you may be able to find a store in your area that will take them in trade for some store credit.

Most "mega-pet" corporate pet stores actually have written policy about not buying from local breeders as they have exclusive deals set up with certain fishfarms/wholesalers... However many "mom and pop" locally owned stores will still take fish bred by hobyists (usually for store credit, sometimes for cash)

For the most part, unless you have a really big operation or an extrememly rare/hard to breed/ high demand species, the best you can hope for is to "break even" on the hoby (but don't count on that)...

thanks i was just curious....
fair enough i know one "mom and pop" owned buisness i may try them
although at the moment iys not a problem so i wont worry to much

thanks

You wont make a dime off of convicts...and I just learned that today. :tdown:

You can break even if you do some research, maybe even come out a few bucks ahead. You won’t do it with cons. I bred cons once, just because I got a pair for a couple of bucks. They tied up a 29 that I could have used to grow out angels. Got $20 for the cons, including the pair. That tank with angels could have made me around $90.

After 2 years of breeding angels I pretty much paid back my original investment in gear, and was able to upgrade some 20’s to 29’s. It costs me around $80 per month to run 15 tanks, I have to sell around 50 angels monthly to break even. Some months I may sell a couple hundred, others none, so I might make a few extra bucks. I probably do 7 or 8 hours weekly on tank maintenance & such, if I ditched all the tanks & worked my regular job that extra time I would be ahead money wise. Don’t quit your day job!