Selling Your Fish
by Bill "Pegasus NZ" of New Zealand
Breeding your fish is one thing, but selling them is a different matter. If you intend
to breed fish to support the cost of your hobby, a good place to start is to find out what
type of fish you are able to sell. This may seem obvious, but many shops just won't buy
certain types of fish, no matter how good they are.
Do some discreet inquiries at your local tropical fish store (LFS) to find out about
the types of fish they buy in. You may not be able to breed the type of fish that they
want, so then you may have to resort to selling in small lots privately.
Some of the Egglayers can produce 300-400 eggs at a time, but if you are fortunate
enough to raise this many you could have a job selling all of them, especially to one
outlet. Many shops will take quality livebearers, even in large numbers, because these are
the "bread and butter lines" for the shop, the ones they sell most of, whereas
if you took say 200 Convicts in to sell to them they would probably say no, or perhaps
might buy a dozen or so. This is because Convicts are not everyone's "cup of
tea" when it comes to fish, as they grow large, and can be quite boisterous. Fish
like Discus on the other hand are always in demand, as are most of the Catfish, and the
Angels.
Quality is what most shops will look for before buying your fish, not quantity. They
are looking for good healthy fish of a uniform size that they can sell quickly and not
have sit in their tanks for too long. Fish that are not mature and not showing their true
colours will sometimes be rejected, so don't take your fish in until they have gained
their full shape and colours. Sometimes the shop may ask for a sample and will expect all
the others to be of the same size and quality.
Once a shop knows you can consistently produce good quality healthy fish, they will
keep you on their books and may even want regular supplies each month or so.
In your own interests, don't try to sell sick or malformed fish. Aim for perfection and
feed your runts to your bigger fish, or cull them out. Fish with obvious defects should be
culled as soon as possible, and this may be hard, but if a strain is to remain pure it has
to be done. It takes many years to become known in the fish breeding circles, but if you
produce good quality fish you will soon gain a good reputation and your stocks will be a
sought-after commodity.
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