Few queries, Hope thats ok....

We have 7 Red Bellied Piranha's between 5 & 7 inches big, all in good health...

We were debating what to do with them if anything... I suggested hoping they breed and selling the fry on... Hubby says sell them all and restock with something thats easier to breed and sell them on..

So, How much do you think the piranha's would sell for and how do we go about selling them and ensuring they go to a good home?

How do you, if there is a way, encourage them to breed.. candles and barry white doesnt work LOL How much would the Fry sell for if they did breed. how many can we expect with each batch?

If we did sell them all, what would be a good alternative to stock and breed in the hope of selling... Hubby suggested bristlenose cats or angel fish.

The tank is 6ft x 2.5 x 2.5, complete with huge filter, 2 Air pumps and a powerhead.

What do you suggest we do......... ?

Hope this is ok to post here, apologies if not

Thanks

Donna

hello Donna and welcome to the forum!

difficult one!
for a number of reasons

they require a large tank so there for only a few people will be in a position to keep them. this reflects on their £ price and to often you see large fish for sale! may find it hard to get the right customer if you know what i mean!

not sure how to stimulate breeding without researching them myself asuming they are egg layers/scatterers then you would need to collect the eggs before they became a meal for the others.

i can get small fish from between £4 and £8 from my local pet shop at around 1 1/2" and 2" and the petshop doesnt seam to shift them very fast!

there are alot of chiclids you could look into breeding for resale. and bn plecs only require smaller multipul tanks to get good results 2 males one female in 24" or 30" tank
this is only my opinion and others may have other thoughts on this!
keep us updated on what you choose
regards robert.

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Hi Donna, Rob is right, I cant tell you about their breeding habits but I do know you will find them very hard to sell on if you do get them to breed, when i visit our fish shop the same piranha are on display week after week.

Angels and bristlenoses are an excellent choice as these will sell all day long, people and fish shops are always after these types of fish but like rob said again you dont need a large tank to breed either of those although if you could get a good pair of angels then they would beable to stay in a tank of that size with their parents to grow on to saleable size.

If you are definately wanting to breed fish then you must think about how easy the young will be to move on.

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Hi Donna

I don't know much about RBP's but there's a guy who advertised on the classifieds here and he sell's really small ones for 2 pounds each.

I wouldn't say there a great fish to breed with the intention of selling.

If I was you I'd go to your LFS and see what fish are selling for the most money, then look online and see which are relatively easy to breed.

If the fry are going to sell for a lot though, then the parents are also going to cost you a lot.

For example, I see somebody who regularly advertises Zebra plecs for sale at 1", and when she does they are all sold within a matter of hours at 100 pounds each,

But then your looking at a long time waiting for them to grow to adult size to attempt to find a breeding pair, or buying adults will cost you a small fortune.

There's so many people breeding Angels and also Bristle noses already. I would say it would be good to avoid getting those purely for the purposes of breeding to sell on.

Get something highly sought after which sells for a good price

easy to care for, easy to sell for goodish money? some ideas off the top of my balding head, pure bred endlers/rare types of bristle nose/tropheus cichlids/good strains of fancy goldfish, are but a few...but the thing is, its not just a case of whacking a few fish in a 6ft tank, hoping theyll breed, then selling em on...youll need specific breeding tanks/ rearing tanks/filters/constant water changes/heaters/air pumps/specialist foods/time n dedication...to be honest, youll be lucky to make a profit... deffo get rid of the red bellies! they've gotta be the most boring fish going! the only time they move is when its feeding time or when there's a conveniant unguarded arm in biting distance...

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Thanks for all your replies...

Pretty much ruled out breeding the Piranha's.. just not how to get rid of them and make sure they go to a good home!

We didnt actually plan on having them in the first place we sort of adopted the 2 tanks.. the big one....the piranhas were in a terrible state, underfed, fungal growths and generally real poorly and the tank its self was disgusting, water hadnt been changed in god knows how long.. the filter was foul and wasnt nearly powerful enough and there was nothing in it other than some sand at the bottom! we offered to help with what little basic knowledge we had but instead they told us to either take the tank else they were gonna flush the fish and get rid of the tank! wasnt going to let that happen...

I am not really looking to make a profit from breeding, enough to cover basic costs would be nice though! doing it more as a hobby/past time... and enjoyment than for money... I know it takes a lot of time and dedication to seriously breed fish... but then so does keeping them... I am disabled and cant work so I have plenty of time to devote to my fishy friends

Spoke to someone at the LFS this morning (Customer not staff) and He siggested going for a huge assortment of guppies, platys and mollys along with easy breed plecs like the bristlenoses cos they are all always in demand and easy to breed but I have visions of the tank being over run by them lol.... His answer to that was to sell them prvately as live feeders... sorry not doing that... each to their own but I just couldnt do it!

His suggestion got me thinking tho... would it be possible to have a large community tank with different easy breed fish in there?

I know there are endless possibilities and Im sorry to keep asking but I have googled and seem to be getting contradicting facts! Hope these questions dont make me look too much of an idiot!

Many thanks again

Donna

It sounds like hard work making the water suitable for the various fish's breeding needs. try malawi!

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