The best way to make money with aquarium fish is to breed and sell them. You may be able to sell some to friends and family, but this market is by nature limited.
The best bet may be to see if you can sell them back to the place where you bought them. If locations are close, the original seller might be glad for the opportunity to buy fish without having to pay freight expenses.
It may be best to start slowly and learn all about how to keep fish successfully, before rushing out and spending lots of money.
Once you have your first tank of fish up and running, then you can consider branching out into breeding. This may not be as difficult as it sounds.
If you have about ten fish together in a tank there are sure to be some males and some females and breeding will occur naturally if the fish are healthy.
One way to stimulate spawning is to change 20 percent of the water every day. The new water must be de-chlorinated and the same temperature as the water taken out, otherwise stress will be the result.
Mollies are one of the easiest fish to breed and any male can mate with any female even though the size and shape might be different.
Their main requirement is plenty of water, as they don’t do well in small aquariums. Eight adult Mollies can be housed in an aquarium of about 40 gallons.
Mollies bear live fish rather than eggs like most other females do. They like their water temperature to be about 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and you’ll need to add one tablespoon of aquarium salt for every five gallons of water.
To encourage breeding, the females need to be fed on freeze-dried bloodworms, dry flakes, and a few live or frozen brine shrimp each day.
Three live Black Worms each per day will also be necessary. Make sure there are only a few males and plenty of females in the water.
Being chased by other fish is stressful and not conducive to pregnancy. To stop the baby fish being eaten by others, the Molly can be placed gently into another aquarium just before she gives birth you’ll notice the size increasing or buy a special contraption called a net breeder to keep the babies safe until they are older.
The fry (baby fish) must be fed three times a day with just a little finely powdered fish flakes. When they are about an inch long, which will take from one to four months, they can be released from their protective net.
To breed Pink Convicts you need to get 8 or 10 little ones and raise them up together. When they are mature, they will pair off and build a nest in the gravel or a cave under a rock.
There the female will lay eggs and both will guard them until they hatch in three or four days. The babies are hardy and easy to raise, but convicts, in general, are much more aggressive than Mollies.
Its the same for Angels. You need to get several young ones, raise them together, and let them pair off naturally. If you buy a mature pair, their bond may be lost when they are moved to a new home.
You’ll know who has paired off with whom when you see two workings together to chase the others out of their territory. It’s the greatest fun and quite amazing to watch nature at work.
