# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Livebearers >  Easy Breeding For Starters

## Slash

I may not be an experienced breeder but I would say guppies and other livebearers(mollies, swordtails etc) are the easiest tropical fish to breed.

Easy as they are but they seem non-profitable as it's always difficult to find buyers. Thus "no buyers = no profits".

Will hope all the great breeders here to share their vast knowledge on which type of fish are easy to breed and yet in demand to sell for making some profits to reinvest on our aquarium journey.

What are your views? Please feel free to comment.

P.S.
Hopefully this thread will fill up with replies for fish owners like me who want to learn more about breeding.

Cheers!

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## Slash

No comments? Anyone?

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## hmpkbetta

to me betta are easy to. shrimp and guppies

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## bossteck

If it is easy, why would someone pay good money for it?

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## hmpkbetta

it is easy if you success in anything you are doing, it will not be easy if you fail, so keep on trying and do some research. someone pay good money for it maybe to get better result or good generation on what they are trying to breed. if that what you mean. :Grin: by the way slash you can try breed on shrimp :Grin: .if you want to earn money in breeding maybe you need to follow fashion, not stick to one kind of fish or shrimp, you need to know what people playing today, sometime they change mood like me, shrimp then into betta. maybe in future pupil breed other thing :Laughing:

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## Slash

> If it is easy, why would someone pay good money for it?


Agree on that.

Just that the main concern is that hundreds of offspring like guppies that isn't in demand compared to other fish. Or maybe I'm wrong?  :Opps:

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## Slash

> it is easy if you success in anything you are doing, it will not be easy if you fail, so keep on trying and do some research. someone pay good money for it maybe to get better result or good generation on what they are trying to breed. if that what you mean.by the way slash you can try breed on shrimp.if you want to earn money in breeding maybe you need to follow fashion, not stick to one kind of fish or shrimp, you need to know what people playing today, sometime they change mood like me, shrimp then into betta. maybe in future pupil breed other thing


Thanks for sharing the information with me bro.

Maybe I should give shrimp breeding a try.  :Smile:

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## stormhawk

If you're into breeding to make money, that is difficult to do, unless you're able to churn out loads of fish/shrimp weekly for sale. Too many issues to think about, like the cost of feeding, the quality of tap water, temperature and even the danger of diseases to even make good money for a home breeder. 

Problem can arise too when the market is saturated with one kind of fish or shrimp that you are breeding. This is evident when too many people are breeding the same thing, and eventually the market is flooded with the offspring. 

IMO, do breeding only if you are into it for fun, and not for the money. Too much things to think about, that it will only give you stress if the resulting fry are unable to sell off due to low demand. 

If you really want to breed something easy, try betta or guppy, in particular Endlers. Or you can go with breeding Cherry Shrimps since those guys can be tough if you provide the minimum conditions. There's always a market for these fish and shrimp, and bettas.. if too many just sell away as feeder fish to your LFS. I've seen countless young bettas culled for sale as feeders at many LFS.

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## hmpkbetta

that it true stormhawk. :Grin:

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## Slash

> If you're into breeding to make money, that is difficult to do, unless you're able to churn out loads of fish/shrimp weekly for sale. Too many issues to think about, like the cost of feeding, the quality of tap water, temperature and even the danger of diseases to even make good money for a home breeder. 
> 
> Problem can arise too when the market is saturated with one kind of fish or shrimp that you are breeding. This is evident when too many people are breeding the same thing, and eventually the market is flooded with the offspring. 
> 
> IMO, do breeding only if you are into it for fun, and not for the money. Too much things to think about, that it will only give you stress if the resulting fry are unable to sell off due to low demand. 
> 
> If you really want to breed something easy, try betta or guppy, in particular Endlers. Or you can go with breeding Cherry Shrimps since those guys can be tough if you provide the minimum conditions. There's always a market for these fish and shrimp, and bettas.. if too many just sell away as feeder fish to your LFS. I've seen countless young bettas culled for sale as feeders at many LFS.


Thanks for the enlightenment bro..

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## stormhawk

You're welcome. If you are aware of the risks, and still wish to go ahead on this, perhaps breeding quality discus might be worthwhile as an "investment", since it's not too expensive to house them, and the pair might be expensive at first, but if they successfully spawn then all of the work is worthwhile.

Profitability wise, I guess breeding Cherry Shrimps or CRS might be better, since those tiny critters are still sellable. They breed fast, especially Cherries, and you can easily be overrun with babies. But with the high reproduction rate if you get things right, you can afford to sell them in big batches at discounted rates to help in finding buyers.

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## eiko85

Breeding is easy, But looking after is a hard task. :Exasperated:

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## TyroneGenade

CPDs: easy to spawn but small broods. Same for Boraras and pencil fish. The fry are also small which requires some skill to raise the fry.

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## Slash

> You're welcome. If you are aware of the risks, and still wish to go ahead on this, perhaps breeding quality discus might be worthwhile as an "investment", since it's not too expensive to house them, and the pair might be expensive at first, but if they successfully spawn then all of the work is worthwhile.
> 
> Profitability wise, I guess breeding Cherry Shrimps or CRS might be better, since those tiny critters are still sellable. They breed fast, especially Cherries, and you can easily be overrun with babies. But with the high reproduction rate if you get things right, you can afford to sell them in big batches at discounted rates to help in finding buyers.


Bro.. Your advices are always like gold. It's great to pick your brain when it comes to fishkeeping.

I'm doing some research about shrimps currently but I doubt I will have them soon as my fish might just eat them up. 

Maybe I could keep them with my breeding guppies. But the guppies might eat the shrimplets. Haha.. Any solutions?

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## Slash

> Breeding is easy, But looking after is a hard task.



I agree.. But seems like even breeding is a difficult task for me..  :Grin: 

My advice: Fish owners who are always busy, forget about breeding fish.




> CPDs: easy to spawn but small broods. Same for Boraras and pencil fish. The fry are also small which requires some skill to raise the fry.


Bro, what's CPDs?

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## hmpkbetta

i would recommend magic fish :Grin:  sell in a popular book store, any body saw this before?

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## stormhawk

> Bro, what's CPDs?


Hi Slash, CPD is short for Celestial Pearl Danio, or what people usually call Galaxy "Rasbora". It's a tiny fish, but not for people who cannot provide them with some form of live food. They got tiny mouths. Easy to breed but with tiny fry, it is a massive pain to raise them from fry stage to adult without some skill.

hmpk, the "magic fish" kit are killifish eggs. They are usually Notho eggs and originate from either China or Thailand, depending on which company is selling them. You do not know which species you get, since the name nor population code is stated on the outer packaging. You have no idea whether the eggs are viable or not, because the storage of killifish eggs is just as important in ensuring their viability. PLUS, the range of species available are mostly Nothos, which are subsceptible to velvet without some proper care. There is no "guarantee" on hatch rates, and you might not even get a single fry from those "magic fish" boxes.  :Opps: 

Though if you got a single fry... that's as good as having NO fry.  :Laughing:

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## hmpkbetta

:Laughing: hahaha i think the price is 25.90 one box.

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## Slash

> Hi Slash, CPD is short for Celestial Pearl Danio, or what people usually call Galaxy "Rasbora". It's a tiny fish, but not for people who cannot provide them with some form of live food. They got tiny mouths. Easy to breed but with tiny fry, it is a massive pain to raise them from fry stage to adult without some skill.


Yup, totally agree..

This type of fish is discovered in 2006, not long ago.. There are actually pretty nice-looking.

Shall add them into my breeding wishlist.  :Smile:

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## Slash

> hahaha i think the price is 25.90 one box.


Bro, I think you might as well save that money and get yourself some nice fish.

Of course unless you want a taste of the thrill of hatching these eggs but to feel disappointed to see none hatch..  :Confused:

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## enobd2dab

i try to breed just for the fun of it. but thinking of it, maybe i should try breeding for money now. but not really good at keeping the fries alive. really tough! so delicate.

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## seaquence

hello  :Very Happy: 
was just wondering, my guppys or rather guppy just recently gave birth, how long do i have her the breeding net before i put her in the main tank? oh and how do i tell whether a guppy is gonna give birth? cos i have lots of females with really dark gravid spots. the only reason i caught the guppy as mentioned above was because i happened to see fry popping out her butt.  :Smile:  hahah

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## cyruslaguna

> hello 
> was just wondering, my guppys or rather guppy just recently gave birth, how long do i have her the breeding net before i put her in the main tank? oh and how do i tell whether a guppy is gonna give birth? cos i have lots of females with really dark gravid spots. the only reason i caught the guppy as mentioned above was because i happened to see fry popping out her butt.  hahah


watch the tummy; when the gravid spot is darker means it's going to drop soon; also the mummy will eat less and move around less; prepare a breeding trap when you see this.

Keep the fries in the breeding trap till they're about 1 month old before releasing into main tank, but do some judgement; if they're still quite small, better to have another tank for adults and you can keep the juveniles in the main tank while newborns in the breeding trap.

Hope that helps  :Smile: 

You can see my set up here:

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## seaquence

woah i can literally see the fry's eyes in mummy guppy in one of your pics! read it somewhere but never actually believed it until today! 
okay, awesome so all i have to do really is to put females with really dark gravid spots into breeder nets and wait! oh i also read somewhere that you cant put a female in for too long cos its bad for her, is it true? if so then how long do i put her in the net for?

thanks for the info btw! :Smile:

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## leebingate

I agree.. But seems like even breeding is a difficult task for me..  :Grin: 

My advice: Fish owners who are always busy, forget about breeding fish.

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## cyruslaguna

you just need to be patient  :Smile: 

use sponge filters connected to airpump in bare tanks for your fries; it's the best setup you can have. I learnt my lesson the hard way by changing water daily in unfiltered ice cream tubs; in the end, the whole lot of 20 fries died off in masses.

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