Like almost everyone who keeps fish, I have bred certain species before.

Of course it's fun...there's the "miracle of life" fascination, too. But when you think about it...it's very time consuming. It's expensive to raise fry - not to mention the extra hardware you need to do it properly. Then when you do it properly it's such a hassle to find places to get rid of the fry - and equally inconvenient to get the fry to those places.

And unless you have a literal multi-thousand gallon fish farm you are lucky to break even or even make a few dollars when it's all said & done.

So since I'm playing the devil's advocate here...

Why do you (or don't you) bother to breed fish at all?

Discuss amongst yourselves...
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Wow, good topic. I agree that there really is no profit in breeding and raising fish. In a good month, I might make a couple hundred bucks gross but once you subtract food and energy costs to run the tanks, you could probably shave off half of that. Then there's the time factor and I spend a lot of time fartin' around with my fish. I guess I spend more time when I'm raising and breeding them, but it's a little subjective because I would probably be spending time fartin' around with my fish anyway. I think the biggest cost is in the extra equipment one needs in order to be successful in rearing fry.

Why I do it? Foremost, I enjoy it because of the miracle of life, probably the same reason I like to garden too. I know it sounds a little corny but I really think that's the root of the obsession for me. Secondly, because it brings a little of the outdoors that I love so much, indoors for me to enjoy even when it's miserable outside. Again, probably a ramification of the same root cause. I've taken my daughters fishing ever since they were very little, as well as camping trips, nature walks, and wild berry picking, (although I must say, Mary, my wife, wasn't too fond of those excursions, because my girls would do more eating and ruining their clothes than anything else). I figured if we had fun, that was all that mattered. Now that my girls are grown up and out of the house, it's more than a little quieter around here! I have a bit more time to devote to the hobby and so I do.
regards
mike

I do it for the same reasons Mike does...I enjoy it a lot too. Also, I look at it as a way to get quality fish to newcomers of the hobby and help them enjoy it all that much more.

how about the more tank bred the less we have to take from the wild and thus not putting any species in danger for example L046
plus is it not a challenge to help and encourage your fish to breed? in fact you could say its the holy grail for some

So far so good.

Exactly the type of discussion I was hoping for.

Any negative implications anyone can think of?

Negatives to me would be irressponsible home breeders that do not take care to make sure that the fry they are selling are represented for what they actually are. I have no problem with hybrids although I do not keep them personally. I do have a problem with people who sell hybrids while representing them as a pure species.

So far, everyone has hit great points.

I like to see home breedings of wild caught species. I don't really like home breedings of the more common species, like alot of livebearers (guppies, is the main one). I think they're on the road to overbred cats and dogs, but you can't really spay or neuter a fish.

I think to get the full experience out of fishkeeping is to breed--responsibly.

oh yes you can, take them out of your breeding program, if you realy need to put a fish back in to the hobby, please, please make sure that they are 100% right, cos if they aint think euthanasia you know it makes sense, please dont flood the hobby with hybrids or runt fish, come on we should be better than that, should we not ?