Breeding to make money tank (not profit)

[FrozenFins]

Knowing that breeding fish won't create a profit, I wanna create a breeding to make money tank.

Here is what I'm thinking, let me know what you guys think:

10 Gallon heavily planted with floating plants, guppy grass, moss

Cherry Shrimp

Fancy Guppies

Will the guppies eat the baby shrimp even with the heavily planted setup?

[Lemon]

same thing 

google:

"a financial gain, especially the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something."

 

[gardenman]

Breeding to help offset the cost of the hobby is probably a good goal. To make a profit you have to make more than you spend and on a hobbyist scale that's not so easy. To make enough to lower the costs of the hobby is easier however as anything you bring in lowers your costs. To set up a ten gallon tank in the fashion you suggest from scratch, with quality materials, fish and supplies, you're probably looking at somewhere between $100-$200. Say your monthly operating expenses are $20 (electricity, water, food, time, etc.) To make a profit from a single ten gallon tank would be challenging as there's only so much stock you could raise there. But to simply help offset your costs is easy. Whatever you sell each month, plants, fish, snails, shrimp, reduces your costs. If you're able to clear $15 a month you've reduced your costs for the hobby from $20 a month to $5 a month. That's not bad. 

I've bought plants online from hobbyists and when I calculate out their shipping costs (mailing costs, box, plastic bag/container, paper towels, shipping label , etc.) and the time it takes to pack them and take them to the post office, and then the selling sites' fees, they might be making a dime to a quarter per plant. And that's not including their tank costs, lighting costs, etc. They'll never get rich at that rate, but anything they do make helps offset their hobby costs.

Back to your original question. Will the guppies eat the baby shrimp? If the baby shrimp will fit in their mouth, they'll eat them. In a ten gallon tank there's not a lot of room to hide. There will be a lot of predation. Some will survive though.

[CanadaAmanda]

Really it depends on what folks in your area want to buy I think in terms of how much you'll make off of it.  Where I live, seems folks will buy salivinia, guppies, mollies, platties, for reasonable prices and shrimp fetch a good price.  However, now that there are half a dozen people in a not-very-big city selling salivnia, will I be able to keep selling it for long... probably not?  I've got myself some frogbit and red root floaters in anticipation of folks wanting to change it up.  I have guppies I'm starting a little breeding project with and have red and blue shrimp but no breeding action yet.  I am currently pulling in $5-10 a week with my salivinia which I'm happy with considering I got it for free with fish I bought and the main tank it grows in is a 2.5 gallon!

Edited January 12, 2021 by CanadaAmanda

[shkote]

If it helps, I have noticed much less predation with Dwarf Guppies and Endlers than regular sized Guppies. If the shrimp are happy and the tank is planted well, they will multiply regardless of predation. 

[Fish Folk]

It works fine for us. Guppy strain + cherry shrimp. But do not sell too much stock. Always keep enough for your colony to keep going. Our LFS can’t get enough plants + cherry shrimp + guppies from us. But we only have one 10-gallon set up for it. 

[FrozenFins]

3 minutes ago, Fish Folk said:

It works fine for us. Guppy strain + cherry shrimp. But do not sell too much stock. Always keep enough for your colony to keep going. Our LFS can’t get enough plants + cherry shrimp + guppies from us. But we only have one 10-gallon set up for it. 

Its more for the experiance then the money, the money was just a bonus. I think it would be cool if the cherry shrimp had babies but its not  the end of the world if they dont. I wanted to make sure that I could keep shrimp before setting up a red crystal shrimp tank that I have been wanting for a while. Because from my understanding the red crystas are from the Cardina genus so they don't take to flunctiations of water parameters as easily as cherrys might, mistake me if I'm wrong.

[Fish Folk]

We’re don’t know much about shrimp, but they are making babies. Most are not high quality cherry shrimp. Our water is soft, so we added crushed coral and shells. The bolbitis hates it... Amazon sword is ok... it’s just kind of a crazy fun little thing...

[FrozenFins]

1 hour ago, Fish Folk said:

We’re don’t know much about shrimp, but they are making babies. Most are not high quality cherry shrimp. Our water is soft, so we added crushed coral and shells. The bolbitis hates it... Amazon sword is ok... it’s just kind of a crazy fun little thing...

looks awesome, thanks for sharing!

[Brandy]

On 1/11/2021 at 3:34 PM, James Black said:

Will the guppies eat the baby shrimp even with the heavily planted setup?

I do this. I have several setups like you are describing. Because I don't keep all guppies together to adulthood (you can, I just don't want to) I have effectively several tanks with age sorted fish, all with shrimp.

My tiniest fry leave shrimplets alone and I have just stem plants and a few rocks for cover. My guppy adults have a massive rockpile, and shrimplets survive, but I only see them after they get bigger than mouth size. My teenaged growouts have moss, floating plants, and mostly bare bottom tanks. The tanks are overstocked and the guppies rarely leave much food for the shrimp. I don't see much in the way of new shrimp there. I need to give them rocks too.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I had really good success with my tub of Blue Hawaiian Moscow guppies from @Bentley Pascoeand Blue Dream Shrimp. Good luck! 

[AlbertLemaster]

On 1/13/2021 at 7:53 AM, Fish Folk said:

We’re don’t know much about shrimp, but they are making babies. Most are not high quality cherry shrimp. Our water is soft, so we added crushed coral and shells. The bolbitis hates it... Amazon sword is ok... it’s just kind of a crazy fun little thing...

 

Spoiler

I would like to see a recent picture of your shrimp. And if you want to make money then there are a lot of ways through which you can make money. You can also take a loan if you are not interested in making money through other ways. I can help you in searching for a loan money app online. If you are interested in taking a loan, let me know. I will pm you those apps.

 

I would like to see recent picture of your shrimp :)

Edited November 18, 2022 by AlbertLemaster

[KaylynnWall]

Guppies and cherry shrimp can definitely make a lively tank. With enough hiding spots in those plants, the baby shrimp should have a good chance at avoiding becoming guppy snacks.
I once set up a similar tank and found that as long as the plants were dense enough, the shrimp population thrived alongside the guppies. It became a beautiful little ecosystem.