Are You Breeding Fry For Pleasure Or For Business?

Should I start breeding fry? Such question comes naturally to most fish hobbyists’ mind when they gain some fish rearing experiences.

Successfully breeding fish is one of the most exciting things about fishkeeping. Unfortunately, especially for novices but even for the experienced, things can go awry with the fry.

Are You Breeding Fry For Keeping or Showing?

It takes experience to breed fish that are healthy, of good stock, with good genes. Selecting a breeding pair takes knowledge of the species. Those who choose poor-quality fish to breed, breed an ill-matched pair, or cross species may end up with fry that are weak, deformed, grow poorly, or look unattractive.

If you are breeding fry to keep, you are not likely to mind how they turn out, as long as they are healthy. However, if you hope to breed show-quality fish, or fish you can sell or exchange with other hobbyists, you will find that you either have to settle for keeping the less acceptable fry as pets, or have them euthanized should you run out of tanks and receptive friends.

As it is cruel to breed any animal only to have it put down merely because it isn’t exhibition or sale material, do think hard about what you are doing before you start breeding fish, especially if you are new to the hobby.

What Is Needed To Breed Show Quality Fish?

Some novice fishkeepers simply plop a male and a female fish of their favorite breed into a tank, wait for the babies and then toss in freeze-dried fish food flakes daily to keep them fed. They are then disappointed when the fry do not grow as large as their parents do and/or are less colorful. Such novices do not realize that the parents, which they obtained from experienced fish breeders, have been fed high-quality, special diets throughout their lives and primed with good environments and supplements to look their best. Without the same effort and quality diet for the fry, they will never grow to their full potential.

You need to put in the care to get the rewards—healthy and gorgeous fish you are proud to show off or sell or trade them.

What’s Your Preference For Breeding Fry To Keep?

Fishkeepers select fry to keep for themselves based on guidelines as diverse as their personal preferences. Here are some common ones:

• Some serious fishkeepers are determined to breed the perfect cross between two or more chosen species, a result that looks fabulous and itself breeds true.
• Others are trying to perfect their chosen breed looking for ways to make it more beautiful, bigger or with hitherto-unknown colors.
• Yet others grow fond of certain individual fish and want to keep their offspring for sentimental reasons!
• Most regular hobbyist, however, simply select those that are healthiest, with no deformities, and from which they think they can get good results by further breeding them.

And who knows, you may eventually want to breed only show quality fry after many trials and errors.

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