Thanks, I wish I could but I can't fit another tank in my dorm room haha. I'm just doing daily water changes and hoping the crowding doesn't effect their growth later on. Also, In your experience, at what age do the males start appearing for Macmasteri? I cant seem to find much on the internet about connections between growth and age in Macmasteri specifically.
Thanks, I'll take the PVC pipe into consideration. I think I will start selling them once I can recognize some of the males.
Thanks guys. Mac, can you elaborate on what you mean by "just selling them off no matter what"? Taking your guys' information into consideration, I'll hold off on selling for a bit longer. I will add PVC soon as well. If the PVC doesn't suffice, I'll sell their parents and use their tank as another grow out. In your experience, how hard is it to sell locally? And do you recommend selling online instead? Also, I live in Charlotte, NC so I feel It'll be a bit easier to find local buyers here than some other places.
I meant the attitude some people show that start to sell asap, which ends in things like Mike implied when buyers asked their money back because they were sold much too young fish etc. Things like that can easily end in a bad reputation, that's when people start to get stuck with the fish.
Depending on the species you have to offer. I was lucky having a few species back then that sold easily. But there were some I wouldn't have been able to get rid of without a cooperation with a specialty store (only east african rift lakes). With standards like A. borellii or A. macmasteri the local market can be saturated fast.
I'm out at that point. Bred and sold fish before the advent of the internet. People had to know you were in business back then and once they knew you had business.
Fyi: A lot of people will sell fishes as young unsexed. They don't sell for as much but you can sell them sooner and perhaps shipping is easier as the fishes are smaller. So there is that trade off...
For the seller. Most buyers are rather turned off by that in my experience. Usually, especially with rather common species, people don't have the patience to get a group of juveniles and grow them out and sort them later. A. macmasteri is such a species in my experience. They are ok to learn the basics in breeding that group of fish, after 1-2 batches of fry I would either sell the parents off too or put them in a display tank where fry for sure won't make it. I just looked for my area on Ebay and other platforms... If I look for Apistos it's mostly A. macmasteri, A. borellii and A. cacatuoides (all only in domestic strains) that are offered, then followed by A. agassizii and the interesting stuff is one in 20 or more classified ads.
Guess I'm unusual; i prefer to buy 6 or so young ones (1/4 inch); and let them grow out. Sort of like chocolate in a box. I then give the extra away; if I can find someone local else i just give them to the lfs. I don't bother with store credit since i'm not in love with the store; but if they have something i need like a bottle of prime or whatever i take that.
Not unusual, you're obviously past the mindset of a community tank owner or the loads of people that are hoping "breeding for profit" works out or bring up unplanned fry. Some "birth control" for the common species would be quite a good idea for the hobby as a whole in my opinion.
Alternatively point 1 can be switched with keeping only a male.
To be honest my concern with people who breed for 'profit'; and there are quite a few is that they don't do anything to prevent excessive inbreeding which result in unhealthy fishes. I wish they would at least make the effort to mix up the genetics every couple of generations by introducing new blood.
