Fry selling

[Tiger]

Hello all ....

This is not meant to flame anybody

But what do people think is a suitable or safe size to sell their fry ?

Is it just me or does the size of fry for sale seem to be getting smaller ?

I think 1.5 cm would be way too small IMO

I would find it hard to sell any of my fry at that size .........hard to part with i mean

Will it get to a stage of buying eggs...or heads an tails .?

What do you people reckon ?

Cheers Kevin

[MikeWs Fish]

i reckon it depends on how much tank space you have and what type of fish u have and whether they can handle it or not

[Ducksta]

I have to agree tiger. It is hard to gauge the quality of fry at 1.5cm IMO. Even viewing the parents isn't always enough. I struggle to come to grips with selling even my N. multifasciatus fry at 2cm most of the time, so end up keeping way too many for myself

Although I did just sell half a dozen demasoni fry at 2cm, simply because I didnt want to put new fry with them at their size.

[Serial-Cichlid]

It would depend on the species.

My LFS won't take any fish under 4cm except for electric yellows possibly 2-3cm.

However I usually start culling most fish at 2-2.5cm standard length and find them safe enough to sell at that stage if people want them.

1.5cm is a bit small IMO.

Cheers

Paul

[MikeWs Fish]

I reckon 1.5 cm and up is OK. I sold some fry today and just before i did i caught one of them shaking and displaying to another one of them. They all haven been kept in water with lots of oxygen. and have done well swimming against the current of the filter. I have had no losses.

Also, little fish dont create much waste, so if they are good quality fry, in theory they should do better in small amounts of water and oxygen than bigger fish in small amounts of water and oxygen ie in a bag.

JMO

[Lee Miller]

Hi all,

We are all entitled to personal beliefs and I believe that, as a general rule, 3cm is an absolute minimum for Malawi cichlids, some Tangs (Altos for example) would probably be ok to go at 2cm.

I believe that it can be difficult to pick-up deformities in fish under 3cm and I don't want to be accused of selling crook fish. It is also easier to sex larger fish, and this is often a criteria for buyers.

Larger fish are hardier and handle transportation and relocation better than smaller fry so losses are reduced and therefore buyers are happier.

Then there's the issue of price. Larger fish should always command better prices than smaller fry.

Just my opinion.

Cheers,

Lee.

[Gav]

[rant]

well may as well add my not so humble opinion.

I think it is absolutely disgusting the people are trying to flog 1.5cm malawi fry. its for one reason.... $$ . seems like they are simply trying to keep as many tanks as possible for breeding adults, and no room for their fry. thus they have to sell them too small for what is safe for malawis, and just try and make their dough. anyone with any sort of reputation in breeding has at least as many tanks for fry as their breeders, some have even more. long term these are the names that everyone knows and trusts. they are the ones who produce quality fish time after time after time, and also the ones who can add a premium for that quality. there is a few of members here that I know won't let their fry go under 4cm for any money. they just want to maintain quality. personally I have sold at 3cm in a pinch, but prefer to keep my stuff until it is at least 4cm.

why not just do it properly, have enough tanks for fry and rear them to a true saleable size. it will earn you a lot more respect in the long run. sure it costs more, but so what? fish health is much more important than money.

good to see its not only me that thinks its a bit dodgy.

[/rant]

[MikeWs Fish]

Yer........ well yea i guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Personally, i try not to 'mother' them too much and keep mind that in the wild and in most aqauriums they get released at 1cm and most of those fry are fish food anyways..

I have got facilities to grow them to 3-4cm but IMO they are fine at around 1.5cm well, they are really closer to 2cm.

I guess that if you think someones setup is dodgy, or their fry are dodgy, or you'd just prefer not to see them selling fish probably the best thing to do is NOT TO BUY THEM from that person

If the fry are good quality, they should be fine.

[Rol&Jas]

I totally agree with Lee and Gav. Although, there is no general rule at what size can you sell your fishes (it is really up to you), but they should be no smaller than 3cm. The small fishes are lot more sensitive and there is a high possibility that the unfortunate buyer will lose a high percentage of them if not all. It is very hard to tell if a 1.5 - 2.5 cm fish is normal and does not have any deformities. Same goes for colouration.

I personally would warn buyers not to buy fishes smaller, than 3cm unless they like to waste their money. Tanganyikan egglayer fry are even more sensitive than their Malawi counterparts. Good example are calvus and comprecisseps they are even more sensitive than the Julidochromis or Neolamprologus. I think for these fishes the absolute minimum size should be 3-3.5 cm. This way the new owners would have a much higher survival rate.

Unfortunate for the buyers some cichlids are in high demand and there are not a lot of them around and the only sale size that the buyers will find is between 2 and 2.5cm. The desperate buyer will buy the fish whether they like it or not. The problem with that is that not many of their fishes will reach breeding size.

Roland

[Josh]

I dont sell many fry. but the ones I sold have been around 3cm some might be larger some might smaller. I guess if theres a demand for them. I dont think i would buy any smaller the 2.5-3cm. You just cant tell if anything is wrong when they are smaller then that.

But if there was something that I had to have and it was a once in a life time chance, I would buy some.

Josh

[YeW]

Depends on the fish . 1.5cm multis are quite big (comparatively).

I think 20-40 mm is normal.

HTH -

[r.d.m]

it seems from the posts that everybody thinks 1.5cm is too small- but still does it anyway! i think that the main issue here is tank space, if youve got a tank full of fry and then you find another female is holding you have to make space, and call me soft but i wont destroy baby fish for some high ethical reason,sure you take a bit of a risk buying small fish,but at the prices asked on this forum i think the risk is worth it, at least you know the fish have come from the breeder to you , not through several sets of hands, and in most cases you can see the parents anyway

im sure most of us dont have room for a lot of tanks, and im sure that the dedicated individuals selling fish to their friends on the forum, often rare and always cheap dont need people saying there too small, you have the choice to not buy , or call back a couple of weeks later, as for buying eggs this is common practice with koi and know a guy who received eggs (the parents were not for sale but were valued in excess of $500,000 us)because they were cheap and hed seen the parents. in a nutshell im sure that if someone posted royal panaque fry 1cm $20 each everbodys high moral ground would crumble and people would be killed in the rush, and does a baby convict think the plecos life is worth more than his?

[oracle]

I personally will not sell any fry less than 3cm long as they are extremely fragile at that stage. I really do not understand why anyone would try to sell Malawi fry less than 3cm long other than to make a quick buck as they don't really take that long to grow up. The onus should really be on the seller here, rather than the buyer as obviously the seller is simply trying to offload fry as quick as possible. IMO it's a really disgusting practice.

[Burek]

hmmm

what i think is for malawis i reckon it should be sold at about 3cm+

as for some tangs like multis, 1.5cm is pretty big because they dont grow that big.

fish at 1.5cm for malawis have a high chance of Death, if they survive they will probally die when you put them in the water becasue they get stressed from new water, but its not always the case.

[Luke]

I have never sold any fish under 4 cm as I like to grow them up a bit and cull out any poor quality fish , but as Yew said there are fish like multi's etc that are very small fish to start with

I think if you sell them too small then there is the risk of the buyer growing them up and breeding from them even if there is some deformed ones in that batch , then the quality of that species in the market place could decline very quickly

Just my 2 cents worth

Luke

[phillip]

yea like luke i don't sell until they are at least 4cm

[Auscanuckafishy]

Personally I think 1.5cm is ridiculously small. Most juvies I sell are a bare minimum of 3cm some making it up to 5-6cm if I want to select for a particular line. I only really do Malawi at the moment, but my tangs were 3cm before sale also. Obviously the end size of the fish plays a part here, .

Mark.