Hey, my name is Levi, and I’m the owner of this website, aquariumbits.com. In this article, I’m going to tell you about my experience with breeding and selling fish, along with some good information on how to do it yourself. If you’re looking for a more in-depth guide on breeding and selling fish, check out my other article. Breeding fish for cash.

The story all started with me buying three guppies from one of my local fish stores—two females and one male. I kept the three guppies in a 5-gallon tank with some plants and no other fish. After about two weeks, I left for vacation, and during my absence of 3-5 days, I checked my tanks upon my return to ensure the fish were alive and well. Satisfied, I resumed my regular schedule.

About 2-3 days after returning from vacation, I noticed Guppy babies. They seemed to be a few days old already, and I hadn’t initially noticed them in the tank because I wasn’t actively looking for baby guppies.

Finally realizing I had baby guppies was a shock to me. I really wanted to raise them up to full size. I quickly removed all adult guppies from the tank and placed the mother in my main tank. The female and the other male were placed in another one of my tanks, while the baby guppies stayed in the 5-gallon tank. I would estimate there were probably about 15 of them. Fast forward a month or so, and I had been feeding the baby guppies frozen baby brine shrimp on a daily basis, along with Hikari Fancy Guppy pellets.

At that point, they had maybe hit about an inch in that month, maybe less—I do not exactly remember. A few days later, the mother of the guppies gave birth again. I was shocked, as she was alone in the tank with no other guppies being with her for at least a month. I figured, well, she probably just got pregnant again right before I moved her away from the male. Putting that aside, I now had baby guppies in two tanks I had to worry about. I kept the female in the tank with the baby guppies because I did not want to have to deal with taking her out of the tank.

Fast forward an additional month, and now I have had the guppies in my 5-gallon tank for 2 months and the guppies in my main tank for about a month. At this point in time, I was thinking to myself, “I have so many guppies, and I know when they get full size they’re gonna have more too.” I had no idea what I would do with so many guppies. I was not going to deal with the hassle of trying to sell them online, so what seemed to make the most sense was to bring them into a local store.

I had called two local stores near my house about taking the guppies, but got declined twice. A few days later, the mother guppy gave birth AGAIN. At the time, I had no idea how this could have happened. No male old enough had been in a tank with her in like 2 months; how could she give birth again? Now, I had way too many guppies and had to figure out how to get rid of some without euthanizing them. So, I called another local store I had not tried calling yet and asked them if they were willing to buy some guppies from me for very cheap, and they said they could! I got very excited; not only could I get rid of some of my guppies, but I could also get a little bit of money out of it.

The plan was to bring the fish in the week after I had called. My local store said they wanted the guppies in quantities of 20 and to bring in ones that were about 2 months old. So, I made sure I had about 20 good-looking 2-month-old guppies. Then, on the day I was supposed to bring them in, I took them out of the tank and put them in fish-transferring bags, and started heading to the store.

Once I got there, I went over to where the manager was and told them I had guppies for them (informing them that I was the one who had called previously). They looked at them, said they were good, gave me 20 bucks in cash, and we were done. It was such an easy way to sell fish; I thought to myself, “I have to do this again.” So, I asked the manager before I left if I could bring them in again when I had more at that age. The manager said I could, just make sure not to have too many of the same color. I left the store with 20 dollars in my pocket and a lot less fish to worry about.

Whether you stumbled upon fish breeding unexpectedly or embarked on it with purpose, there are individuals out there willing to invest in the fish you’ve devoted both money and time to raise.

If you have any questions about Breeding and selling or other questions about fishkeeping let me know in the comments below.