Lake Malawi Species • Most popular malawi haps/peacock?

[johnchor]

hi folks,

i am doing a survey on the most popular Malawi haps/peacocks?

which of those above will fetch a good selling price?

please feel free to vote and add any species i have left out.

thanks and have a nice day

[Thatfishkid7]

Fryeri

[sandandrocks]

You have 2 different questions here.

1. Most popular
2. Best investment

For most popular i would say the Blue Dolphin because i see a lot of them. For best investment i would say the Hap Mara Rocks as i don't see many of them, but they look awesome and i would pay more for one of them than the others.

[Sidius]

I think the answers you get are going to be specific to each persons area.. The LFS around me all seem to have Venustus so most people in my area end up with one in their Cichlid tank. In regards to what would sell for the most? Again, I think it depends on whats available in your area... Someone would be willing to pay more for something that they never seem to have available to them.

[johnchor]

Hello folks,

Thanks for voting and valuebale inputs
i am actaully looking to do a small bussiness for selling good quality adult malawis and victorians

For the First phrase planning
i am looking at my local breeders lists for Malawis now and the list above are what they have.

so right now it seems like
Hap mara rocks - sulfur head seems like a good investment

they do have Chilotilapia rhoadesii not sure if this is also rare and good investment?

thanks

[johnchor]

i am also amazed that Protomelas sp. "Steveni Taiwan" (Taiwan Reef) is not voted?
they look really good and pretty rare here

[Fogelhund]

What is rare and expensive in one area, could easily be cheap and common in another area. If you want to run a successful business, find out what your customers might be interested in purchasing. Breeding cichlids for profit is not as easy as it seems though, you do it more because you love the fish. So pick the fish YOU want to keep, and that your customers might be interested in purchasing.

[vann59]

These answers all have very good input. And another thing we have not discussed is how easy or hard is a species to keep, and is it compatible to keep with other species? Supply and demand will both matter, and the local market is different from the bigger picture. Whether you are selling fish to ship far away or just locally, you will need to figure out how to market yourself as well. Fogelhund is right, make sure it's something you enjoy, because it may not be that profitable, so at least make it fun.

[DJRansome]

I'd do Synodontis. They always seem to bring a good price and be in demand.

[johnchor]

Hello Sirs

Thanks for your superb inputs, comments and ideas
What i intend to do now is to do a small Local business only. as export of fishes needs apply license etc....
i do not intend to breed these malawis as i can get them from breeders here.
the breeders here actually do more of export rather than supplying to local LFS here.
i have not personally seen in 20 years, any Hap (mara rocks), Hap taiwan reef, or Hap red empress in local LFS here, but they are in breeder farms here!

the next phase willl be to import some Victorian cichilds
there are pratically zero victorian cichlids or victorian breeders here locally. perhaps Zebra Obliequens.
but i will need to do another local survey to gauge the interests of Victorian cichilds here.
if the survey responses are good for victorian cichlids
i may apply for a import license or the hardcore way will be fly over buy and breed them

i seriously enjoy keeping Africans!

[johnchor]

wow folks!

i am surprised again to see A.banschei leading.

please continue to support and vote for this thread.

thanks and have a nice day

[sandandrocks]

I live in Southeast WI and i've attended the last few GCCA swaps and some local swaps/auctions. Lots of cichlids to go around and from what i've seen and heard is that Peacocks in general are over breed. Finding peacocks is not overly difficult, however, if you still want to proceed with this route try to grow them all out to 4+ inches. Most people will sell them right when the start to color (3") or as fry. But if you have a constant supply of large fully colored pure breed peacocks (show specimen) they have a significantly greater value.

But if you're looking for a challenge i'd say you should breed large Malawi haps/predators. These fish i've found to be very hard to come by. Especially large colored males over 6". Even online i've only found 1 supplier who's got a good list of 5" inch haps.

[Sidius]

I'm a little surprised that Placidochromis sp. "Phenochilus Tanzania" isn't on the list.. It seems pretty hard to come by in general and they can be feature fish in someones show tank once they mature. I'm in Canada so availability up here may be different but I've only ever seen a couple online retailers in the US that sell them. I bet you could get a good price for some 3-4" juvies..