The availability of these uncommon minnows and shiners is not even a small scale or sporadic commercial occurrence. No fish farms are doing it that I know of and the field is IMO wide open to a creative retired person or as a side family type business. Demand is low and profit is probably low due to them not being popular. Todd Overton tried raising lake chubsuckers for one year. He evidently concluded they were too much effort and too low of profit to continue growing LCS.
I think these uncommon minnows and shiners make very good forage fish in some of the specialty fisheries of non LMbass predator communities such as yellow perch, walleye, HSB, HBG, maybe SMB, maybe crappie, and other uncommon pan fishes. Some of these shiners will grow to 4"-6.5" long and as a group are better at avoiding predation and thrive better and live longer than the fathead minnow. With adequate refuge habitat these forage fish species will maintain populations long term in pond settings without LMbass.
A second dealer of uncommon fish is:
http://jonahsaquarium.com/index.htm Wouldn't his be a neat 4"-5" shiner to have as a forage fish in a yellow perch - walleye pond?
http://jonahsaquarium.com/JonahSite/piccpyrrhomelas02.htmOr how about this shiner?
http://jonahsaquarium.com/JonahSite/picinctrichroistia.htmSpecial Order fish
http://jonahsaquarium.com/JonahSite/fishlistoccasional.htmBoth of these shiners I think could be raised in ponds similar to the spotfin and several other Cyprinella shiners. Cyprinella genus of shiners lay eggs in crevices of logs and rocks.
There are a few mom & pop fish guys that are raising the spotfin shiner in Ohio as a bait fish for Lake Erie anglers when emerald shiners are scarce during perch angling season.
http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/species-and-habitats/species-guide-index/fish/spotfin-shinerhttp://gallery.nanfa.org/v/members/dsmith73/minnows/cyprinella/Spotfin+shiner.jpg.htmlhttp://www.roughfish.com/spotfin-shinerThere is one local guy near me in NW Ohio that raises spotfins for bait and pond stocking.
The steelcolor shiner (6.3") gets a little larger than the spotfin shiner (4.8").
http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/species-and-habitats/species-guide-index/fish/steelcolor-shiner
