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defination of a breeding pair ?


snookie

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You talking about egg-layers right? I would say that they can be classed as a breeding pair if eggs hatched but the fry were eaten, but I would be careful when labelling a pair as a breeding pair if you haven't see the fry, especially if the eggs have been infertile.

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I would classify a breeding pair as 2 fish that have bred and raised fry successfully..

However you could say this is for a breeding pair of "xxx" they lay egg's which I have to remove and hatch myself..

As david said be careful if you haven't actually seen the eggs hatch or fry..

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My perspective only :)

When I see 'breeding pair' advertised I always wonder if in fact any fry hatched or if in fact theres just a male and female.

Not much point in having eggs if they aren't fertile.

The other one is 'pair of fish' - two males make up a pair, a pair should be a male and a female of the same species.

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For me a breeding pair would be when I see wigglers or fry. I think its good for cichlids and the rare fish but it sucks when someone is advertising a breeding pair of goldfish or guppies because they want more for that reason and just about any guppy or goldfish will do its not hard to get a breeding pair of guppies.

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People who sell breeding pairs do so because they have bred them almost to death, or they eat their eggs, or they eat their fry or in some other way they are no bloody good. If you want to breed you should buy good quality fish and preferably unrelated. Best to get fish from different sources and pick males and females from different batches. With cichlids you can then put them together and see who fancies who.

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IMO a breeding pair should have live fry. Its not a big deal if they cant raise them them selves. I have a breeding pair of rams that I have hundreds of fry now in seperate tanks but the parents loose interest after a couple of days, Same story with a 'breeding pair' of oscars that my brother has.

If you are selling a 'breeding pair' then you should look at it like you would be happy to buy them as 'breeding pair'

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I am like smcoleman except mine have been bred half to death and I have better ones to replace them with. Set up your own breeding pairs and you will do a lot better than buying someone elses rejects. No sane person is going to sell you their best breeding pairs unless they have been dropped heavily on the head as a baby.

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I agree with smcoleman.

Surely the term 'breeding pair' is describing a pair of fish that have or are stilling breeding- not laying eggs or laying about thinking about laying eggs.

At least with cichlids the term even when used in a speculative manner has a chance of living up to the term. how many plecs are advertised as a breeding pair when barely sexable.

Discus females can pair up and lay can't they?, Do Uarus?- or is David R making a stereotype based on their spikey dorsal.

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Hi

Alan, my current four discus turned out to be two breeding pairs, (one lot of fry and one lot of fertilised eggs eaten).

At this stage I wish none had paired up, because now I almost certainly need to get rid of a pair, because of aggression in my tank. Four cichlid singletons are bad enough let alone when they pair up.

I don't want to breed them, but they are my pets and I like the way they look in my planted tank and am not looking forward to getting rid of two of them.

Regards, TGWH

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Tgwh-- My point was that if I were in your situation I would be keeping the pair that were most likely to rear their young and selling the pair that always eats the eggs. My other point was that when breeding lots of fish I very seldom bought breeding pairs but tried to establish pairs that were unrelated and with cichlids, compatable and good parents. You may get a good pair if you buy but you will get a good pair if you do it the right way yourself.

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Discus females can pair up and lay can't they?, Do Uarus?- or is David R making a stereotype based on their spikey dorsal.

At the time [about 6 years ago] I knew nothing about sexing them and they would always lay the eggs when I was out, so I made my judgement on the fact that none of the eggs ever looked fertilised.

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Hi

Alan, your point is well stated. certainly any serious breeder should be facilitating the development of "pairs" given the criteria you mentioned.

It is so ironic, that some people desperately want to foster "pairs" so they can breed (which is fascinating in and of itself and essential to the hobby of fishkeeping) and someone who just wants to look at their pets in their tank has everything bloody pair up :wink:

I'm looking to pass one pair on to someone who will breed them and If that goes well, will loan them the other pair to them so they can breed them as well.

Regards, TGWH

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I have been in the same situation. I saw a couple of discus in a shop that looked like they were a pair and I became more convinced over the next few weeks so I bought them (cost me $200). One bullied the other till it died and then died itself a few months later. I LOVE WATCHING DISCUS IN OTHER PEOPLES TANKS BUT THEY ARE NO LONGER FOR ME.

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having bred animals over a lomg period also buying and selling in that time, i have seen a lot of descriptions fitting pairs of any animal.

a pair to me are a male and female, ie: shoes left and right etc

with birds a bonded pair are a male and female who get on together and possibly mate

a breeding pair are a male and female who raise young

you usually pay more for these as there is a chance of getting some outlay costs back

usually if citing a pair of fish, birds etc as a breeding pair the description will be added to by, lays fertile eggs but male breaks or eats them, eggs must be taken off parents, babies must be hand reared etc

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