defination of a breeding pair ?

[livingart]

good call cichlid7

[aae1]

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.

Alanmin4304. Im sorry but cant keep quiet on this one. What you have stated is not always the case. Sometimes fish are not always readilly available or people are getting out of certain species. Hence its pretty unfair to state the breeding pair has been "Bred to death" or are "no bloody good". IMO, a breeding pair should have hatched lived babies hence rules out infertile eggs etc.

[ryanjury]

Not all breeding pairs are sold because they are bred to death or useless, I have sold plenty of breeding pairs some even young pairs, usually because im getting out of that fish or as alex said I pass on a spare pair to someone who wants it or if the species is not as common or particularly nice its good to spread it around so its not all sitting in one place

A breeding pair breeds successfully ie a fertile male and female, I have seen a few people selling breeding pairs of discus angels etc on trademe but have never seen a wriggler and that to me is not on as they could be 2 females and some poor bugger could buy them and get ripped off, I guess its is buyer beware but that kind of thing can put beginners off..

[alanmin4304]

I have bred 50000 fish a year and I have never sold my best breeding pairs yet. My point was that I think any serious breeder would be more successful establishing good pairs than buying someone elses discards (for whatever reason). I use to have at least 8 breeding pairs of angels going continuously and you can bet I never sold the best ones. Good pairs are more important with the likes of cichlids rather than egg scatterers who can be prevented from eating eggs. It is a matter of personal preference in the end I guess.

[firenzenz]

I have bred 50000 fish a year and I have never sold my best breeding pairs yet. My point was that I think any serious breeder would be more successful establishing good pairs than buying someone elses discards (for whatever reason). I use to have at least 8 breeding pairs of angels going continuously and you can bet I never sold the best ones. Good pairs are more important with the likes of cichlids rather than egg scatterers who can be prevented from eating eggs. It is a matter of personal preference in the end I guess.

Alan

Those figures, and your comments are obviusly from a fish breeder.

Yet some people just breed fish. that is a small but very important distinction in both philosphy and the physical realities of such an enterpriser.

[alanmin4304]

I agree with the difference but I think it is a good idea that people wanting to breed fish commercially or just for fun should try and produce the best quality they can. This keeps the quality higher than some of the obviously local bred rubbish I see in the shops some times. Particularly some of the silly crosses.