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Basic breeding question - always wanted to ask!


tinytawnykitten

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Ok so this is prolly a really stupid question. Say I have a pair of fish, and they have offspring, males and females. Can those offspring breed amongst themselves or is it just something you shouldn't do? Do a breeding pair need to be from different families, or can you have some kind of Fritzl fish family?

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in some specie, there is no problem at all. Most fish are well and truely inbred anyway.

As well as getting the worst by inbreeding, by culling the bad ones and only breeding off the good ones, you can get a strain of very very similar fish with no (or very few) defomitys.

There will be no stand out examples in your tanks, just sameness.

To get the best in raceing pigeons, we inbreed two families and then out cross to one another. The offspring are normally great racers but terrible breeders

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my understanding is that there is no problem with what you are doing but the risk is that by introducing an out cross you MAY possibly be introducing some of the less desirable things as well. Thats why your best to have 2 inbred lines... to breed out the things you dont want

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inbreeding occurs in the wild especially in small areas or populations

african cichlids are thought to be a good example of this

males have territorial disputes and the strongest usually wins, this male is

usually displaced by one of his offspring, natural inbreeding

nature takes care of the weak and deformed by them being eaten or not surviving to breed

usually the product of too much inbreeding is deformities showing up in the line or a reduction in fertility

inbreeding is where all the types of dogs and goldfish we have came from

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nature takes care of the weak and deformed by them being eaten or not surviving to breed

Thats the most important thing to remember when breeding. People are often not fussy enough with the fish they select to breed, and try to keep [and sell] every last fry.If you want to breed something then get a bunch of juveniles and grow them out, picking the best pair to breed. Don't hesitate to cull any fry that are runty, deformed or just not as good as they could be.

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now please accept that this was refering to Killis but I belive that it may well be worth thinking about in general breeding.

Most people will breed of the fastest growing larger examples but often the slower growing fish will eventually get to a larger size and live longer (up to twice as long from memory). Most will therefore cull out or get rid of the slower growing smaller fish in the belief that they are the weak ones.

This is very often not the case and to get longlivity and size, we should also be breeding of the later.

Interesting thery as what they are saying is that by breeding of the faster growing fish is bringing down the expected life span of the specie. I know that with some types of Nothos, you are lucky to get any more than 6 months from them but I managed to pick up some smaller Nothos that are still breeding and looking really good now that they are 12 months old. I expect to have these for another 6 months at least.

Keep in mind that Nothos are annuals not like other types of killi that will live for years.

Worth thinking about and considering

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Most people will breed of the fastest growing larger examples but often the slower growing fish will eventually get to a larger size and live longer (up to twice as long from memory). Most will therefore cull out or get rid of the slower growing smaller fish in the belief that they are the weak ones.

good point, think of this with guppies for example. if they grow fast they may just burn out faster too.

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inbreeding occurs in the wild especially in small areas or populations

african cichlids are thought to be a good example of this

males have territorial disputes and the strongest usually wins, this male is

usually displaced by one of his offspring, natural inbreeding

nature takes care of the weak and deformed by them being eaten or not surviving to breed

there is an article somewhere on the net that suggest that all electric yellows in the hobby came from a group of just 10 fish from the wild in the 70's. I can understand this as my yellows breed far more than all my others. It is said that there were only approx 100 yellows in the lake, 10 were removed & are now possibly the most commonly kept african in the world. I will try to find where i read that & post it.

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Wild Fish is where most fish come from so in fact they carry all the xyz and so on..So when they breed its usual to get true lines..But if that line keeps going its just a matter of time before you might,Repeat might see defects..

In Wild Cockatoo's i have 5 Pairs going from the original wild imports that all with have simular xyz but not the same..So young from each line can breed very successfully by x them back to another batch line and not keep them breeding to them selves...

Even Singapore breeders are importing wild fish to keep lines true...

Cheers Phill

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Thats not unusual Hans but if that same line was bred down for a few more generations and you were selective in culling, that would dissappare.

Again, think about the humble Notho Killi, hes been breeding in the same pool that is only water filled for a few months before again drying up for centries.

They all look exactly the same (I wonder if their mums can tell the difference?) with the only slight difference being their speed at growth. Very rearly do we get any problems with deformity. I have not had a single one since I have got them back.

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