Overbreeding A. borelli

[douginsf]

Hey People,

I read somewhere that borelli loose their color and fin length if you keep breeding down the line (ie: F0, F1, F2, F3, etc.) Is this true and if so how many generations does it take before this starts to happen?
Also, I was wondering what would happen if you introduced, say, an F0 male to a F3 female.

Just curious.

~Doug

 

[depthc]

This process of breeding in generations is called inbreeding. You should keep the gene pool clean by introducing wild of F0 blood back into the fish.

Andrew

 

[fishgeek]

line breeding or inbreeding will not make the fins shorter unless the parents you choose to use have this charactersitic

line breeding is used to fix traits , based on the assumption that the physical features we see are directly controlled by the genetics of the fish we see those attributes in
unfortunately not all attributes we fix are dominant genes or evident physically, and so, in line breeding we may fix deleterious traits as well
(hence the first post suggestions of outbreeding at times)

finnage in apisto's is, in my limited understanding, not thought to be purely a genetic thing
some think that longer extensions will develop in softer water conditions

andrew

 

[Mike Wise]

As long as we practice good culling techniques, we shouldn't have too many problems with linebreeding. Muggsy, a Malapterus microstoma, helps me with this when needed. Otherwise she lives quite happily on pellets, and FD tubifex worms & krill. Everyone should have a 'culler'.

 

[douginsf]

Re: culling

Thanks for the info guys. So if you don't have a predator fish to help you cull out the weaker/dumber fry, how do you do it manually? I have a hard enough time just trying to sex young fish let alone pick out the ones with inferior traits. Unless they are obviously deformed or significantly smaller than the rest how can you tell which ones to eliminate?

 

[Mike Wise]

You have 2 choices: either raise the fish to full adult size (not usually an option) or just remove those that show early defects. With A. borellii the major problem in the past (read 70s & early 80s) was that there were very few wild fish available & the blue was being steadily lost on the fish, leaving a mostly yellow fish. Otherwise the fish were healthy & had no breeding problems.