Re: Ailing krib and Krib genetics

[Frauley/Elson <fraulels@minet.ca>]

The thing that i feel makes long term maintenance of dwarf cichlids
difficult is space. I'm maintaining two killifish, and although the
personal project is only 8 years along now, there are some observations
I can pass along.
Culling for size/colour can be a disaster. The inheritance of these
traits doesn't seem simple. The best approach, in my opinion, is to cull
the extremely rare deformed fish and fish that don't grow and use all
others. Nature culls randomly and only Pokemon evolve the way they're
expected to.
If you are aiming for your ideal form of pulcher then line breeding for
traits is what you want to do, but remember the blue ram, compared to
the perky, aggressive little wild fish. they've got size, they've got
colour, and they've got downright wormy characters compared to wild
fish. In aquaria, they are like different species.
I don't know if you can get wild stock into Australia. I've kept them
once (in Canada), and watched them a few times, and feel they are
already very different from the aquarium forms. They were harder to
breed, touchier about their water and more aggressive by quite a bit.
They acted more like sp. 'sacrimontis', the black/red wild krib, than
like aquarium forms.
If i were in such a project (not knowing how it works in your country so
maybe off base) I'd try to work a deal for wild fish, then set up to
breed them in different locations with some kind of program for crossing
back the lines that would develop with the different breeders having
started from the same stock. Captivity may select for different survival
traits pretty quickly, but at least that way, you could start with a
wild 'form' and try to keep it looking like itself.
If you look at the books, P. taeniatus is subdivided into a number of
distinct morphs that breeders respect, but P. pulcher, in my opinion as
diverse a fish but 'too familiar' doesn't get the same respect. People
who would never cross taeniatus 'Lobe' with 'Loukoudje' will happily mix
pulcher morphs. 
Then again, I love aquarium form pulcher...
Gary


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