fish spawn themselves vs. we breed them

[Randy Carey <carey@spacestar.net>]

At 01:53 PM 4/26/2002, John posted:
> Once
> during a presentation given by Catfish expert Ginny Eckstein, she said
> that we as aquarist never spawn the fish, we just give them the proper
> conditions and that they spawn on their own....

I've heard that before.  I don't totally agree.  There are two sides to 
this coin.

There is truth to "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him 
drink"; and likewise, once we give fish everything they need to spawn, it 
is still up to them to spawn.  However, many species of fish require 
effort, and even considerable effort, on the part of the aquarist in order 
to get a spawn and/or to hatch the eggs and to successfully raise the fry.

There are some species that will very seldom reproduce in the aquaria 
without effort and intervention by the aquarist.  But given this effort by 
the aquarist, the likelihood of success can be quite high.  In these cases 
I would say it is the aquarist who breeds the fish.  And in these cases it 
is far less luck and much more experience and effort.

Yeah, with some species you just throw a pair in a tank and wait.  They are 
likely to spawn on their own and you just harvest some fry 60 days later 
for BAP.  Many apistos gravitate toward that pattern.  But there are lots 
of species (I'm not just talking about apistos and cichlids) that require 
the attention of an aquarist for successful reproduction in the tank.

Perhaps we should say there are some fishes that spawn in our tanks, and 
there are some fishes we breed.

--Randy




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@listbox.com.
For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help,
email apisto-request@listbox.com. apisto-digest@listbox.com also available.
Web archives at http://lists.thekrib.com/apisto