RE: Further thoughts on SMP -- from Dave's response sort of a refutation

[Jota Melgar <jsmelgar@compuserve.com>]

>Theoretically all populations go through drift to some extent since none=

of
>them are infinite. However, the amount of drift seen in our aquariums do=
es
>not compare by any stretch of the imagination, for most species, to that=

>seen in wild populations.

>With commercial fish, I would disagree. Since they start with unknown
>and unrelated stock, the drift is phenomenal, and that translates to the=

>aquarium for the hobbyist. Aquarists probably have more control since
>they may start with 'better' stock.

I think we were talking about the same thing. I was also referring to the=

fact that drift is greater in the hobby than in wild populations. One thi=
ng
though, unknown and unrelated stock does not necessarily translate into
drift. Drift occurs because of the small effective population size that
David refered to, the key word being "small". For our purposes and becaus=
e
of the small number of breeders we keep, drift is an unavoidable process =
no
matter how much wild stock we introduce into our breeding stock. We can
only hope to minimize it.

I have really enjoyed this thread.

Julio