Re: Rams de-selection

[Mike Jacobs <mfjacobs@geocities.com>]

Dave Gomberg wrote:

>
>
> Maybe the parents knew the fry would not survive better than you did????
>
>

Dave.........this is not aimed directly at you.  Rather,  I've sat by for 3-4-5
days reading all of these notes to NEVER pull the eggs from apistos because we
will now have a generation of miscreant apistos that won't know their mother
from their father.

Absolutly every time I get in a new apisto I pull the first 1-2 batches until I
feel I have enough  to 1) keep the species in a group for myself.....10-15   2)
give some to friends and 3)  sell a few to the LFS because he is a nice man and
wants apistos.

After that, you know what...........the parents always seem capable of raising
the young, and I have 2-3 generations of from the original pair and the same is
true.

I have been breeding and selling angels for about 10 years.  Two of the strains
I have are 10 years old..........99% of the angels I raise are taken away from
the pair and artifically raised......that is until I can't hold anymore and I
leave them in with the parents and the parents raise them like nothing ever
happened.

What I've observed for 10+ years is certianly not emperical evidence, but I
don't see any EVIDENCE to the contrary either other than  ".....well, people
told me.....".

How long do you think these fish keep track of their young in the wild.
According to some people you would think the youn apistos stay with the mother
for 3-4 weeks.  I really don't think so.  In talking with people who have been
chest deep in the Amazon river and NEVER seen a mother with babies, the current
is at times overwhelming and I really don't think the young hang around for more
than 2-3-4-5 days after free swimming.  When I was a young boy I use to creep up
on bluegill and bass in farm ponds and watch them endlessly as they corraled the
young.  I would get to watch such a female for about 3-4-5 days after free
swimming and then all of the young will have been eaten or they went their own
way.  Now this was in a lazy old farm pond......in a river with the current
sweeping things away I think we have to revisit the thoughts about the length of
time parents keep the fry and the effect that care has on the young.  I've had
mothers keep fry for a month.......but not in the wild!

Take your shots but be civil please!

Mike





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