Re: f1 spawning

[IDMiamiBob@aol.com]

Vern writes:

> Has anyone encountered this problem,f1 fish are harder to spawn.I was
>  talking to David Soares and we got talking about this.He said that some of
>  his wild fish will spawn quite easy and then when the fry are old enough
>  they are very difficult or impossible to get a spawn out of them.I have had
>  this happen with my uaupesi.I would think it would be the other way
>  around.The wild fish are not use to your water and if you got them to spawn
>  the fry would grow out in your water and be use to it.So they should spawn
>  more readly.I think this happens with the more difficult spieces.Has anyone
>  run into this before.Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

In the wild, fry "grow out" on a very broad-spectrum diet.  In our tanks, we
tend to feed them BBS and pat ourselves on the back for our good husbandry.
There are too many nutrients necessary for any vertebrate species to flourish
for this to be an effective practice.  At the current time I am raising my fry
on BBS, but not making serious efforts toward breeding.  I have encountered
this for the first time with my current generation of cacatuoides, which are a
long way from F1, to a small degree.  I usually have microworms and/or vinegar
eels available to supplement.  Translating this line of thinking to an F1
breeding problem, the few F1s that overcome their deficit pass on whatever
ability to overcome they have on to F2, and the problem diminishes.  

Gary had the following thought:

<snip>> Maybe wild males with no territorial/spawning drive get driven out of
desirable habitats, and effectively culled.<snip>

Over the millenia, DNA with no desire to propagate itself will long ago have
been culled.  Face it- the only reason we exist {theological justifications
excused) is to duplicate little strands of nucleic acids.  Any DNA which
doesn't reproduce extincts itself.  A reproductive drive is essential for
survival of the species.  Gary's unmotivated fish would have been all but
genetically culled long before modern times.  Only one in a zillion fish would
be born with this non-desire gene.

My explantion is only theoretical.  YMMV.

Bob Dixon


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