Re: f1 spawning

[Charles Ray <raychah@auburn.campuscwix.net>]

I have seen this problem to a degree.  My cacatuoides weren't doing
anything.  They were getting frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp almost
exclusively.  I was feeding live food only to whatever fish I had in that
was new and different.  I threw 2 pair of cacatuoides into an outdoor
wading pool early last spring and when I pulled them in the fall, they were
magnificiently filled out and have bred like clockwork, every 2 weeks, all
winter.  During the summer the fish were never fed anything other than what
was in the pool - daphnia, mosquito larvae, scuds, insect larvae, etc.  As
a result, I have tried to increase the amount of live foods to all my fish
over the last 6 months and I think I'm seeing favorable results.  The
summer outside truly invigorated the fish and the apparent primary
difference was the food??  These are the same fish that didn't want to seem
to breed.  I have fed their offspring live food as much as possible,
approximately 50% of their diet is live daphnia, mosquito larvae, live
bloodworms and other microcrustaceans.  They have already began to breed.
I realize this is only anecdotal but I have had these fish for several
generations and thought I was losing vigor - but I've changed my mind.  I
think we tend to reserve royal treatment for the newest wild-caught fish we
have and tend to treat our other fish with our average treatment.  If we
give our F1s, F2s, or F10's royal treatment, they will probably reward you
with spawnings.  By the way, it's been such a mild winter in central
Alabama that I've collected mosquito larvae every single weekend.

Charles Ray




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