Re: f1 spawning

[IDMiamiBob@aol.com]

Vern writes:

<snip>> If it is diet are we slowly weakening our
>  fish over time?

Not really.  It's like people.  Each of us metabolizes the various nutrients
in our diets defferently.  For example, some of us can eat all the fatty, high
cholesterol stuff we want without any negative results.  Others can eat one
slice of whole-milk cheese and send our LDL levels to the moon.  The same type
of thing may be happening with the fish.  Within the wild population, some
fish need to get more of certain nutrients than others, and this is a result
of the genetic variations within the population.  Because their diet is
varied, they get some things with higher levels of those nutrients.  Once we
restrict the population to a single breeding pair, and restrict the diet to
BBS, which isn't even a natural food for freshwater fish in the wild, we risk
getting fish which appear to have developed properly, but which may not have
gotten the necessary levels of a given micronutrient at a critical time.
Feeding a wide diet after they are more mature may or may not overcome this.  

But within the genetic variations given off by our single breeding pair, some
of those babies may have had no problems at all getting enough of what they
needed from the limited fare they recieved.  So these guys become our next
breeding generation, and the genetic tendency to be nutritionally shortchanged
diminishes in succeeding generations.  That doesn't necessarily make them
weaker, just better adapted to life in captivity.  If the tenth or twelfth
generation were then re-introduced into the wild, would they survive on the
wild food?  Sure they would.

Again, this whole line of reasoning is purely speculative, but from my
understanding of human nutrition, it kind of follows suit.  Do what you will
with this idea, but don't take it as Gospel.  No guarantees, explicit or
implied.

Bob Dixon


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