population control

[Andrew Faust <afaust@ghcp.com>]

ok wait a minute. you guys are talking about all this continuous spawning,
but i want to hear some real life numbers.
	let's assume you've just got 1 female and you're spawning her like
it's going out of style, say once every 3 weeks (maybe that's conservative,
judging by what i've read). now, also assume you've got to grow these
buggers until they're about 5 months old, which i'm told is how long it
takes til they're big enough to take to the shop or sell/give away. doing
the math, that means after 5 months of production, you'll have about 6-7
spawns at an average of, say 30 fry each (also conservative), which means
180-210 fry in various stages of development.
	and that's just with one female. double that, triple, quadruple?
	i understand some of you guys have a lot of tanks, but can you
really keep that many fish at one time? do you keep a whole clutch of fry
together until they're ready to head out to the shop, or do you intermix the
juveniles? i would think that 30 fish, even at 1/2" length, in one tank,
would be an awful lot.
	assuming you do keep 30 in a tank, we're talking about 6-7 tanks for
growout, PER BREEDING FEMALE. i haven't been paying attention to the numbers
when you guys talk about your breeders, but i'm pretty sure some of y'all
have in excess of 10 females laying eggs. 60-70 tanks? i can see now the
value of having very large tanks, just to consolidate your fry populations.
	please tell me where my math breaks down. i'm sure real life doesn't
measure up to the theoretical in this case.
	sorry for all the rambling bewilderment, but i'm still trying to
fathom what i've got myself into.

:)

-andrew


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