Re: spawning?

[IDMiamiBob@aol.com]

Yea, what he said!!

Ed Pon writes:

> I don't believe in the bad parenting gene because I believe that the
>  bad gene should have been bred out by evolution.  Bad parents wouldn't 
pass 
>  on their genes so most parents should be fish should be naturally good 
>  parents having their good parenting characteristics "fixed".
>  
>  Dr Ron Coleman at UC Berkeley in California conducted some experiments and 
>  gave a talk at the Pacific Coast Cichlid Associaton a couple of years ago 
>  about his findings on the cichlid proclivity for eating their eggs.  From 
>  what little I recall, his study was done on some riverine cichlid.  Dr 
>  Coleman's research seemed to indicate that when conditions were better for 
>  raising fry to adulthood, the parents were more likely to expend the 
energy 
>  to raise the fry.  When conditons make the expenditure energy to raise fry 
>  to adulthood less likely to "pay off", then the eggs (energy) was consumed 
>  by the parents.  Larger quantities of eggs increases the likelihood of the 
>  parents passing on their genes to the future generations, and as such, the 
>  research figures indicated the the likelihood that the parents will raise 
>  the fry increased.
>  
>  I believe that dwarf cichlids are less likely to eat their eggs if they 
feel 
> 
>  they are more able to hide the fry from predators--this translates into 
>  tanks that have heavy plant growth, lots of hiding places, and not very 
many 
> 
>  disturbances--as in understocked tanks.  The tendency to raise small 
>  cichlids in small, very clean (bare) tanks may actually contribute to the 
>  egg-eating behavior that's often seen in dwarf cichlids and discus.  Just 
my 
> 
>  two cents worth.


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