Yes I really did. I kinda thought it had got lost in my Email program somehow in one of those" funny" little short-circuits that happen when you are tired and use the wrong sequence of keys. Or perhaps our moderator held it back for a while to change dir
ection ( since it really was a side-trackat the time).
<<A confounding factor in that second breeding may be that if the parents
are not in a healthy state because they were raised under poor habitat
conditions or nutritional conditions then they may not produce eggs or
sperm that are of the same quality even though genetically they would be
the same. For instance, they may not "give" as much nutrition to the
egg, or it may be lacking in certain things. This could occur
independantly of the parents present state of nutrition because often if
certain things are not able to develop normally in the early stages of
life then they may not develop fully later. Personally, I don't think it
is terribly likely, but we should be aware of its potential. Life was
never meant to be simple.>>
I always used to love paradoxes when I was younger. - the so-called exceptions to the rule. But then there is that other old adage "rules are meant to be broken".Since you have me spouting.old sayings Peter how about another I have been known to quote "a
ll part of the rich tapestry!"..
<<I remember Adrian Dawson recounting a story to me regarding some
incisus. He split one batch of eggs with someone else (I forget who).
Anyway, one batch turned out much "better" than the other. In this
case it should be attributably to environmental conditions.>>
I have seen whole batches of fry deformed with a shared deformity in situations where eggs were transported under unfavourable conditions ( perhaps effects of wrong temperature, lack of oxygen or even some other vital nutrient for the developing embryo at
that early stage). I have seen a similar phenomenon in the fishroom of a commercial breeder when a whole batch of fry had missing tails but every batch before and after were OK. Since this chap uses plastic containers to hatch his eggs in ( many of u
s do) I assumed it was due to some residual chlorine in the bucket after sterilising between batches.
<<Unfortunately, aquarists never tend to experiment things properly or
thoroughly. Setting up some tight controls would be an easy and
interesting way to try to test some of these calcium lacking equals
deformity theories. :-)>>
Perhaps Peter might like to advise every one how many similar studies would have to be done and repeated in how many different places with different variables controlled or supplied in known concentrations before some of the scientific community would be
prepared to accept theories(especially if advanced by mere aquarists :-)
These are the sort of projects that might have some practical application to the aquaculture industry and should be more in the ambit of the scientist. I think the aquarist in general does a useful job supplying observations ( both visual and intellectual
) and is happy to leave the "scientifically proper and thorough" experiments to the rocket scientists to argue over. Then they can argue over whether the conclusions were acceptable because this or that bias or variable was not allowed for. :-)I'll stick
to fish-watching.
Bruce Hansen ANGFA