G'day Matthew & welcome to the RSG.
I've been listening to this string and a related one for a couple of days and
thought I'd add a few comments. This nice thing about having a multi-continent
list is that we can at least hope to find out what happens in other countries.
I don't know the state of the bows in the shops in Oz but I do have probably
the best view of the state of the shops in the US. Now maybe Bruce Sambell and
John Doley provide perfect rainbows to all of Oz :-) but we do not have such a
duo or even group of people providing quality bows to the retail shops in the
US.
1) It is <strong> NOT </strong> simply due to the usual poor setups in the
petshops. I get to speak in cities all over the US and almost always get taken
to the best shops in town. For the most part these shops have great fish BUT
not very good rainbowfish. Even on dark gravel the fish look washed
out/crossed. Many of these shops now have display tanks with lots of plants
and their washed out/crossed rainbows still look washed out and crossed! I
then go over to the local rainbowfish-lover's house and see the same washed
out/crossed fish in a tasteful nicely planted tank. Like Cary suggested, it's
not very much fun to tell someone that the reason their 4 inch bow isn't very
colorful is because it's a cross.
2) It has been suggested that most of these "crosses" are infertile. This is
just not true. Do you think that these fish farmers sit around and mix yellow
fish with green fish to make their brown fish? No, they are spawning brown
fish with brown fish. They then save some of "the seed" from the last harvest
and use it for the next spawning sequence. You might be able to define a
species by doing crossing experiments in other species of fish etc., but this
is really something that doesn't work when defining rainbowfish species. There
is too much evidence in our shops that these crosses are viable. I have also
personally seen several of these crosses at Ekkwill and at Segrest. Huge tanks
of large breeding crosses. To tell someone that their fish might not be a
cross because it is fertile would be an irresponsible statement.
and mixing my strings...
"I think, IMHO, that crosses and untrue species/strains are not a bad thing
from a retail point of view... UNLESS they are not labled for what they
are. As long as they are not passed off as "true" representatives of any
rainbow species, then I see no harm in them. "
3) This is probably the single most damaging and harmful way of thinking that
you can have about rainbows. Like Matthew originally suggested the store fish
really sucked for colors! It was because the fish breeder's didn't give a darn
and/or produced crosses. It is just as easy to produce the real thing. The
problem is that's just too much of a bother for most of these fish farmers to
locate the correct stock. And after you've seen all of these sucky fish in the
retail store why would you even bother to keep rainbowfish??? Maybe we should
try and find a way to bring "the other Bruce" ;-) over to the US to speak to
the fish farmer's association but Idontknow, it's hard to break those old
habits. Oh yeah and when was the last time a retailer told their clients that
fish is a cross??? get real!
4) As close to the wild-type as possible... We can certainly try. Some color
problems are related to diet. Feeding quality food and variety will help
ensure that your fish get a balanced diet. Body shape, too much food can
produce a much wider (taller between dorsal and anal fin) than photos we've
seen of the wild-type fish. When not in the active breeding mode I don't feed
nearly as heavily and as others do on this list I almost always have one
"fasting day" for the fish. (If I could just do the same for me). All I can
suggest is to find fish that look as close to the originals as possible, & find
stock as close to the original caught fish as possible. Buying fish from the
petstores is almost always the worst way to obtain stock. Sometimes if you act
quickly when they first appear on the market you will get a quality rainbow BUT
this quality quickly goes downhill. Keep your breeding stock as long as
possible, go through fewer generations. The larger rainbows (non blue-eyes)
typically last 7-9 years with just a medium amount of care. Push them
constantly for eggs and keeping them at 82 degrees plus will ensure a quicker
departure. Avoid pushing your fish and the fry you produce through the
"genetic funnel". Try to obtain more than just a pair or two if you can. Six,
eight or more is always better. If you can obtain eggs from someone who is
"gang breeding" with many individuals involved then you'll get a better genetic
mix. Hopefully you'll obtain 40-50 individuals from this mop to carefully
select your breeders. I think that's about the best we can do.
Gary Lange
gwlange at STLNET.com
Rainbowfish Study Group of North America
http://home.stlnet.com/~gwlange/rainbowfish.index.html