Heterozygosity and Rainbows
Cary Hostrawser (caryho at ix.netcom.com)
Sun, 02 Jun 1996 04:19:57 GMT
A question has came to mind about our populations of rainbows. Has
anybody done any real testing on the amount of genetic diversity in
different species of bows? It seems to me that any small isolated
populations would by default become rather homogeneous in its genetic
make up. But what about the other species. How long have we kept
captive populations viable? Which species begin to fail if we don't
outcross to other fish of the same strain? Or do strains go bad when
we do outcross to others of the same strain but not from the same
collection group? Seems to me, we really need to look into the answers
to this for all the species we want to keep long term. In the states,
where many times only a few bows are our entire founding colony, these
questions really need to get answered. But then I think even the folks
down under can't always take a few week trip to just get a few more
fish when a population group is going down hill. Or should that be
down the river:~)
Cary Hostrawser
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