> > sexes, not pairs to make much difference. The main thing you can do is
> > slow down the genertation time. Plus, with such a small gene pool to
> > start with it probably won't make that much difference for NG fish.
And
> > also, the question is why worry to any great extreme? The fish seem to
> > be doing ok with the present level of inbreeding, thus does it really
> > matter?
>
> It's not like you to be so pessimistic :-) If I didn't know better I'd
> think you would like the present stocks of PNG fishes to die out here so
> they wouldn't be a possible threat to Oz fish some nebulous time in the
> future ;-)
>
> >
> > On a more positive note, :-)
> > I think that if folks used a group of fish to breed from (like you've
> > been suggesting for years), slowed their generation times down to
> > every 2.5-4 years, and added a couple of either sex every 2nd or third
> > generation that would be more than adequate and reasonably achievable
for
>
> > aquarists to maximise genetic diversity.
>
> I agree that it is more practicable as long as we can keep an eye on how
> they are going for visible phenotype ( God knows how they will be going
> biochemically and geneticaly) and keep pushing the wild type as the model
> ;-)
>
> > I think the more interesting
> > issue is the effect of environment on phenotype relative to genetic
> > effects. I doubt it would be too hard to demonstrate that most
> > deformities we see are not genetic
>
> A couple of times I have used misshapen breeders in the past when I was
all
> keen on the effects of Vitamin C, D and so on, and the effects of stale
> food, storage techniques and so on but I cheated in the end by deciding
it
> was too difficult to estimate what was hapening to the food and it had
all
> been done before. In the end I just raised my future breeders ouside in a
> pond with good food supplemented with the natural insects and fry and at
> the end of the season brought them inside for the winter selected my
future
> breeders and put them in another tank and kept on breeding with the old
> ones as long as I could.
>
> I think the whole genetics/deformity and environment/deformity thing has
> been made too complex and lends itself to the "guru syndrome". We stick
the
> poor blood fish in a pokey little tank give them a fraction of the
> comlexity of environmental requirements that they have evolved to need,
no
> matter how adaptable they are, and wonder why they don't turn out
"right".
>
> Perhaps we should be sending this to the list and/or putting this in
> article form?
>
> Cheers
>
> Bruce