Culling FH fry

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Mikeeyy

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 17, 2008
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NSW, Australia
I'm not actually a big fan of culling, and ive never actually done it before.
But I was just wondering, how do people go about culling their fry, in the most humane or "nicest" way possible.

Also, how do you even know what to cull? Like i understand some people cull defected fry, but i don't really seem to have any, none that i can visually see for that matter, and i mean sometimes people actually target defective genes (correct me if im wrong) eg. Short bodies.. etc. etc.. but yeah i don't think i have any of these anyway.

If any i guess i'd be looking to cull the fry that others might say are "low grade" or no potential or something like that.
The thing is, how can you tell if they have potential or not at such a young age.
Actually on that, what size do people usually start culling.
My FH fry have fader blood in them so i feel like its a gamble, and ive taken care of them for so long.. it just seems so.. wrong i suppose..

I know its a touchy question, but thanks for anyone's advice or input.
 
Me too, don't like doing that either...

Feed 'em to your bigger fish? I see some nice oscars in your avatar to fee them too. lol I started my culling around 1"-2". Scoop SOME to your big fish at a time, else your big fish will get confuse which one to each and eventually some will find a way to survive. Speaking from experience.

Or give 'em to noobs where most likely they won't take care of the fries; leads to death.and let’s say they do survive, most like the noobs won't know breed them; the gen stops there!

One other thing I done is add some alcohol in bucket of water and put the whole thing in the freezer. I've heard the alcohol and the cold numbs the fish.

It'll be interesting to see what others have to say....
 
thanks for t he advice midasmixer.. i dont think anyone else really wants to get into this question much LOL niether did i really.. but i thought it might be worth the ask. Cause i cant seem to get myself to do it.

And lol.. my Oscars are funny, they're super friendly.. its the reason why i find it weird when i hear people say oscars are aggressive.. in a way i wish mine were.. but theyre so nice.. they dont eat live food.. you can put a school of goldfish and have nothing happen. They seem to get along with smaller fish..
 
I cull by looks. Depending on the fish your breeding or attempting to breed. Look for body shape, color, pearls, eye color etc. Once you have gotten down to a number you are comfortable with and can manage grow them bigger, repeat process until you have what your after. I have a farm pond I let mine go in. Blue Gill and Bass get to eat them and if they survive that, winter will most likely kill em. At 1-2" you can just throw them in the toilet, in the grass out back, whatever, or take them to the lfs trade em off as feeders or FH if you can.
 
i try not to cull until the fish are around then 2 inches. at this size you should have a good understanding on how most will look. culling early can yield real crappy results on the remainder frys. i've also learned most of the supper tiny frys that seem to grow slower turn out usually very nice. most ppl make the mistake of culling those frys based on size. i generally feed (if sizes allow) my culls to my bigger fish. more like a treat for them because they don't get the culls very often.
 
Buy a monster fish tank... When I officially start breeding I will cull by feeding the fry to other fish.
 
Musha, man from seeing the fish you've had off this site, if you "officially" start breeding, you're gonna make a fortune and have some of the most wicked fish out, i'd love to see what you produce.

Although a monster fish tank is going to have to wait for the future, my 200g will do me happily for the meantime. And i think i'm going to go with this feeding to my other fish method. Seems to be what most people are advising and it seems most natural.
 
Mikeeyy;3631272; said:
Seems to be what most people are advising and it seems most natural.
Click to expand...

yeah natural and healthy. those culls will be a nutritious treat for the larger guys/gals.

one thing you want to be careful of is not having much decor in whatever's tank your feeding the culls too. because sometimes if there is a place to hide they will find it. astonishingly enough those that can find a place to hide will most likely survive. so watch out for that.
 
LOl cheers fishfreak, i've actually experienced this issue once before, from a convictxtexas fry which had a this finding nemo thing going on, its tail was way small, and then every now and then i kept seeing it drift in and out of the caves till it was already around 3-4inch, i actually got pretty attached to it, till the day i brought home one angry FH.. don't need to tell the rest of t hat story, Thanks fishfreak
 
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