Discussion on aggression before and now

[oriqua]

I wanted to start a thread on the discussion of the hobby before and now.

I had jack dempseys in the 70's and 80's and briefly in the 90's and now.

I have noticed that the dempsey in the 70's and 80's where more aggressive in nature and I've had a couple that would destroy larger managuense's 4 inches and bigger.Also hold there own against red Devils TERRORS and others. My opinion is the fish farming and breeding for profit can take away genetics for agression , tenacity, colorand viability. Inbreeding and poor selection can lead to this.

any opinions on this.

 

[JK47]

Moving this to the main discussion forum, it will likely get a few more responses that way. Good luck!

 

[WildCAught]

I think this goes back to individual personalities. I've had some very aggressive jd's including one I had to take back to the lfs because it refused to yield to a dominant female rtm and it was too stressful wondering which would be dead by morning. I've also had some that were very neutral.

Here's something else to think about. In the 70's I imagine bloodlines were a few generations from wild. In the wild the strongest ie; most aggressive get to survive and breed. Not the case in an aquarium where many that would not make it survive. It is possible that captive breeding could reduce aggression as it is not a necessity for survival.

 

[oriqua]

I agree completely i think the Survival rate of fish that arent supposed to live will decrease ...aggression.

 

[seedubs1]

I agree. I think the JD genes are getting weaker in the aquarium trade.

It's because they are SO easy to breed, hardy, they are a good looking fish, and the average hobyist can care for them. So they have a steady large market for these fish. So the fish farms breed a ton of them, and slowly the gene gets weaker because not many WC specimen are brought into the breeding population (and why would they go to the trouble of doing this when they can get readily available ones so much cheaper and keep on breeding).

Just go to some of the local fish stores and look at the quality of JD now adays (adults). The vast majority of them have some sort of deformity (crooked spine being the most I see). And if they don't have a deformity, their color is pretty drab these days. When I found mine (good color and no deformities), I got it right away, because I just don't see too many good ones around here. And I blame it on over breeding from a closed population and not bringing in new genes to the group.

/RANT

 

[oriqua]

Yes very well said. I collected since boy hood in the 70's and noticed the decline. I believe that people are too interested in money and profit. Many people have discussed this TOPIC " Toby from all things dempsey brought this topic up a few years back and I believe he has some interesting theories. One topic was line breeding being the choice selection from a given spawn AND GETTING YOUR best color specimen that has alot of blue may possible spark the genetic code to bring color morph such as Ebjd! If your getting the best most vigourous jack dempsey and breeding for example red color variant red color jack may occur
such as we've seen the red wine variant from belize. Umbeeking brought some awesome specimens that where a redish color..