Does breeding stunt growth?
- Thread starter Jhncf
- Start date
yea, it doesn't "STUNT", it just slows it down....think about it - cichlid parents stop eating for a good bit while on the nest. Many cold-blooed animals will go days, weeks even MONTHS without eating while they are breeding, nesting or nurturing young.
Egg production takes calcium and other nutrients.....even males burn through proteins at an accelerated rate because male reproductive fluids are mainly protein.
Next time you hear a joke about a husband and wife and the husband gets up to make a sandwich afterwards - it might be funny, but it's totally dead-on accurate. Males need just as much nourishment and nutrient-replacement during breeding as females do, if not more. If you are burning through your proteins doing other things, you're not building muscle or growing or putting on size and weight......
...you people out there who lift weights daily know exactly what I mean.
I, as well as friends of mine in the reptile trade have lost male snakes because they start breeding season and stop eating because they have nothing on their mind but reproduction......why do they die? They literally "do it to death"......not eating while they re procreating every 2-5 days takes a lot out of them.....they work their "ass" off trying to reproduce and don't realize they spent every drop of nutrients in their body. What's left for the body to metabolize at that point? I lost 800-1,000 gram (twice the size you technically need) male Ball pythons that had TONS of fat, who simply just went "nuts" when the females started giving off those pheromones.
I know it may sound funny, but it's serious, dude. There are numerous animals that will "do it to death", rodents primarily stand out in mind, but snakes and other critters will do it too.
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Thank you for the detailed reply. Do the parents fully go off of food though? I've seen people who keep their breeding pairs together constantly so obviously the parents are feeding at some point. If my males growth will be affected then I think I'll wait until he puts on some more size before breeding him, I want him to reach a good size but I also want to see him breed and raise a batch of his fry. Thanks again!
While on the nest they don't eat much, when the fry are free swimming appetite starts going back to normal
http://monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/this-has-been-on-my-mind.549837/
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/when-fish-breed-does-it-stunt-there-growth.493254/
Egg production requires energy, energy that beyond normal metabolic functions would typically go towards growth. Males are not as greatly affected by spawning as sperm production requires less energy than egg production.
Then factor in that spawning females often feed less, some far less, than when not spawning (as can males) and the slower overall growth part of the equation should become rather obvious. Less energy intake via feed, more energy going to egg production vs growth = slower overall growth.
Personally I wouldn't worry too much about it either way, I have yet to see a male cichlid of any species become stunted due to breeding.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/when-fish-breed-does-it-stunt-there-growth.493254/
Egg production requires energy, energy that beyond normal metabolic functions would typically go towards growth. Males are not as greatly affected by spawning as sperm production requires less energy than egg production.
Then factor in that spawning females often feed less, some far less, than when not spawning (as can males) and the slower overall growth part of the equation should become rather obvious. Less energy intake via feed, more energy going to egg production vs growth = slower overall growth.
Personally I wouldn't worry too much about it either way, I have yet to see a male cichlid of any species become stunted due to breeding.
The Cost of Sex: Quantifying Energetic Investment in Gamete Production by Males and Females
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3026017/
"For a broad diversity of species (invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, birds, and mammals), we compared the cost of gamete production between the sexes in terms of the investment in gonad tissue and the rate of gamete biomass production.Investment in gonad biomass was nearly proportional to body mass in both sexes, but gamete biomass production rate was approximately two to four orders of magnitude higher in females."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3026017/
"For a broad diversity of species (invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, birds, and mammals), we compared the cost of gamete production between the sexes in terms of the investment in gonad tissue and the rate of gamete biomass production.Investment in gonad biomass was nearly proportional to body mass in both sexes, but gamete biomass production rate was approximately two to four orders of magnitude higher in females."
