OK, so many of you breed monsters and many of you discourage hybrids with the exceptions of parrots and flowerhorns. But how many of you line breed Cichlids or other fish in your tanks?
Some of you have line bred fish and don't know it. Discus and Angelfish are 2, guppies are another.
The purpose of linebreeding is to enhance a specific trait, fin size, or color.
I have bred fish for 25 years and always had fun crossing Angels. I also enjoyed creating new colors on guppies and swords. Recently, the last decade has been spent toying with livebearers with my young daughters, showing them how to change the color of the guppies fins and seriously breeding Firemouths for colors.
I have a set of F1 Lac Media Firemouths from Rusty Wessel. 5 fish that recently are breeding. I keep these fish separate from my other stocks because they were fry from wild Firemouths. They pale in color from my linebred FM's.
I decided in 1998 when I set up another 120g that I would start keeping FM's. I had been keeping FM's before that but had recently moved to a new house and was setting up another system. When I went looking for a good set of FM's I couldn't find anything of decent color. They were very grey fish with little color. Even the throats were more orange than red. When I asked why these fish looked so drab I was told that FM's were a common fish indiscriminately bred without concern for color/size just quantity. I decided to see if I could take my experience with breeding and see what would happen if I selectively bred for size and color.
I found that the growout time is about 9 months before I can consider breeding the fry. This made my plans become very committed. The mere fact that it takes one year to get to the next generation to work with and another year to breed that same generation means many tanks and a serious commitment to see things thru.
After getting involved in this breeding program I discovered that the colors were really getting better each year. This was the direct result of using quality foods and only allowing the biggest best colored male to be in the breeding tank with the largest most colorful female. That meant breaking many already formed pair bonds, isolating the male chosen and the female chosen from each other, conditioning them separately for 30 days, and then introducing them to each other to bond as a pair and breed.
The subsequent fry have always been very colorful. At 1" the fry that are not showing dark black margins on the pectoral and anal fins and not showing dark red coloration in the throat are then culled. Out of 100 fry maybe 20 are kept to be grown out to 4"s. At this point I chose 2-3 pairs of the best in that pack and then cull the rest. These final 4 to 6 fish begin the next stage of breeding. I am now 9 years into this and am working on my 6th generation of fish.
In 2004 my hopes for this program have changed as I discovered that there are no available ALBINO FM's. I know hope with every batch that an albino morph/mutation occurs. I am also researching link after link on the genetics of albino-ism. I was watching a friend feed an albino Oscar and asked about the red in the albino form breeding thru strain after strain. This has prompted me to see what an albino FM with a white body and a red belly would look like and if all the red in the fins would also come thru. If so, This would be an exceptional fish.
It must be remembered that linebreeding can cause unwanted deformities and an outcross to a fresh fish from a different stock that is acceptable in size and color will eliminate much of the deformities and strengthen the breeding program. I outcross every 4th generation as a safeguard.
So with this said, how many of you are linebreeding monster fish?
How many of you are working with albinos and could possibly share info?
How many of you are interested in beginning a linebreeding program and document the results as it goes here?
Some of you have line bred fish and don't know it. Discus and Angelfish are 2, guppies are another.
The purpose of linebreeding is to enhance a specific trait, fin size, or color.
I have bred fish for 25 years and always had fun crossing Angels. I also enjoyed creating new colors on guppies and swords. Recently, the last decade has been spent toying with livebearers with my young daughters, showing them how to change the color of the guppies fins and seriously breeding Firemouths for colors.
I have a set of F1 Lac Media Firemouths from Rusty Wessel. 5 fish that recently are breeding. I keep these fish separate from my other stocks because they were fry from wild Firemouths. They pale in color from my linebred FM's.
I decided in 1998 when I set up another 120g that I would start keeping FM's. I had been keeping FM's before that but had recently moved to a new house and was setting up another system. When I went looking for a good set of FM's I couldn't find anything of decent color. They were very grey fish with little color. Even the throats were more orange than red. When I asked why these fish looked so drab I was told that FM's were a common fish indiscriminately bred without concern for color/size just quantity. I decided to see if I could take my experience with breeding and see what would happen if I selectively bred for size and color.
I found that the growout time is about 9 months before I can consider breeding the fry. This made my plans become very committed. The mere fact that it takes one year to get to the next generation to work with and another year to breed that same generation means many tanks and a serious commitment to see things thru.
After getting involved in this breeding program I discovered that the colors were really getting better each year. This was the direct result of using quality foods and only allowing the biggest best colored male to be in the breeding tank with the largest most colorful female. That meant breaking many already formed pair bonds, isolating the male chosen and the female chosen from each other, conditioning them separately for 30 days, and then introducing them to each other to bond as a pair and breed.
The subsequent fry have always been very colorful. At 1" the fry that are not showing dark black margins on the pectoral and anal fins and not showing dark red coloration in the throat are then culled. Out of 100 fry maybe 20 are kept to be grown out to 4"s. At this point I chose 2-3 pairs of the best in that pack and then cull the rest. These final 4 to 6 fish begin the next stage of breeding. I am now 9 years into this and am working on my 6th generation of fish.
In 2004 my hopes for this program have changed as I discovered that there are no available ALBINO FM's. I know hope with every batch that an albino morph/mutation occurs. I am also researching link after link on the genetics of albino-ism. I was watching a friend feed an albino Oscar and asked about the red in the albino form breeding thru strain after strain. This has prompted me to see what an albino FM with a white body and a red belly would look like and if all the red in the fins would also come thru. If so, This would be an exceptional fish.
It must be remembered that linebreeding can cause unwanted deformities and an outcross to a fresh fish from a different stock that is acceptable in size and color will eliminate much of the deformities and strengthen the breeding program. I outcross every 4th generation as a safeguard.
So with this said, how many of you are linebreeding monster fish?
How many of you are working with albinos and could possibly share info?
How many of you are interested in beginning a linebreeding program and document the results as it goes here?
