@sostoudt
The thing about captive breed is that most are being hormone injected to force them to breed. So once they are mature as most endli matures at 12" and they are now subject to hormone injection and will forcibly breed. So the result is bad gene of small specimen. Not all farm will wait 3 years for a male to mature and 5+ years for a female to mature just like in the wild as they will loose money. Farmers force them to breed at 1 year of age which is a small specimen. While wild caught mature longer in the wild thus they can grow bigger when the spawning season come. Also inbreeding causes bad genes, that's why you'll see some short bodies and other deform bichirs.
Yes captive breed will grow bigger if they select bigger specimen, but problem now is that won't likely to happen. Unless someone step in and start from larger wild caught and breed them. Grow them out and select the biggest one.
Farmers in Asia don't care about how big the bichirs are, they care about how big money they can get from their breeding stock. Still captive breed will always stay smaller due to it's genetic, environment and foods.
Since when you'll see a 30" captive breed? I have kept bichirs in Asia and were kept in large outdoor ponds. The biggest they can get is 21", while wild caught that I've keep here now in Canada even keep in a small tank still get up close to 22" and some people that I know grew there wild caught to 26" and their captive breed to 18". Both fish eat the same food, same amount of food and both in the same size tank.
Many people have experimented on CB and WC bichirs and which will grow bigger and all have the same result.
You do a experiment yourself and if you have a different result. Then you can always post it here. We always like to find out new stuff as we ourselves are also learning.
The thing about captive breed is that most are being hormone injected to force them to breed. So once they are mature as most endli matures at 12" and they are now subject to hormone injection and will forcibly breed. So the result is bad gene of small specimen. Not all farm will wait 3 years for a male to mature and 5+ years for a female to mature just like in the wild as they will loose money. Farmers force them to breed at 1 year of age which is a small specimen. While wild caught mature longer in the wild thus they can grow bigger when the spawning season come. Also inbreeding causes bad genes, that's why you'll see some short bodies and other deform bichirs.
Yes captive breed will grow bigger if they select bigger specimen, but problem now is that won't likely to happen. Unless someone step in and start from larger wild caught and breed them. Grow them out and select the biggest one.
Farmers in Asia don't care about how big the bichirs are, they care about how big money they can get from their breeding stock. Still captive breed will always stay smaller due to it's genetic, environment and foods.
Since when you'll see a 30" captive breed? I have kept bichirs in Asia and were kept in large outdoor ponds. The biggest they can get is 21", while wild caught that I've keep here now in Canada even keep in a small tank still get up close to 22" and some people that I know grew there wild caught to 26" and their captive breed to 18". Both fish eat the same food, same amount of food and both in the same size tank.
Many people have experimented on CB and WC bichirs and which will grow bigger and all have the same result.
You do a experiment yourself and if you have a different result. Then you can always post it here. We always like to find out new stuff as we ourselves are also learning.
