What to looking for when grading ...

[mahsfish]

1st. Picking out quality fry and culls
2nd. In faders. Does the amount of white have to do anything, and the pearls.

Other than kok for both.


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[the animal guy]

If fries arent defected dont cull. You dont know what they gonna be like later do you?

Colors are up to your liking. Dont cull a fish because he's got more or less white. lol I love white fishes. And if it aint white it'll be another color for another person's taste.

I personally think every fish deserves to live.. Whats not desireabe to you may be a great find for another.. You know those elaphant faced strain? I think those are hideous. But some other strange people like them.

As long as they arent defected at about an inch size, they all deserve to live and grow.. They all will become beautiful one way or another.. Don't be cruel

 

[FHlov]

culling defects or non-desired traits in fish are all part of effective line breeding your fish. Culling isn't cruel, just use them as feeders for your fish. I agree it would be awesome to keep every single one, but sometimes it isn't practical, and it requires quite some time and space. If you're getting a manageable amount of fry, then I'd agree, keep them all.

 

[the animal guy]

I believe in not breeding anything till I get a desireable pair instead of putting together a junk pair to make junk fries then worry about culling. Because the best one from a junk pair is still crap

Culling is the practice of first generation new hybrids towards making FHs in the past. For example: first-2nd generation RTs or first few generations in the beginning steps of creating a FH strain by breeders.. Those will give you many whack fries that no one would want so culling would need to be done.. But these days, if you put 2 established FH strains together, I dont think u need to cull them as they would probably look better than a non-ready strain years ago at the start of the fh hobby. Fhs have more room to look how they want but with RTs it can be more specific and narrowed down so maybe more culling with RTs.

For me, I don't like to cull unless they are defected and under an inch. Only RTs I can tell quality at around over an inch. FHs are unpredictable.

 

[mattk1023]

I always check Fins for deformities. A nice big fan tail would be nice. I also check body shape then size and amount of pearls. But FINS always first,

 

[FHlov]

I believe in not breeding anything till I get a desireable pair instead of putting together a junk pair to make junk fries then worry about culling. Because the best one from a junk pair is still crap

Culling is the practice of first generation new hybrids towards making FHs in the past. For example: first-2nd generation RTs or first few generations in the beginning steps of creating a FH strain by breeders.. Those will give you many whack fries that no one would want so culling would need to be done.. But these days, if you put 2 established FH strains together, I dont think u need to cull them as they would probably look better than a non-ready strain years ago at the start of the fh hobby. Fhs have more room to look how they want but with RTs it can be more specific and narrowed down so maybe more culling with RTs.

For me, I don't like to cull unless they are defected and under an inch. Only RTs I can tell quality at around over an inch. FHs are unpredictable.

totally agree with flowerhorns being unpredictable and I do agree with all your points. Especially taking crap strains and hoping for gold. That's why I don't breed, I just buy and enjoy my fish. Breeding is something I may get into down the line and I think it would be exciting, but I would need to make sure I'm ready for that.

I also was assuming we were talking about hybrids when we were discussing this topic (I agree to what you said about line bred FHs), but there is always going to be something new and exciting that someone took the time and patience creating. Although all those fish may look great because we are well into the breeding process of FHs, I don't think people can keep all of them, nor get rid of them, so culling as a food source is not so bad =D It happens in the wild =P

Don't get me wrong I totally feel the same way that you do on keeping all of them alive, I often go to the store and purposely get fish that look sick and put em in my tanks, fix em up and enjoy them. But I also don't find it offensive to cull fish.