Why don't convicts suffer from inbreeding?

[knifegill]

Most livebearers, some cories, many strains of Oscar and others have lost their vitality through careless breeding practices. So why have I never seen a deformed or weak convict? I don't think I've even seen a sick con for that matter. Is it because they are actually a hybrid in the first place and will take a lot of inbreeding to get to any recessive traits? Is it because of some chromosomal tricky business? Or has anyone seen an obviously inbred and deformed convict?

 

[Szar]

Probably many different reasons.

 

[Sarah88]

there are plenty of people on here who have had some deformed fry turn up, they just dont survive long enough to grow to adulthood, inbreeding would affect them just like any other fish, but as with most fish it takes many generations of inbreeding for there to be problems, they aren't affected by it as quickly as other animals like humans for instance are

 

[Nemesis]

Maybe cause were so used to seeing the inbred ones. I have seen many horrible looking convicts. I read a study conducted with convicts, in which they started showing signs of deformities after 5-6 generations. But the convicts used were store bought, so who knows how many generations it actually was.

 

[FLESHY]

I manage a fish lab on a university campus, we have a couple different tanks with convicts in them, and breeding obviously occurs.

The adults are ugly and deformed, and...very, very inbred. This being said its been over many generations to get that way, but man are they some nasty looking fish. We keep them around though because they make lots of feeder fish!

 

[balton777]

About 5 or 6 years ago, I bought a male and a female F0 convict from Rapps. They may or may not have been inbred in the wild, but the male didn't look like any of the captive bred convicts I see all the time. His coloring was different plus his body was more streamlined...and more oval in shape. Here's a few pics, too bad he was murdered, I miss him and can only imagine how awesome he would be now.

 

[David R]

I had a female that had downturned pectoral fins, I didn't notice when I bought her from the LFS at about 1cm, but it became more evident as she grew. Can't be sure it was from inbreeding, but a limited gene pool does increase inbreeding which will lead to genetic defects.

 

[Loves severums]

i have seen convict at my LFS shot body and dyed.

 

[Gruff Master]

I had some fry given to me that were inbred. After gaining a little size I noticed that their skin was paper thin. I could see their skulls! They also had deformed mouths and body shapes. These fry were the descendants of a nice pair of convicts that I gave to a friend of mine about three years ago. They have been growing out some of the fry and allowing them to breed with parents and siblings. I told them that their cons had serious deformities but they insist on allowing them to breed anyway. The bad thing about this is that they give away the fry to other people that will probably mix them with other cons and prolong this line of deformities. I guess after a while new blood from unrelated cons will prevent the deformities. At least I hope so.

 

[fishflipper]

first thing you'll see is drooping fins they actually sage and cannot used them the the way they should. I bought a jb and a female white con and she was a mess and carried her bad genes on to her kids... it sucked , I figured I would have been ok using her...