Better Feeders?

[mellowserra]

OK, it's been a few times that I have seen the topic of using Convicts as feeders come up, this has piqued me to consider some things. (NOTE: If you disagree with the idea of humanely using "feeder fish" as a food source for other fish, please don't flame this thread, thanks.)

For someone who has a tank for the sole purpose of raising disease-free feeders for larger carnivorous fish (that still refuse to take nonlive foods ) , do you think oviparous fry would be safer than livebearer? By safer, I mean that the fry that successfully hatch will have less chance of genetic disparity as compared to possible inbreeding with livebearers.

Nature has a pretty good way of insuring healthy offspring- where livebearers are concerned it would be pretty easy to induce major genetic flaws/diseases as a result of many generations of inbreeding. With oviparous reproduction, it's conceivable that if there are any inherent problems with the would-be fry, then the egg will probably not hatch, resulting in a healthier stock of fry which would be more resistant to disease.

Any thoughts/comments?

 

[OohFeeshy]

Possibly. But its fairly easy to stop inbred guppy fry- just buy your guppies from differnt shops. A male from here, a female from there... Varying the bloodline fairly easily. And if you look out for the drabbest guppies as well.

 

[Synirr]

Nature has a pretty good way of insuring healthy offspring- where livebearers are concerned it would be pretty easy to induce major genetic flaws/diseases as a result of many generations of inbreeding. With oviparous reproduction, it's conceivable that if there are any inherent problems with the would-be fry, then the egg will probably not hatch, resulting in a healthier stock of fry which would be more resistant to disease.

Livebearers have eggs too, they're just inside the female's body. It works the exact same way in livebearers as in oviparous reproducers... if there's an inviable combination of genes, the embryo is aborted before it hatches/is birthed. So logically, I don't see how using cons would produce healthier stock simply because they lay eggs... just keep your breeding lines in check and don't allow much inbreeding! Problem solved

 

[Inchworm]

Hi mellowserra

It would seem to me that using livebearers for this purpose would be more practical since they reproduce frequently and the fry grow quickly. And since they are to be eaten, if you keep the parents and use the fry for feeders, you won't have to worry about having long lines of inbreeding

It won't be hard to add to and subtract from the gene pool from time to time, simply by buying a few new breeders, especially since you are talking about very inexpensive fish here.

 

[freddyk]

Yup, I used mollies as breeders for this very purpose and it worked just fine. They were prolific, but nothing compared to the Convicts you already mentioned.