Does Elegance Diminish With Overbreeding?

[Primous]

Fish that are easily and/or over breed to me lose that natural "je ne sais quoi." I was going to use livebeaers as an example but I figure that many here may have them so I'll use my favorite fish, Ap Borellii. I came across some on my last trip to the lfs and was told that they were not imported but traded for in store credit by a local "breeder."

On closer inspection, while you could tell they were indeed Ap Borellii these looked more like a distant descendant of the natural form. They were stocky, abnormally stocky, faces caved and sloped like a pyramid, eye's slightly further back, mouths so wide that they stretched from gill to gill and their colors were faded and in many cases patchy and when they flared at each other, although fully grown, their finnage was near non existent. And all they did was beg, violently. You know mouths to the glass thinking they can swim through it type of begging. As opposed to (dare I say) thoroughbred tropical fish which in my experience swim up in hopeful observation. Personally I don't like hybrids but these Ap's looked as though they had been bred using the same gene poll for several years and as a result lost their natural elegance.

Your thoughts?

 

[StandbySetting]

Inbreeding results in small gene pools hence why the quality is generally lost.

 

[Cazgar]

I think a lot of the problems are when we buy fish from our Lfs, they're often from the same brood, so when they breed in our tanks, they're breeding with their brothers & sisters.
The results are often undesirable characteristics appearing.
It happens in dogs, but that is done deliberately, with the resulting health problems we see today in many breeds

 

[soybean]

Funny you should use borellii as an example - I was in a shop last weekend and saw a tank labelled as containing borellii and I got quite excited as I've never seen these locally before. Well I was looking and looking in this tank of various apistos and couldnt see a single one. In the end I asked if they had all sold out. But no, at least half of the fish were apparently borelliis and they were nothing like what I wouldve expected to see. Grey shapeless generic cichlid looking fish. Could've been anything. (In)bred locally! Cost a fortune, too.

 

[Primous]

I used Borellii because they are my favorite fish. Aggressive yet dainty lol. I saw a pic of exactly the inbreed deformity borellii and I'll post it if I can find it again.