Inbreeding?

[Sasha]

Last month, my friend (who is a fish breeder) offered me a whole bunch or fish for free to stock my new 46 gallon tank. I ended up coming home with 25 fish! My friend said that I should get some more fish to introduce new genes because all of the fish are related. When my fish are breeding, are they inbreeding? Is this bad for the offspring? This is my first time I had males and females (well, I mean a large group of them), so I don't much about breeding methods. I know there is different ways to breed livebearers, but I'm not really familair with them. Any advice?

 

[Angry_Platy]

There are lots of people who worry about breeding younger platies with older platies which may end up being their brother or sister or father/mother etc (you get the idea). I know myself I have just added up my largest platy fry back into the main tank where it may at some point either impregnate ots mother or be impregnated by its father. It is a little disturbing but unless I get a million tanks there is no way I can avid this.

Chances are that when you get fish from the LFS that they will be related anyway....

I will be keen to see anyone elses opinions on this issue...

 

[rollntider]

alot of the breeders who create strains do inbreeding and cross breed some but they also get some fresh genes in there also....

 

[Tempestuousfury]

If you aren't selectively breeding and want healthy fry, then it's best to add different fish.

And 25 fish all at once will be a huge problem in a tank, even if it's fully cycled! You might want to take some back to your friend and ask for them a few at a time.

 

[Sasha]

I had the fish for about a month and during the first week, I tested the water daily. I knew I was overloading my new tank (even if I did the fishless cycle) with a large stock of fish, so far the tank has had to probelm. All of the fish survived and they seem really healthy and happy. I appreciate your concern and I only planned to do that once. Next time I get fish from the breeder, I'm only going to ask for a few.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Good luck with that.

Are you trying to breed anything special or just stock your tank?

 

[Sasha]

I was just going to stock my tank, but I ended up with a dozen male and female guppies. I enjoy having the fry, so in a way I'm breeding them. As you can see with my sig, my 46 gallon tank is OVERSTOCKED! I was forced to cycle my 29 gallon tank again so I had to move all of the fish over. Don't worry! I'm testing the water daily and so far the tank has handled the large load and all of the fish survived.