The "dump tank" community tank

[Magnum Man]

So, as I start looking at breeding fish, to me it seems evident that anyone who selectively breeds, must have a "dump tank", that culls get put into, and maybe more than one tank, depending on water types and fish compatibility... I see these tanks as selling / giving to the local pet store, when they start getting full... maybe keeping back any fish that I find too interesting, to let go, but occasionally emptying those tanks... how do you guys handle this situation???

I'm slowly starting to acquire some ( Poecilia velifera ) Sail Fin Molly's,
wow... isn't he pretty...


these will only be available as "assorted" my interest is in as "wild type", looking as possible ( green, and maybe some gold, but the dalmatian look will not be bred in this house, as well as non sail fin throw backs ) so I'm going to donate a 65 gallon tank as a dump tank... these tanks won't be in my main group, and will be visible to any visitors, so sparse accommodations, to easily purge, when the tank starts getting full... I'm actually thinking about a couple terrestrial plants with the main being those currently unused realistic plastic plants that got mentioned in that thread, that I can just grab out before a pet shop purge...

anyone want to talk about their cull fish???

 

[gimme30]

I'm not breeding anything other than incidental CPDs but in the past my culls became tasty live foods for bigger critters.

 

[Magnum Man]

as do my shrimp... the Molly's I listed can get 5-6 inches long... I'm sure my bichir would eat them, and I would hope I could tell keepers well before they are full sized... but assorted sail fin Molly's would probably be accepted at the pet store

 

[gwand]

I have been breeding j. transcriptus Gombe and a. cacatuoides. My yellow tiger endlers and red coral dwarf Platy breed without my intervention. I have not had to cull any livebearers. Between local fish stores, and an online rehoming site, there is never ending demand for colorful, live bearers. So far I haven’t had to cull any Julies. I have given around 15 away and sold around twenty. However I have culled 6 Cockatoo, which are runts that no one wants. I have them in a spare tank. My plan is to aggressively feed them several times a day for the next month. If they are still stunted and lack color, I will regrettably euthanize them. Definitely the worst part of the Hobby.

 

[Magnum Man]

I don't think I would "euthanize" my culls, I may use some as feeders... while not truly line breeding, I would be trying in a way, breeding back to wild look, without lots of odd balls coming out with future generations , and breeding for large size, and big sails ( been done many times in other places already )

culls would just be fish I didn't want breeding

 

[Magnum Man]

added a utube of these molly's to the 1st post

 

[AtomicFish]

Hey don’t diss on Dalmatian mollies I think they are cute.

 

[GaryE]

Hey don’t diss on Dalmatian mollies I think they are cute.

Cute is great. I mean look at all of us.

But if you're a breeder of fish, fish created by humans via hybridization and line breeding aren't always of interest. The farms are there to churn them out. There are a lot of beautiful molly species (I don't mean varieties, breeds or such, but natural species) that are barely kept in aquariums. If you get into breeding and are curious about nature, they're more appealing (and often cuter) than the mass produced designer fish.

 

[Magnum Man]

@AtomicFish... I'm not really dissing on the Dalmatian, I, at least to start with, am not interested in using them for selective breeding... my "dump" tank will be more of a community fish tank, until it requires purging... and since that is a large tank, there are possibilities that any dalmatian ( for example ) may breed in the community tank, and could even produce off spring with the wild look, that I'm attempting to breed for... or maybe the size, of the original wild type... all these particular fish, have been cross bred in almost all tank raised fish, and the larger size seems to have been bred out of them... it may have sounded harsh in my original post, and while I won't be trying to selective breed for those markings. a particular dalmation may have other traits I'm looking for...

 

[GaryE]

You won't get natural traits in a dalmation, since it's a hybrid of species that don't meet in nature. It's a breed, not a species. You would just get less impressive dalmations in time - mixed shapes and patterns.

When I look at dalmations, I see linebreeding and breeder choices, but I also see a genetic soup. @emeraldking might be able to help us out with that info, as he is a linebreeder with great expertise.

 

[Magnum Man]

unfortunately finding "velifera" are difficult in their own right, I suspect even if listed as velifera, they are crosses... with one seller only selling them as "assorted" and show several examples, one of which is dalmation.... I think the wild types are more typically the greens to golds, but may include mottled or spotted, but those are not "the look" I'm after... the other seller if they really are pure velifera, are line breed, towards the gold... even the greens listed are gold, with green spots... ideally getting wild caught, would be my preference but in letting this idea simmer for a year, I've not seen wild caught show up anywhere.. also the sizes are all listed as typical aquarium Molly's , while wild ones are listed as getting around 6 inches or so...

 

[GaryE]

I saw lots of latipinna in Florida, and both velifera, and mexicana in Mexico. There were tons of orri in Belize and Honduras.

Everyone needs a vacation sometimes...

I had butleri, caucana, gillii, sphenops, and salvatoris though the hobby. Some of the different colour forms of sphenops were fantastic.

 

[emeraldking]

The commercial bred sailfins are neither pure Poecilia latipinna nor Poecilia velifera despite of the fact that wholesalers tend to use one of these scientific names. Besides the difference in size, also the shape of their pattern does differ. In the socalled commercial bred ones, you see patterns of both species. And hybrids don't carry a scientific name to put this out directly... Scientific names are only meant for the wild forms. But if one has the urge to use a scientific name, it should be something like "Poecilia sp." or "Poecilia cf." And followd by "molly". For instance "Poecilia sp. molly".
And yes, the actual wild sizes are not to be seen anymore in breeding forms of sailfins. Which is a pity in my opinion.

You won't get natural traits in a dalmation, since it's a hybrid of species that don't meet in nature.

Well, I do like to add something here... A lot of dalmations have some gold or blue as a hue. This gold or blue is a wild trait that may be seen in breeding forms.

 

[Magnum Man]

wild type male sword is coming into his own.

 

[Magnum Man]

... and a follow up on that original Dalmatian, mentioned above, they apparently change color a lot... it's now pretty much black, with a yellow line at the top of it's sail dorsal...