In addition to Bob's thoughts...
The breeder is going to need to cull regardless of having homes for
everybody, to assure the quality of life for the minority (and turn out a
more natural end result). Had you considered setting up a grass pickerel
"recycling station" or something? Sunfish _love_ little minners too :)
I have a friend who has bred seahorses repeatedly... She didn't want to
loose _any_ of them, and so she would try and keep the whole 700 or so that
they had in a batch (guess that's the mother in her :). She only ended up
getting a couple to a usable size for other aquarists out of the whole 700
and was bummed out about it. It got really bad when multiple spawns were
overlapping and she was plain overwhelmed. I really tried to talk her into
working with 20 or 30 of the "Best in batch" and focusing on those animals,
and those animals only unless an excpetional new fry really shone from an
unneeded batch. Once I finally convinced her, and she looked at it as
"success with the 30" instead of "success with the 700", her percentage
success to maturity jumped from .1 % to 90%.
We have to realize these aren't mammals where a large amount of invested
energy is placed in the success of a couple offspring, and our mammal
understanding is probably what influences our choice regarding rearing. But
Nature has worked it's way out with the fishes to deliver a huge bulk of
chances, and by shear numbers, have species fitness. If we can more
naturally mimic this by choosing the "best in batch", I think a better
genetic heritage will be preserved in any case.
Certainly, if you had enough tank space and resources you could work with
them all... But I think this is true of any species for a home operation,
unless you have an exceptionally understanding spouse :)
Todd
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Squires" <squires_at_agora.rdrop.com>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2004 1:04 PM
Subject: NANFA-- What to do with fry
> >Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 19:31:50 -0500
> >From: "Bob Muller" <michiganfish_at_wideopenwest.com>
> >Subject: Re: NANFA-- Darters spawning
> >
> > Speckled darters started spawning 2 days ago and the Tuskaloosa
darters
> >started today. Both are spawning in pans of gravel and the Speckled is
> >also laying egs on the bare glass bottom of the tank (never seen that
> >before).
>
>
> For those of you who successfully breed native fish,
> what do you do with the offspring. Surely there aren't that
> many people you know who keep fish, let alone natives.
> If we can't return them to their native waters, what do we do?
>
> Jim
> ---
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