culling matters

[nycsicktank]

easy
theres so many people culling with fish these days, espically with flowerhorns, millions and millions of them. it is true everyone wants to get the most prettiest fish out there, freshwater had no colors whatsoever until now, glad it did. i admit i went to saltwater because sw fish has alot more colors than fw. if you did grow out all those fries and no one to take it, what will you do? its harder to get rid of fish when they are bigger. mind as well feed to other big fish while they are small.

mr.firemouth
i really think your firemouths are great. although most of the fries cant be good as the other two =) keep up the good work

 

[Dwarf Puffers]

I'm pretty sure thread died before you posted. People probably looked at that site, but just didn't post. I intend to take a look as well.

I'd just like to say that I don't believe in breeding fish just for colors if you're going to kill all of the others. I buy my fish not only for color, but for personality, breeding capabilities, and compatibility.

 

[Mr.Firemouth]

I hear you dwarf puffer, and I understand.
But for those who want conservation, both the ACA(for cichlids) and the ALA(for live bearers) have conservation programs.
The NANFA ( http://www.nanfa.org/ ) is really big on conservation!
All of these organizations exists and could use help from hobbyists.

I breed for color, it's what I do. But I have conservation tanks also and I propagate live corals too!

 

[helios99]

Mr. Firemouth, which method do you use for culling?

 

[Mr.Firemouth]

I allow my FM's to get to the size of 1"TL(total Length) and view them in a group.
The dominant fish will be larger and more colorful at this point. Out of say 30-40 fish there will only be 3-4 tops that are of any merit for growing out.

The rest of the fish are then removed and used for food.
I repeat the grow out process every other week with about 100+ fry. That usually puts me at 2500-3000 fry a year and I usually keep about 15-20 fish max!
I do take the older show fish to fish shows and donate them for auctions.

 

[SchizotypalVamp]

You cannot justify culling by saying it is the equivalent of natural selection. In the wild, survival would depend on many factors, such as intelligence, impressing mates, hardiness to change, etc. Those are that more brightly colored do not ness. possess any of these, or are ness. any hardier than the others. Showing the best of the color that they possess is a sign of health in a fish, but showing more color in general is not.

I am not offering an alternative to the selection being carried out, but just wanted to point that out.

 

[derekp]

This thread has been very entertaining. I laughed quite a bit, thanks guys. And Mr. Firemouth, I say they are your fish, so it is your decision on what to do with them. Keep up the great work.