In my first spawn of Neochromis Omnicaeruleus, a fairly rare Victorian cichlid, I had one deformed fry. It wasn't able to swim very well, and seemed to do back flips. When asking advice on this little guy, (from someone I consider an expert) I was told to wait and see how it developed. He's about a month old, and no longer does back flips, but I can see he's got a problem with a strange curvature to his tail. I plan on growing him out another month or so and seeing what happens. I was told that this may correct itself. But one fry, out of 11, I wasn't all that concerned.
Second spawn now, and half of the fry seem to have this same problem. I have maybe 10 or 11 again, very paranoid mom and very protective, so it's hard for me to count.
Now, I did ask if inbreeding would cause this. I was told that a lot of the fish that we have now were only collected on one occasion, so that they are all related. Yellow labs were an example given, that at one point for a long time all Yellow labs came from one wild caught pair. I was told not to worry about the inbreeding part of it, and again grow these fish out and see what happened.
If inbreeding is not the cause of this, then I have several theories on this. Either the mom or dad has a genetic problem somewhere, or she is holding the fry too long, and I need to strip her earlier to keep the spine/tail straight.
I am getting more of the Neochromis Omnicaeruleus this weekend, and plan to mix up my group some, making 2 or more breeding groups. Hopefully these fish are not closely blood related, so I will be able to strengthen the bloodlines some. The problem is, these fish aren't common, and finding unrelated fish is going to be very difficult, if my problem is indeed inbreeding.
I'd like to hear others' opinions on this. I'm not ruling out anything at this point, but would like to hear what you all think.
Second spawn now, and half of the fry seem to have this same problem. I have maybe 10 or 11 again, very paranoid mom and very protective, so it's hard for me to count.
Now, I did ask if inbreeding would cause this. I was told that a lot of the fish that we have now were only collected on one occasion, so that they are all related. Yellow labs were an example given, that at one point for a long time all Yellow labs came from one wild caught pair. I was told not to worry about the inbreeding part of it, and again grow these fish out and see what happened.
If inbreeding is not the cause of this, then I have several theories on this. Either the mom or dad has a genetic problem somewhere, or she is holding the fry too long, and I need to strip her earlier to keep the spine/tail straight.
I am getting more of the Neochromis Omnicaeruleus this weekend, and plan to mix up my group some, making 2 or more breeding groups. Hopefully these fish are not closely blood related, so I will be able to strengthen the bloodlines some. The problem is, these fish aren't common, and finding unrelated fish is going to be very difficult, if my problem is indeed inbreeding.
I'd like to hear others' opinions on this. I'm not ruling out anything at this point, but would like to hear what you all think.