keeping angelfish siblings together
- Thread starter JoelB
- Start date
Yes they will interbreed and it could be a problem if they are several generations of inbreeding deep. If they are only the first or second (even a few deeper) generation there shouldn't be much of a problem. That's provided the parents are from good breeding stock. If one of the parents has a genetic flaw I wouldn't breed them at all.
HTH,
HTH,
Line breeding --parent to child, sibling to sibling etc--is however the way that desired characteristics are fixed to make a new variety in a species. To do it right by scientific standards requires keeping each breeding pair or population separate so you can tell which individuals are best at passing on the desired trait, say redness in cherry shrimp. You have to be ruthless in separating out the culls though--not necessarily killing them but removing from the breeding population. And you need a fairly large base population to start with so you can mix the best offspring from different pairs. This avoids the most blatant problems of multi-generation inbreeding.
The problem comes in when the desired characteristic turns out to be genetically linked to a problem characteristic, like say lowered fertility or shorter lifespan or even internal or external deformities of some sort. Then you have to be even more careful to separate out the ones who have the defect, no matter how brightly red they are.
Luther Burbank figured out all the principles of this procedure back in days before anything was known of the existence of genes or chromosomes, just by careful observation and recordkeeping of what happened when you crossed X with Y and then their offspring with the same or something else. Fascinating stuff and I wish I had more than a Biology 101 knowledge of the subject.
The problem comes in when the desired characteristic turns out to be genetically linked to a problem characteristic, like say lowered fertility or shorter lifespan or even internal or external deformities of some sort. Then you have to be even more careful to separate out the ones who have the defect, no matter how brightly red they are.
Luther Burbank figured out all the principles of this procedure back in days before anything was known of the existence of genes or chromosomes, just by careful observation and recordkeeping of what happened when you crossed X with Y and then their offspring with the same or something else. Fascinating stuff and I wish I had more than a Biology 101 knowledge of the subject.