Modaz,
Culling helps the better fish reach potential as you're taking away unneccessary competition for food and space. If too many fry in an area of water, fish can be stunted, hence why culling helps better fish reach their potential. Available space is absolutely a factor and most breeders will not have the space available to them you have to be fair.
Simple evolution theory, survival of the fittest etc. means that not all fry will be born equal. This is because there are a number of different outcomes as the genes are mixed - we all know that. Hence why culling is also necessary to weed out poorer fish. Personally I prefer to make these decisions myself based on my requirements rather than letting a male betta do it for me - I don't trust him to make decisions based on the same criteria.
Some fish will always be poor regardless of whatever you do for them because their genes are poor or they've inherited bad traits as opposed to desirable ones.
Chris
like you say it comes down to space but really who should be rearing fry if they do not have the space? It's common knowledge that betta can produce up to 500 fry in one go but to be honest the numbers are always reduced due to the fact that is it hard to feed such a high number thus many pass away. Yes, I do come across as not in favour for culling and it's true, not everyone wants a betta for breeding, they make great pets and every single one that I raise gets to go to a new home one way or another, I except that it was my choice to produce the fry so I feel that it's my duty to maintain the life they have been given, there is also a lot of deformaties in bettas that are not genetical and are do to with rearing only, such as long anals in females, no ventrals and curled extensions on crowntails and these can produce some of the most stunning fish when spawned.
What happens when 2 HM are spawned and the breeder gets 100% SD which is a very high % in crossing 2 HM, do all these fry get culled and another spawn set up because they did not turn out as HM? I'm hoping that would not be the case as 2 SD can produce HM as well.
The thing that concerns me is that these fish that are smaller than the rest at say a months old, do you cull them? if so what makes you think that these will not infact turn out to be the desired fish you've been trying to create, b/c they are smaller does not make them weaker at all, bettas from a young age form small groups of leading fry that grow quicker, these should be rehoused to encourage the smaller ones to develope much quicker, which works to perfection.
"unneccessary competition for food and space" i wouldnt call it unneccessary at all. Simple solution is to spawn in a larger tank and divide it off before the spawn takes place, once the fry are free swimming remove the divider, more space given instantly.
"poorer fish" what would be classed as poorer? severly deformed? you wont know this until they are much older. wrong tail type? again your not gunna know until they are older and in some cases atleast 5 months old so what happens when rosetails or feathertails are being produced? do they get culled at 5 months becuase they are not quite right? The colour is wrong? again they arent gunna show this for a while yet and it's very possible that these fry will be genotypes and have the ability to produce the right colour in the end by crossing into eachother. this is infact how MG were produced for example.
This is my whole issue on culling due to the factors that the breeder does not get what he/she wants, the bettas need to be a good age before any signs of quality are apparent. A true breeder will sell on the ones that they do not wish to keep in their gene pool.
Like I've said sometimes I get very large spawns and I allow the male to stay in for an extra day or two, but I'm still not happy about it but at times it's needed but I will not judge because I dont see them as good enough for a loving home. Selling pure tail types does not make the seller/breeder better than the rest as long as the fish are healthy they will always get new homes, if they are not healthy due to deformaties then culling is needed as prolonged life would only cause the fish not to live a life of quality.
I'm working on producing a new tail type at the moment and I know that the F2 are not gunna turn out to be the desired tail type as I wont get this until atleast F4 due the intensity of the addition and reduction process of genes, all will be grown to adult hood b/c I know that at some point the colour will be just as important as the tail type and any that I do not wish to use in my gene pool will be sold on.
At the end of the day, if people were too worried about the ones who didnt look like they should've looked like and they all got culled we would still be in a world of wild bettas only.
like i said i dont plan on selling them. idealy i would end up with just a few which i could manage and continue to look after... If there butt ugly i wouldnt be bothered lol.
