Culling - Dam This Is Horrid.

[ChrisChrisChris]

Have a few babies, it seems some are really shaking their bum's when they swim and another 1 has a pointy tail fin. I dont believe the pointy fin is due to disease/clumping i suspect its just deformed.

They are around 2 weeks old, so quite small.

What do i do, let them grow up?
Release them and let nature be (No doubt what will happen...)?

Shame you can't feed fish a contraceptive pills and have infertile fish swimming freely. Causing a death of a fish intentionally just feels really horrible to me

Surely its not right letting the fish grow up/be sold to a petshop(or rejected, then what? killed?) and poison the gene pool?

 

[Assaye]

I'd keep them, tbh, and set up a little tank for the males and one for the females.

If you can't do that, then try to adopt them out to people who won't let them breed.

Culling is unpleasant but if you can't find homes for them and can't look after them yourself, sometimes it's the best thing to do.

 

[ChrisChrisChris]

Well i could probably set up a divide to seperate them, im not sure when females can become pregnant?

However i feel bad doing either one (passing them onto unsuspecting customers? or having to end its life).

I suppose it could grow out of it? I dont really know.
I notice some male guppys do swim funny, they seem to shake their tails more than females? Or perhaps i have a bad guppy!

 

[snowflake311]

Let nature take it's corse. In the wild only the strong live that's how it is and I do not see anything wrong with it. If they live in the tank then it was ment to be. If they become lunch they were not a waste they became food.

 

[ChrisChrisChris]

Yeah i might release them.

Just im not sure if they will grow out of it and get a full tail?

As for the "wiggly" swimmers, they may be normal - I know males swim different to females fromwhat ive seen anyway?

 

[fish48]

wiggly swimmers that's not normal

 

[Harlequins]

I would put them in the main tank and see what happens,

No-one likes culling fish including me,but let nature take its course,survival of the fittest.

I have put to sleep fry that have very bent spines and unable to swim.sad but i don't do it unless i have too.

 

[OldMan47]

If you want to maintain a healthy strain of any kind of fish, you must cull defective fish. It is unpleasant but must be done or you will end up with a lot of fish not worth having and definitely not suitable to pass along to others. Failing to cull defective fish is what gives inbreeding a bad name. There is no faster way to improve a fish population than inbreeding and ruthless culling.