Fish Recommendations

[pmex]

Hello everyone!
 
I'm a biology grad student in Canada. I've been trying to come up with ideas for what to research, but my main problem is that I don't really know what species I could look at, so I thought maybe you guys could help.
 
I'd basically like to study the effect that parasites have on mating systems (mate choice, ornamentation, stuff like that). For this, my ideal species would be fairly small, one that is reasonably easy to take care of and breed, one in which males are naturally ornamented in some way (bright colors, large fins, etc. The showier and crazier the better, but not artificially selected) while females aren't, that doesn't have any parental care, and preferably that only mates once and lays batches of eggs (poeciliids/livebearers could work too, but the fact that they have internal fertilization and supply nutrients to their offspring during development makes it a bit tricky).
 
So far I think my best choices are probably some kind of killifish (In particular, I think "annual" killifish sound really promising, but the whole group sounds promising), rainbowfish, or maybe darter. Lots of factors other than the ones I already mentioned could come into play (it'd certainly be a plus if that species has been researched before and there are standard ways of raising them, for example. It'd also be great if the parasites that infect them in the wild are well known.), although the aforementioned ones are the most important ones. Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
Thanks!

 

[Flubberlump]

Hi, welcome to the forum! I'm afraid I don't have enough experience with different species to be able to offer any suggestions, but that sounds like a very very interesting study!

Hopefully someone with more extensive knowledge than me will be able to help there are some very experienced and knowledgeable members on here.

 

[fluttermoth]

That's certainly an interesting set of criteria you're looking for! Most species of fish that show sexual dimorphism, do show parental care as well, or are livebearers.

I have a couple of suggestions; cherry barbs are egg layers, show no parental care, and the males are far more brightly coloured than the females. They're also quite small and easy to keep and breed. Another idea would be the Congo tetra, but they are much larger, so do need fairly large tanks.

 

[LyraGuppi]

Welcome to the forum! I don't have any suggestions, but I hope you can find a good species. c:

 

[pmex]

Hi everyone, and thanks!!!
 
fluttermoth- Cherry barbs look very promising. I like it that they're pretty small, and I think they should be large enough to handle (for measuring purposes). Apparently wild caught individuals are more brightly-colored than captive-bred ones, which is odd. Anyway, thanks!

 

[NickAu]

Are you planing to infect healthy fish with parasites?

 

[pmex]

NickAu- Yeah, I will need to infect a few fish that are in roughly the same health. Since the point is to see how resistant they are though, I'd try to expose them to low levels of the parasite. The goal is just to see how quickly they clear the parasite.

 

[NickAu]

Not judging or trying to offend or be rude, But I have a problem with that and will bow out of this thread.

 

[Flubberlump]

That hadn't occurred to me not something I like the idea of either. There's actually a lot of info on here about treating naturally occurring parasites.

 

[pmex]

I don't like the idea either, but it's something that has to be done in order to separate the different ideas about how parasites affect mating systems. Lots of the things we do affect fish and other animals' health in negative ways, and most of the time it's not nearly as justifiable. For example, I think it is a lot more justifiable to infect a few small fish with parasites in order to help answer big evolutionary questions than it is to kill billions of fish (and other animals if you include bycatch) just so that we get a few moments of pleasure eating them.
Even raising fish as a hobby has issues, from the issues involved with wild-caught fish to issues about inbreeding, selective breeding, commercial breeding operations, transportation, providing adequate habitats for them to live in, and even the trial and error that happens as one is starting out or trying to keep a new species. I'm sure you all know much more about this though, so I'll leave it at that. I'm also sure that you try to minimize these issues as much as possible, and that any harm is unintentional, but the fish don't care about the reasons why they're being harmed, they just care that they're being harmed. Besides, much of that is happening just because people enjoy the hobby, there's usually no bigger purpose.