Neon Tetras In A New Tank? And A Few Other Dilemmas...

[waterdrop]

Yes the thing about various species eating up their babies always seemed crazy to me when I was younger. I think it finally "clicked" for me years later while reading some paper by a harvard biologist and I realized its sort of a dual thing of both increasing the chance of survival of the population "as a whole" and yet of allowing the mutations in the "collective genome" to show their potential improvements to survivability. (make sense?) Let's see, to say it differently, lets say the species never intends (intends is an incorrect term here, but hey, who cares?) to multiply at the rate that it would if all babies survived, but as we all know, there will be a small number of mutations to the genes of a few of the babies and those mutations might help those babies to be somehow better at surviving their initial exposure to the world. So the parents "eat back" some of the "protein" they've given up by having the large birth set (in the wild of course every tiny bit of high energy food like protein you can get is essential to survival) and maybe some of the babies, including maybe some of the babies with "the best new mutations for survival" will escape the parents and go on to further the next generation of the population and perhaps make it a stronger, tougher species with a still better survival rate.

Anyway, don't know why I got off on that, but species that eat their young make for a fascinating topic that usually gets people's attention!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[mellyville1985]

Yes the thing about various species eating up their babies always seemed crazy to me when I was younger. I think it finally "clicked" for me years later while reading some paper by a harvard biologist and I realized its sort of a dual thing of both increasing the chance of survival of the population "as a whole" and yet of allowing the mutations in the "collective genome" to show their potential improvements to survivability. (make sense?) Let's see, to say it differently, lets say the species never intends (intends is an incorrect term here, but hey, who cares?) to multiply at the rate that it would if all babies survived, but as we all know, there will be a small number of mutations to the genes of a few of the babies and those mutations might help those babies to be somehow better at surviving their initial exposure to the world. So the parents "eat back" some of the "protein" they've given up by having the large birth set (in the wild of course every tiny bit of high energy food like protein you can get is essential to survival) and maybe some of the babies, including maybe some of the babies with "the best new mutations for survival" will escape the parents and go on to further the next generation of the population and perhaps make it a stronger, tougher species with a still better survival rate.

Anyway, don't know why I got off on that, but species that eat their young make for a fascinating topic that usually gets people's attention!

~~waterdrop~~

wow very informative! i had thought that the rate they breed would lead to problems in the wild if left unchecked.... i actually assumed that live bearers must just breed more in captivity for some reason....

So whats everyones thoughts on neon tetras and guppies in new tanks? i think i asked too many questions to begin with

 

[waterdrop]

Neons are usually considered exactly the -wrong- fish for new tanks. Our stock advice is to give the tank 6 months (!) after its finished its fishless cycle before adding neons. Guppies are a different thing I'd say, there I believe the current problems have more to do with too much in-captivity breeding, leading to some traits of being more vulnerable to disease. There's not much one can do about this other than try fish from different sources, sometimes the best being other hobbyists in aquarium societies, but overall some say to age the tank a couple months before these too.

I'd put the small danios (zebras, leopards etc.) at the top of the list of hardy tank starters, which rasboras coming close behind, if not just as good. There are probably a number of small tetras that could easily be added to this list. Most cories, other than Pandas could be introduced early.

~~waterdrop~~