leanne
Fish Crazy
I can understand both sides of this debate (apart from calling people nazis which is argumentative and downright rude - I thought there was a policy against trolling on these forums...).
OK I agree that captive breeding of fish with orignal genotype isn't going to help out the wild population but it will help the rest of us out. There is going to be a time when we are not going to be able to find endlers at all - everything will just be various shades of guppies. By selectively breeding endlers with endlers (not killing crossbreeds) we can keep the population going in captivity. If they ever do have to be released into the wild then they are at an advantage over the crossbreeds. Guppies and endlers are different because they live in different ecological niches in the wild. Releasing a crossbreed would mean that it may not fit into any niche and wouldn't survive.
An example of selectively not-breeding is white boxer dogs. They are prone to blindness, deafness, hip displacement and arthritis. Any responsible breeder will neuter their white boxers to prevent them breeding. Yes they are absolutely adorable but they live a sad and painful old age so preventing suffering to future generations is a good thing. I know its not the same thing as fish but its along the same lines.
As for the size of the genepool debate - if people breed with guppies then the true genepool is only going to get smaller and those responibly breeding the true species are going to struggle even more. There is also an argument tho that if there are no detrimental mutations then a small gene pool matter less. If you look at the black robin - there were 10 left in captivity and none in the wild. Those 10 had been kept pure by hobbyists so were fit for release. of those 10, 8 were males. Of those 8, i think 7 were infertile or past breeding age. of the females only one was young enough to breed. That is one breeding pair. There are now 500 in the wild and around 1500 in captivity. Not bad eh? ANd that was from captive bred stock!
To conclude: I don't agree with cross breeding really but I also don't agree with killing them just becuase they are mongrels... Instead of arguing about it wouldn't it be nice to breed some of a true species and have the pride in knowing that you are helping to preserve an endagenred species...?
OK I agree that captive breeding of fish with orignal genotype isn't going to help out the wild population but it will help the rest of us out. There is going to be a time when we are not going to be able to find endlers at all - everything will just be various shades of guppies. By selectively breeding endlers with endlers (not killing crossbreeds) we can keep the population going in captivity. If they ever do have to be released into the wild then they are at an advantage over the crossbreeds. Guppies and endlers are different because they live in different ecological niches in the wild. Releasing a crossbreed would mean that it may not fit into any niche and wouldn't survive.
An example of selectively not-breeding is white boxer dogs. They are prone to blindness, deafness, hip displacement and arthritis. Any responsible breeder will neuter their white boxers to prevent them breeding. Yes they are absolutely adorable but they live a sad and painful old age so preventing suffering to future generations is a good thing. I know its not the same thing as fish but its along the same lines.
As for the size of the genepool debate - if people breed with guppies then the true genepool is only going to get smaller and those responibly breeding the true species are going to struggle even more. There is also an argument tho that if there are no detrimental mutations then a small gene pool matter less. If you look at the black robin - there were 10 left in captivity and none in the wild. Those 10 had been kept pure by hobbyists so were fit for release. of those 10, 8 were males. Of those 8, i think 7 were infertile or past breeding age. of the females only one was young enough to breed. That is one breeding pair. There are now 500 in the wild and around 1500 in captivity. Not bad eh? ANd that was from captive bred stock!
To conclude: I don't agree with cross breeding really but I also don't agree with killing them just becuase they are mongrels... Instead of arguing about it wouldn't it be nice to breed some of a true species and have the pride in knowing that you are helping to preserve an endagenred species...?
