Uh Oh Incest Babies

[kubora666]

ok my sajica+con hybrid and jade eye had lots and lots of fry, 3 seperate broods.
first brood i sold and i kept the 3 biggest, so i could see how they turned out.
vel now they are about 4" long. and two went into breeding colours. one didnt.
the fish are such a strange combo, normaly they are light coloured and striped with yellow underbellys and blue cheeks. the paired ones are more colourful counterparts of the parents....
male is large starting to get a lumped head. mostly greyeyblue with black edges to his red and yellow speckled fins. the female is similar only stripey and has yellow fins with a blue dot in the middle.
im describing because i have no pictures... anyway theyve laid eggs and guarded them, now they are in a pit and will hatch soon. what do i do ? what should i expect ?
äc

 

[babybell911]

From what I've heard and read incest between fish is not all that bad. I think prolonged incest will eventually weaken the genes but shoudlnt be a problem.
I'm sure someone who knows more can confirm or deny that and give you some more info

 

[vancouver]

I don't believe 1 generation is that bad. I don't think I would go any further then that though..

 

[sylvia]

I don't know how much you know about genetics but the main problem with inbreeding is that it increases the chances of homozygous recessive individuals. If these recessive traits also happen to have negative effects, you encounter problems. Having said that, it takes more than just one generation for such genes to accumulate and it's even rarer in hybrids because, seeing as the offspring are descended from two entirely seperate species, they are unlikely to produce offspring that carry two identical copies of a harmful gene (technicaly, it's two copies of the same allele - which is what 'homozygous' means).

It's actualy pretty much harmless in humans as well - it's more a cultural thing to not inbreed (though there are very good reasons for evolution to favour such tendencies). After a few generations you do start to get deformities and things but, realy, inbreeding isn't as terrible as we tend to think.

In many domestic animals, the gene pool is very limmited so inbreeding produces problems rather quickly. This is quite obvious in many lines of fish (eg: of guppies, bettas and goldfish that have been 'overbred') as well as in dogs, cats and livestock. Having said that, the very fact that inbreeding encourages 'homozygous recessives' means it's the best way to make a line 'breed true' and to standardise traits. That's why guppy breeders, for example, will often inbreed, as will betta breeders. An alternative is 'line breeding' where parents/grandparents are crossed with their progeny.

In the wild, variation within gene pools is maintained due to natural selection (as well as a tendency of animals to not inbreed due to behavioural aspects - like our cultural ones). The point is, when you are crossing wild fish, even if you get inbred offspring, because the gene pool is naturaly large and there is a lot of variation within it, you are unlikely to get many 'bad' traits showing up as a result of it.

I don't think I explained that very well but nevermind - the point is that you don't need to worry about this.

 

[kubora666]

i understand they are wrigglers today and the parents are doing great-
im not sure i said earlier but the fish inbred happily i didnt push them was entirely their choice, as ihave another breeding pair of fish in that tank.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

fish inbred happily i didnt push them was entirely their choice

no shock there fish have no morals ( )

 

[Paintsn]

any pics.. i would like to see.. thanks