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Breeding captive fish for wild-type traits

Andy Tran

Andy Tran

New Member
Joined
30 Mar 2014
Messages
16
Location
Morden, Merton, United Kingdom
Has anyone else noticed how “pregnant” captive female White Cloud Minnows can get, to the point which they almost have difficulty swimming?

I was wondering if wild-caught WCMM females are also like this, or whether carrying loads of eggs is a trait which has been selected for (either intentionally or unintentionally) over generations of captive breeding.

I noticed that Vietnamese Cardinal Minnows (which presumably haven’t been captive bred for as long as WCMM since they were first described in 2001) don’t seem to have this trait of being extremely egg laden. As populations of wild tiny minnows are under threat from habitat destruction, perhaps we should consider maintaining wild-type traits when breeding them in captivity?

Really curious to find out what other fishkeepers think about this and whether anyone else breeds fish to intentionally keep wild traits. 🙂
 
Totally agreed, I don't intentionally breed fish but I hate to see "modified" fish in any form, colour, balloon, long-fin etc, problem is that whilst folk buy them, they'll keep being produced.
 
Yesterday I was literally searching how to induce breeding in my minnows because the females are really egg laden as you described.

Never thought that this can occur only in aquaria.
 
I don't doubt that what you have observed is a trait that's been bred for but I also think that some of what you have noticed is due to the difference in captive versus while conditions. Wcmm can be real pigs and those I see are generally quite chunky because of the food we feed and wouldn't be surprised if that accounts for a fat looking female even when she's not ready to breed. We also can't rule out the part changing seasonal temperatures and flows play on the fish naturally whereas an aquarium is pretty comfortable.
 
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