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Re: species maintenance database att: Lee Harper

>> Grossly, the
>>fish appear the same. Now comes the question of whether or not we should MIX
>>the wild strains with the aquarium strain! The purists say NO! However there
>>is no real argument as to the species of this fish. It appears the "perfect"
>>example for mixing in wild strains to increase the genetic diversity.
>>[snip] If we don't mix them now, how long shall we wait to mix the
>>fish between wild and aquarium strains? Is the time -- FOREVER?
>>
>>                                                       Harry Specht
>
>Harry,
>
>I would argue against NOT mixing the strains. At least as a minimum
>you should keep pure stocks of the recently imported known locations.
>Once you mix them the resultant progeny are aquarium strains and must
>be distributed without location data.

Presumably you mean you'd argue against MIXING the strains?  Actually, it
occurs to me now that since the aquarium strain is already an aquarium
strain, the new collections can be bred into the existing aquarium strain
to introduce new genetic variation into that strain.  (That would, by
definition, increase the genetic diversity within that strain). However,
the new collections can also maintained separately (i.e. don't mix the
aquarium strain into the new collections, just the other way around).


>3. There is nothing to say that inbreeding is necessarily bad. If the
>australe that are presently in the hobby are inbred but look exactly
>the same as the wild strain, then what is the evidence that they are
>either inbred or that any inbreeding has been deliterious? In general
>inbreeding is regarded as undesirable, but inbred strains can be
>developed that are quite robust. Look at the world of the laboratory
>mouse for examples.
>
>Barry


Absolutely!  With inbreeding you lose genetic diversity more quickly and
end up exposing more recessives.  But if you lucked out in the genes that
are still around in the inbred strain, then there might be an argument for
not adding new genes that might be deleterious in the existing aquarium
strain. Perhaps it might be worthwhile to keep the old inbred line separate
as well, until it's known whether the hybrid line performs well.  Anyway,
just a thought.

Doug

Doug Karpa Wilson

Department of Biology
Jordan Hall
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405


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