Sex Ratio

["laurence masten" <lmasten at charter_net>]

Perhaps I should have put a little more thought into this before I posted.

One thing I failed to mention about the animals. They did find a relationship to the sex ratio, with the duration of the lighting. This would relate to the seasons, and could be a valid factor.

In the case of the animals, sex would be determined at fertilization. Conditions from then on, might determine survival, if one sex was stronger than the other. 

Perhaps conditioning of the parents produces more eggs, or sperm, that will produce more of one sex than the other. 

Survival is another factor that can't be over looked. In the past, some aquarium-bred fish had predominated sex, because the breeders were culling by size, and killing most of one sex. 

I think it has been determined that many animals and perhaps even humans, produce more females during times of drought and famine. The ratio of males goes up in periods of feast - Natures way of keeping the species going - 

Then you run into the Alley Cat thing. A Predominate Male will kill males in a litter, to protect his domain.

Aquatic life doesn't seem to be so simple. The first question would be, just when the sex is determined. At fertilization, or sometime during the development of the embryo, or even later? Then we run into the little problem of things that change sex, like snails, and worms that have both. 

Since we are dealing with a controlled environment where both the parents and the offspring live in similar conditions, any experimentation should cover all of the bases.

To get into the why and when, would require resources far beyond any hobbyist.

If you figure it out, let me know! I'm still working on my survival, the fish are just wonderful entertainment in the journey - 

Larry



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