Re: [Killietalk] Aquarium Strains ??? !

[Scott Davis <unclescott at prodigy_net>]

Roger, I appreciate your concern over what a strain is and your conscientiousness in doing the right thing. You suggest that your two surviving biv Toko males would do the strain proud. What is wrong with that? Would a biv/Chrom fancier still exclaim, "Wow! What great Tiko greens!"

And yeah, there is some selectivity by killienuts. On Killietalk we've talked about some N.kafuensis with a little more orange and Fp. gardneri Makurdi that seems to have more pronounced red spots than most of them had. It is hard not to set up what one feels is the "best" in their tanks to breed though.

Dale Weber, a rather controversial character, once announced that when a wild pair of killie fish is removed from its habitat, as far as that habitat is concerned, that pair of killie is extinct. I guess he implied that they have become a hobby strain with a collecting location. One of the things I'm proud of the killie hobby for is that most hobbyists collecting killies take a limited number home; they don't plunder everything they can find. While I'm still working on some of that, if it is ok to take a small number of wild fish home, it is ok to keep a specific collecting location with it.

Not privy to specific data, I would hazard a guess that most collected strains return home as just a few pairs, especially if split between a couple hobbyists from different countries. There have been cases where only one male or female of the bunch survived the trip. Someone very carefully bred them and looked out for the lone breeder. The offspring would still be identified by the location that their parents were found at.

So your few beautiful Tiko greens are still Tiko greens. Breed the daylights out of em. :)

All the best!
Scott

--- On Mon, 8/10/09, Roger L. Sieloff <isodox at sbcglobal_net> wrote:

From: Roger L. Sieloff <isodox at sbcglobal_net>
Subject: [Killietalk] Aquarium Strains ??? !
To: "killifish discussion list" <killietalk at aka_org>
Date: Monday, August 10, 2009, 9:18 PM


This evening I bred some A. biv "tiko green". The original trio was gotten
during the 2008 "killie karnival" in northeast Indiana. The fish bred well
the following summer and then a combination of a cold basement and what has
been descibed as "killifish AIDS" eliminated about half the fish. The
remainder of the population matured this summer and this evening I picked
the two best males to continue this strain.

Just when does a wild population become an "aquarium strain"? Most killie
keepers reserve this term for accidental crosses of related strains  whose
prodgeny do not breed true. Fp. gardneri is the best example, and in fact I
now have a nice tank full of "Aquarium strain" gardneri which, after being
liberally fed the best of foods and given plenty of room to grow, are only
half the size of their parents a year and a half after they hatched. In
fact, a pair sold at a local auction after a couple old breeders could not
identify the strain and surmised this may be "Fp. gardneri mammyjammer".

The tiko green are, and will always be "tiko green", despite the fact the
two studs I used half an hour ago could concievably win best BIV in
Cincinnati next year. The eggs I hopefully collect tomorrow will not be
exactly the same fish I carried home one icy February in 2008. They resist
the pathogen that killed off the original fish and they are far prettier,
too - but are these fish worthy of "tiko green" status? They are obviously
in the process of evolving from "African ditch minnows" to "American show
winners".

Guess I'd raise angels too, if I could. Then I could waste my mind trying to
figure out how many could dance on a pinhead ..
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