Breeding and Strains: Culls
Culls:
Things I looks for when I cull
- The one dot fish
- Deformities; a)fins b)gills
- head and body
- Dwarfs / runts
- Fry Selection ZZ
Grow the fry up to where the largest is about 4cm, then the first stage of grading/culling takes place, at 4cm they start to fight and peck each other so you don't want to leave it any longer or your selects can get damaged.
At 3-4cm size, this what I look for in selections:
- Colour
- pearl
- Script
- Characteristic
A fish with poor script but exceptionally good colour and/or pearl can still make it into the selection category.
The selections continue to go through grading process as they grow, the larger they are the more easier you can grade the shape so as they grow I add these attributes to the selection process:
- Body and face shape
- Head/Kok potential
- Fins
Lucky Fins should be called unlucky fins:
- Alot of people don't know what lucky fins look like, its a deformity of the pectoral fins, crooked, bent or misshapen, here is a video to show a classic example of what they can look like.
What causes them is supposed to be genetic deformity from in breeding:
- Its been reported from angelfish breeders as well, one thing we have learned thanks to one member is that if you breed fish with lucky fins, its doesn't mean that the fry will get it, in fact one batch from both parents with lucky fins produced mostly normal finned fish and I seen them myself.
Video of a fish with deformed pectoral fins, some people in the hobby call this deformity "lucky fins"
I do wanna say though if caught early, fish is still young, it not genetic and it’s lucky fin due to fry fighting and it’s only slight u do have a chance to correct it by the following ways
- Increase water flow in tank
- Mirror training
The theory behind why this works is your are increasing the muscles that hold the fins by encouraging the fish to flare up
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