How do we get the Picasso Clown?
- Thread starter Elan L.
- Start date
I think it comes down to Intelligently Designed Darwinism. In other words, if you talk to a clownfish breeder, they'll usually get a few fish that have some strange stripe patterns. If you take those oddballs and pair them off, then you get some more oddballs. After a few generations, you occasionally get something along the lines of a picasso. Either that, or it's alien technology.
ssirishpride
New member
Proud "Puggle" owner here. Also have been known to own a few "Picasso Clown Fish" over the years. You have to love mother nature.
Fish appear more tolerant of inbreeding than dogs, but with sufficient inbreeding it is common to see malformed bodies, mouths, misbars etc. Many of the morphs getting high dollars at the moment are really the result of inbreeding. If you were looking to maintain wild type genetics, things like snowflakes would be culls to feed the groupers.
BlastoEric1589
New member
what does it matter how they got the stripes if you're nuts enough to pay the exorbitant amount those guys go for??? Its kinda silly in light of the fact that they're nearly impossible to buy anyhow
OwenInAZ
New member
Well, eye color isn't really a selectable trait (unless we're talking light tolerance in the evolutionary past or something), whereas inbreeding often brings out recessive mutations that would otherwise be covered up by their wild-type counterpart on the other chromosome. Not sure what, exactly, occurs in clownfish, but it's entirely possible consistently inbred lines could have some sort of increased susceptibility to disease, improper skeletal alignment, etc. Either way, David's statement is a perfectly cromulent one.
I guess my thing is, there are plenty of other, neat looking clownfish that cost far far less. The money I save could go towards other things. I realize that may just be me though
coralnut99
New member
There are lots of examples of what selective breeding can produce, given enough time and effort. I think most of us remember the standard silver and black FW angelfish that every LFS used to sell. Now you'd be hard pressed to find anything that resembles those colors. If anybody's seen a pearlscale koi angelfish, the first reaction is where did the orange and white colors come from? I dare say the Picasso isn't the last color morph you'll see coming from ORA, and over time the price will come back down to earth as more breeders perfect the process. It's just a matter of time.
freddy4130
In Memoriam
It has more to do with the angle of the organ as it goes into the female. And what record is playing, of course.
And then there is this: I once had a clownfish breeder (not ORA!)approach me with a question about dosage for L-thyroxine - something I had used to try and treat goiter in fish. It turns out he was only interested in using it as a possible trigger for developmental changes in clownfish larva. When I expressd my displeasure at feeding him information for using this compound in that fashion, he broke off communication, so I'll never know if his fish got into the market or not.
IIRC, there are other things that can be done to developing eggs and larva to change the phenotype of the fish; high pressure and methyl testosterone. In some cases, the morphology of the fish is changed due to problems in culture - stunted bodies, etc. I once had a conjoined cichlid that I had assumed must have been a genetic problem, but then I learned that it was simply a physical deformity caused by two eggs being mouth-brooded being stuck together.
Jay
IIRC, there are other things that can be done to developing eggs and larva to change the phenotype of the fish; high pressure and methyl testosterone. In some cases, the morphology of the fish is changed due to problems in culture - stunted bodies, etc. I once had a conjoined cichlid that I had assumed must have been a genetic problem, but then I learned that it was simply a physical deformity caused by two eggs being mouth-brooded being stuck together.
Jay
freddy4130
In Memoriam
Or you could just throw on some Village People. That's the key to making the Picasso. Tune in next week for the secret to breeding snowflakes.
Not all genetic defects are bad. Some times they result in advantages and disadvatages. However when its an advantage
you get evolution wich means Picasso's could live longer than other breads. So its not realy a defect so much as gentic soup you just dont know what your going to get, nature does it everyday.
you get evolution wich means Picasso's could live longer than other breads. So its not realy a defect so much as gentic soup you just dont know what your going to get, nature does it everyday.
freddy4130
In Memoriam
I had a goldfish that was born of an iguana egg. Now that's evolution. Apparently I had kept too large of a water bowl in the iguana cage. Evolution figures out that it (iguana) would be safer as a gold fish.
