Replacing my breeding female!

KMatysek

Member
Sadly, we lost our breeding female Ocellaris. They only just started spawning last November. They spawned a batch last night, and I guess that was it for her. Found her dead when I got home tonight.

She was at least 7 and they had been paired for maybe 3 years before spawning. I now need to decide whether to provide him a juvenile from one his own hatches or whether I should really get fresh genes. Any advice?

Also, if I do pair him with one of his own, I'm somewhat tempted to keep one of the more unique mis-bars from our hatches. Would that be a mistake (ie, are the mis-bars genetic or random developmental differences)? And how long might it take before we're spawning again? This wasn't something we were trying for, but now that we've had several successful hatches, I'm not going to know what to do with myself! (My youngest goes off to college in the fall and this was to be one of my distractions!)

Kathy
 
Sorry for your loss.
I've always been a big proponent of introducing new genes wherever possible.
 
I'd personally go outside his offspring if possible...backcrossing helps 'fix' traits..good and bad...better to get nice robust fish than potentially weak fish...

MP
 
Thanks for the sympathy and advice! I feel pretty badly for him caring for this batch on his own (there's a spiny star who's favorite spot is right behind their host and dad's having a tough time keeping his long legs away from the eggs - I'm walking a find line between helping to shoo him away without scaring poor dad!).

I'll go purchase an unrelated juvenile as soon as this batch has hatched. I'm sad to lose her but I am looking forward to 'seeing' the transformation of gender (we had it happen earlier but I was ignorant to it at the time).

Kathy
 
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