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Articles would be fantastic.

The problem being nobody knows the answers.

If you use the search facility, Bulldog you will find a thread 135 posts long, with contributions from many breeders, and covered many points with no conclusion.

This thread was made sticky by McEve.

This deformity as far as I know is unique to loricariids, and in L46's in particular ( Perhaps because reports of breeding are more frequent ).

As for stunted growth etc, which is not unique to L46's, this has been covered in many reference books, magazines etc.

Take care

Dave

an article about this would have to be aimed at just showing the deformities we know can occur, show examples of it. This would make it easier for buyers to know what to look out for when buying fish. Especially first time buyers... When I was offered this fish the seller didn't know there was anything wrong with it, so there might be a need for information about these issues...

I wonder if the Germans have come any closer to figure out what's causing isnubnoses..

McEve wrote:an article about this would have to be aimed at just showing the deformities we know can occur, show examples of it. This would make it easier for buyers to know what to look out for when buying fish. Especially first time buyers... When I was offered this fish the seller didn't know there was anything wrong with it, so there might be a need for information about these issues...

An article like this would be helpful for everybody

With reference to inter-breeding, someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe when breeding for bloodlines (like for champion dogs, etc), it is thought OK to breed down the line, not across. So mother to son, or father to daughter, but not brother and sister. I do not know if this is relevant to fish, or how long that can go on before abnormalities occur, but it's just one of those bits of info I've picked up over the years. Do with it what you will...

With reference to the post re breeding offspring back to parents.

This is a method to emphasize particular traits and fix them.

It is a method commonly used in Guppy, Swordtail, Discus breeding, plus many other fish and animals.

The traits that tend to be fixed in fish are colour and longfins.

While adopting this method for 1 or 2 generations is unlikely to cause much change, and is genetically more beneficial than breeding brother to sister, the long term effect can be to produce fish that have no resemblance to the wild type..

Take care

Dave

My two cent...I'm not a breeder or expert but from a past few years of reading this fourm, abnormality and deformity can happen to offsprings of WC zebras...

Lifted193 wrote:abnormality and deformity can happen to offsprings of WC zebras...

I don't think the abnormality we see in Zebras today are due to inbreeding. We don't have enough generations to know what can happen in case of inbreeding with Zebs

Snubnose happens in Loricariidae in the wild as well. The theory why we rarely see them is that they probably wouldn't survive in the wild. Considering the nose is a very important sensory organ, they would probably fall easier to prey than the others. Just a theory mind you.

So the reason why it's a good idea to keep track of the genetic variation is to avoid problems in the future, which might show to be completely different abnormalities than we see today.

The reason why I made the poll was to see if somebody do have F1's or F2's (term made in the hobbyist sence, not the genetic) to see how far we have come, and to see succesful breedings of captive bred fish

I don't know how far down the line my zebras are

- Angela

Did I breeze over the post too fast, or is it noone has any record of breeding from wild caught offspring? As far as inbreeding is concerned this is not an issue until many generations especially in any type of fish, why is this even being discussed in this particular post?