A Momentary Lapse of Reason

[Elcid]

Okay this question:

"Will spotting develop and when without feeding color enhancer?"

The answer is Yes and around 6 months of age.

take care,
Sandeep

[Elcid]

Okay this question:

"What about the overall health of this strain?"

I did not have any difficulty keeping these babies alive. They have only been PP'd twice and Prazi treatment 3 times. When I was travelling to India for 3 weeks a friend came in and fed the fish twice a week, when I came back only 3 fish needed to be culled because they looked skinny. The others looked normal and feeding agressively.

take care,
Sandeep

[Elcid]

"Now 8 or 9 months down the line some of the answers are becoming evident."......

Okay this is a difficult question. My goal was to get atleast a few show quality fish out of the batch.....This I failed in. While I think I will get some pairs eventually and be able to continue with this line the "method" to develop show quality fish needs to be revisited. Perhaps the best way is to feed the fish on only beefheart and keep them separate from the rest of the batch with larger water changes and much more frequent feedings. When you are trying to raise 40 fish in a single 150 gallon tank it is difficult to pay special attention to individuals and without this special attension it is difficult to produce excellent fish!

The number of LSS is much lower than I would expect. I thought I would get atleast a dozen good spotted fish even with the regeime that I have maintained. This is obviously not the case. I do not know if I had color fed them what the percentages would be but anyway that was never part of my goal so it is irrelevant. It is hard for me to speculate whether spotting will continue or the plateau has already been reached. I think perhaps this is the plateau and further spotting development will be marginal without color enhancers.

Now I feel that out of many batches can I produce a few select fish and that it is not true that every batch of LSS will have some select ones.

take care,
Sandeep

[Elcid]

"These fish look a lot different from the LSS being imported yea?"

I must say "HATS OFF" to the Asian breeders - they have mastered the art of producing LSS babies and their ability to produce well shaped healthy and spotted individuals by 2 or 3 inches and profiting from it remarkable! If I were a breeder I could NEVER compete with them and I think it would be foolish for me to try. This may not be the case for "others" as ppl like KC have obviously succeded. But for me it seems the barriers are considerable as well as the costs. SO the breeding is purely for personal satisfaction and general enjoyment of the hobby.

take care,
Sandeep