Are runts genetically weaker?

[henryD]

I have thought about this for awhile. Are runts genetically weaker? Maybe the reason we don't see any wild runts is that they tend to get eaten in the wild. Survival of the fittest and all that jazz.

What is everyone's experience? When you tanks get slamed with disease outbreak or some bad water is your runts the ones that tend to get hit the hardest?

No matter how hard I try I always end up with 1 runt in a tank. It does not matter if it is a tank of 10 or a tank of 20 discus. There always seem to be one. I have noticed that when the Sh.t hit the fan. The runts tend to be hit the hardest. So maybe they could work like a prealert system.

What is everyone's experiences?

Henryd

[daninthesand]

My experiences are similar. Runts are just part of the whole deal. No doubt the wild has loads of runts too. I doubt we see any of them though because the discus collectors throw those back!

Growth stunting in the captive aquarium is from many sources. it could be genetic, or of course water and food qualtiy issues as well as disease.

Then there's that infamous growth inhibiting hormone.... ::)

Daniel