F1, F2, F3 Help

[Smooth]

I know that F1, F2, F3 means first, second and third generation of fish respectively, but what I don't know is what this means to the fish.

Is a F1 fish going to have stronger genes than a F3 fish? On a PB is it going to have more pepper, or less pepper? Does it even matter?? Stronger or weaker striations or colour?

Would you not buy a fish because it is F3 or F1??

I hope some of the experts can help me and clarify this!!!

Thank you!

[nimbusv]

I am no expert, but i think it will all depend if it crosses with wilds or with farm raised varieties, personally i don't find all that appealing wild caught fish, even though i have an WC Oscar.

Evidently selective breeding will let us have more colorfull and resistance fish. an F4, for instance, after raised in different conditions that the wild ones for several generations, will be more resistant to some trace elements in the woter, that's adaptation working.

[Smooth]

So are you saying the further down it goes the hardier it is going to be?? I'm more worried about the colour the shape and the striations.

Any "experts" willing to give me some information?

[M0oN]

I'm pretty sure it's just to give people an idea of how long they've been tank raised, usually wild caught fish have better parental instincts...

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

F1, F2, etc... refer to the genetic stability of the strain. Say you cross a SS with a Pigeon Blood, the fry from that pair are refered to as the "F1 generation". Now, those fry grow up and mate and have fry of their own, those fry would be refered to as the "F2 generation". The higher the generation, usually the more stable the strain. Which means that in the F1 generation you would have say 40% SS and 45% pidgeon blood and only 15% Pigeon blood SS. In order to get the F2, those fry must grow up and mate. Since the goal is to produce a pigeon blood SS, we select only the few pigeon SS that were in that hatch and inbreed them. The F2 generation will now have a higher percentage of pigeon blood SS because their F1 parents are pigeon blood SS. Now the F2 generation would have 30% SS, 40% pigeon blood and 30% pigeon blood SS. With each generation, and if done correctly, will produce more and more pigeon blood SS up to a certain point.
Discus genetics are very confusing, yet very interesting. Now to answer another one of your questions about purchasing an F1 or F3 discus; it would depend upon the original parental strain and the genetic background of the parents. Most of the time I wouldn't because I want to wait for the breeder to make the strain more stable. I wouldn't normally buy an F1 discus because it would be much harder for me to stablize that strain due to the fact that the breeder would have a much wider selection of fish to choose and I wouldnt have the original pair to back cross with. Now if your going to buy a spotted type discus, then dont bother waiting for the breeder to stabilize the strain because the spotted types are virtually impossible to stabilize due to their genetic background. Almost all of the spotted types are considered F1 or F2. This is because of how few true spotted types are produced with each hatch of fish. That is the reason why a LSS costs so much, that and they are just drop dead gorgeous fish! I hope I have answered some of your quesitons.


-Ryan

Good info. I came across this information just recently. Thanks, Ryan for the details. **Angie**