F1 and Wildcaught fish

[electricyellowz]

Just a quick question.

I was inquiring about purchasing some f1 or wildcaught fish and I was wondering if it could be proven that the fish was wildcaught or f1 or do you just have to trust the seller?

Thanks,

Ben

[parkesg]

Generally you just need to trust the seller. I have 'wildcaught' and have no way of proving to anybody they are wild, I had to just trust the one who sold to me, and so the cycle continues.

[electricyellowz]

Thanks for clearing that up for me parkesg.

Ben

[AlexJordan]

While I doubt it's necessary in this instance, it's possible to roughly determine generation time from wild stocks by looking at the reduction in heterozygosity (genetic variation within an individual). Fish that have been bred within a small pool of individuals will gradually lose this variation, eventually leading to inbreeding depression and heritable deformities. Thus, if you were suspicious that your 'wild-caughts' were actually just european stock, you could, in theory, find out (if you had enough money)

[robdog013]

but where do you go to trace a family tree of fish? who documents this information?

sorry just curious

[electricyellowz]

but where do you go to trace a family tree of fish? who documents this information?

sorry just curious

Thats why I started this thread because I wanted to know aswell.

[AlexJordan]

You wouldn't need to know the family structure in the case of the method I describe, only a random sample of actual wild fish. You could then compare the wild stock with the 'wildcaught' stock and check for any signs of non-random mating (as would occur if a small group was removed from the larger population and bred amongst themselves). So, no need for a cyprichromis family tree

Although, thinking about it, you could do it via family trees by comparing the fish at the importers house (or European bloodlines or wherever you think you might be getting shafted) with your own to check if the breeder is selling you F1 or F2 from his/her wildcaughts. That would be fairly straightforward...