I was literally going to ask you a question about size and genetics, and 10 seconds later, you answered the question on the video. You are either a great educator or a mind reader. Either way, it works for me. Keep the genetic information flowing!
Thank you for the kind words. I like to pretend that we are having a conversation when talking about fish. I imagine what questions you might have. Charles
@@philiptucker6691 Yes, but they aren't very productive. I'm hoping that changes with time. I recently set up some of the males with 40 female non-albino peacocks. I intend to mate their female offspring back to the albino males. That should yield 50% albinos. By the way, thanks for the fish. They are very nice. Charles
Thank you. We are working on a setup with a white board to provide more detail about our fishes' genetics. If all works out this week, we'll release a video on our Skyblue OB Peacocks with a genetics discussion at the end. Charles
Your videos are so informative and very much appreciated. I'm particularly excited to hear about the variatus platys, but what you say about any fish seems to extrapolate out to whatever species someone might be interested in.
Thank you. I try to anticipate what you might want to know while I'm talking. It would be fun to have an online meeting someday. Unfortunately, I don't think our internet connection is good enough for that. By the way, next Friday I'll be doing a podcast on Aquarium Co-Op and on Saturday a livestream on Aquarium Co-Op. Charles
I love how you select for size in livebearers, there is something about larger mollies, platies, and swordtails that I like quite a lot. That lighter colored bullfrog tadpole is also interesting, reminds me of the pacific treefrogs that are sometimes a silver color in some areas. Places with more silver/grey frogs also tend to have more blues ones too in my experience though im not sure if the genes are related, there is a rare variation of the pacific tree frog that have varying amounts of blue with some being solid. I suspect that with selective breeding the pacific tree frog could have a lot of morphs quite quickly since they already vary a lot in the wild.
It is an interesting color morph. I set that tadpole aside in a vat with its siblings. I hope to see how it turns out as a frog. I wonder if the Pacific Treefrog colors reflect natural selection or simply founder effect. Is there some reason there are more blues in some areas or is it simply that some prolific ancestor happened to have that coloration. Charles
@@goliadfarms7029 I am not sure if there are any good genetic studies on pacific tree frogs, I will have to look. They are stupidly easy to catch though so its not like getting samples would be hard. Though in general west coast native frogs are much easier to catch then eastern species for whatever reason.
@@Exquailibur If you find any studies, please let me know. Speaking of easy to catch, at night our Bullfrogs don't move until you pick them up. Then they kick like mad. Charles
Those giant Ob blue peacock males looked so awesome. Also I have a question regarding molly fishes that you selected for future breeding one year ago, how do you stop smaller males from spreading their earlier maturing genes in these vats and also is the early maturation same as neoteny in molly fishes?
We remove early mature small males from the breeding colony and stock only large males when we process a vat. Over time, that removes the genes for small size. That process could be faster if we raised virgin females and mated them to only large males, but that is far too labor intensive. Mass selection works. Charles
Fantastic video as always. I did not see any of these on sale on your website. I am assuming you are still rebuilding your colonies? When do you anticipate having some of these for sale? The blue OB's is the fish I am asking about
This is a very hard fish to keep in stock. Our wholesale customers snatch them up as soon as they color. We've set up a second breeding colony to attempt to keep up with the demand. We have several hundred youngsters that should be ready in December. We might give hobbyists first shot at them. Charles
We raised Rams in the past when we were in New Mexico. Our water conditions here are a bit too alkaline and hard for Rams, but we are working on rainwater collection so we can raise softer and more acidic water fish. I may have to set up another greenhouse and recirculating system for such fish. Charles
We have had enquiries about them, but I don't plant to sell them. We have resident Bullfrogs in the greenhouses. They colonized the greenhouses, as did Treefrogs, years ago. They keep down insect populations but probably harvest some sump and gutter fish as well. I need to do a nighttime video of them on the walkways. Since the large Bullfrogs can be cannibalistic, I'll probably release them into our outdoor waterlily pond. Charles
I'm not sure what that means. I'm good with living things, things that breathe, bleed, and breed, but not that much with technology if that is what are suggesting. Charles
