The easiest way to select for large fish would be to create an inbred strain. Take two prize individuals and breed them in isolation. Raise the fry to adult size, select the largest individuals again, and breed them together. Repeat. In just a few generations you will have your monster bass. The thing is, you will have created huge fish, but you will have compromised their genetic fitness by inbreeding.
One problem with selecting for any particular trait for LMB that then are released into ponds is the different type of selective pressure present in the pond. Those 30,000 fry in your pond from your prize pairing selected for huge size are going to be subjected to intense selection for fitness, which is not the same thing as large adult size. There will be genetic variability among those 30,000, and over time, natural selection will inevitably work against you. The selection could be maintained in cages of fish carefully fed and monitored as a 'purebred' stock, but once released into a pond and allowed to reproduce (even as the sole LMB strain) the selection would be lost over time.
Put simply, the "best bass" from among those fry will likely not grow the largest in the wild. Nature is selecting for those individuals best adapted to surviving that environment, not for those most likely to be hung as trophies on the office wall.
Best case scenario, there would be genetic 'herds' of purebred LMB carefully maintained somewhere. Fish from these ponds could be planted and grown out, but long-term maintenance of this phenotype in a pond would be difficult.
Last edited by Bocomo; 05/29/12 01:46 AM.
