Deb,
Somewhere in an earlier post, you asked for a rancher to comment....well that need has probably been overcome by events now with Bob's excellent post setting the record straight on the genetics, but it did cause me, a rancher (among other things), to think about something.
First, you are exactly right...a brahama x angus, called a Brangus, will never, ever
produce an Angus offspring, in my experience, no matter how many generations you go....hence the green sunfish offspring claim is bogus.
The thing I do not understand when comparing fish crosses to cattle crosses, is the tendency for the offspring of GG, after several generations, to stunt. You've said they were "stunted GG's". Now, my Brangus cows offspring certainly do not stunt after generations. Why, in fish, unlike what I observe in cows, do the hybrids stunt after generations? Is it a genetics thing or something else?
I'm just trying to learn, fish genetics is really interesting to me and something I know very little about. Thanks.
p.s. ahhh thinking more, it must be the "inbreeding"? If I practiced "inbreeding" with cows, it would certainly result in inferior offspring. Is that it? If so, we overcome that in cows by getting rid of all offspring and buying new breeders from an outside line...same thing in GG's I bet. Okay, sorry to think outloud...please correct me if wrong, but I think I've figured it out.
p.s.s that brings up another question, are GG's more prone to effects of inbreeding than say regular BG? They must be because I never get stunted BG from successive generations of inbreeding, at least I've never seen it.
