Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Poodles and St. Bernards

Bobad, I don't know if fish could be selectively bred faster than dogs - one would have to consider the age from birth to being able to reproduce, after showing presence of the traits that the breeder wished to reinforce. My guess is that the two selection rates are roughly equivalent, though.

IIRC Bruce has talked about or at least presented some of the barriers that I think have prevented traditional fish hatcheries from doing significant selection. To truly know which BG are reproducing in his ponds, he has a lot of labor intensive work to drain out the ponds and separate out the next generation of parents.

Then what happens if a highly selected strain is available for sale, gift, or trade? Careless introduction into an existing population 1) exposes those genes to lurkers and cuckholders and 2) likely lacks the small ponds and labor intensive effort needed to maintain the strain in the face of a non-selected popoulation. Kind of like letting your $2,000 pure bred female dog run every night with the neighborhood mongrels - the pups would likely leave a lot to be desired from an AKC viewpoint.

A pond full of fish is a more difficult place to make purebreeds than a kennel, IMHO. Developing and maintaining either fish or dog breeds requires having the breeding be more controlled than what exists in the average fish pond. If you let the breeders take charge of all reproduction, it's much easier to control the offspring. Most ponds and most pond owners don't work that way, I think a higher % of dog owners do.