Several things are thought to greatly reduce the success of cuckoldry to very low %s in non-overfished ponds. They include all the advantages that a large BG male has (nest location , better condition , sperm differences) and the strong likelihood that BG males can tell their young apart from the young of others and eat them and the probable abandonment of their nest (thus no young survival) if they contain large amounts of eggs which are not fertilized by them. In addition it is though that cuckolder %s are further reduced because they remain subject to predation as a result of their reduced size.
So this has me thinking about selective harvest. Is this part of the reason why keeping the largest fish and culling the medium sized fish is beneficial to a pond? I see that recommend very often here on Pond Boss. Keeping the largest fish ensures that the best genetics will be passed on, will somewhat reduce the possibility of cuckolding (not sure if that is the correct terminology), and make energy use of the prime breeders more efficient because less energy is expended in both defending a nest and raising fish that are not it's own young?
