Comments welcome

[briztoon]

I came across the following quote on a local forum, and would like to know if it is true or not, and if it is true, is there any relevant literature on the internet that I can read.

Thanks for your time.


As for Discus, I'm not opposed to hybridization at all, and the reason being is that hybridization is happening in the wild to such an extent that collectors are now finding wild pigeon bloods, wild snake-skins and numerous other 'man-made' strains. According to 'exotic discus of the world' (which is renowned for its content) we (humans) are about 10 years ahead of mother nature in terms of cross / inbreeding to create new strains. That being said, I think the constant in-breeding / line-breeding of discus needs to be closely monitored (especially amongst larger scale breeding programs) so that we dont end up with a 90% deformity rate amongst fry. That being said, the constant line / in-breeding has resulted in two of the most sought after new strains of discus (which are really just deformities), the bulldog discus and the long fin discus.

At the end of the day, even if you are buying a wild discus from the LFS, you can safely assume that it has previous hybridized with another species (due to there being so many wild strains) in the wild. But I guess this is just my way of thinking.

[swampy1972]

That's an interesting opinion. I look firward to hearing the responses from the very experienced breeders on this forum.
Where did you find this article and did the writer reference any published studies apart from the one book?
Personally, I'm not a fan of the Bulldog or longfin strains. Hybridizing for colour is one thing but I believe changing the overall form of the species is going too far. JMO

[Hollowman]

What a load of old claptrap!!!!

Whoever wrote that has got it all wrong or mis-interpreted what he has been told or read.
Ok, I agree that there is hybridation within the wilds of the Amazon, but I would rely on Heiko to explain that as he is the only man who has recorded this informatiom from his personal research. The different strains in the wild though do come from vastly different areas of the Amazon, so cross breeding is by it's own virtue would be difficult/impossible due to being sometimes hundreds and hundres of miles apart.

There have been reports of PB's in the wild, but these reports from my knowledge have only been from fish purposely released by people who know no better. A bit like the introduction of rabbits into Aus'

As for 'us' humans being 10 years ahead of mother nature in creating new strain...ha ha ha!! rubbish.!!
We as humans have the ability to maniplulte nature to such a degree that we have pushed breeding/interbreeding/crossing/back-crossing to such an extent that 'we' have produced strians that mother nature could only dream about.
The bulldog is a deformity of the spine, it is not a sought after type of fish by those who know what a discus should look like. Show me a winner of an international show that is a bulldog. As part of my judges training we discussed bulldogs, and although some people like the deformed look, the fish is still deformed, that's it. You can say the same for the long finned varieties, these are just another fad, and another way for some breeders to make more money, it does nothing for the strengthening of the gene pool. I will never own a bulldog or a long finned fish.
For all that we like to see more brightly coloured fish, spot, stripes, solid, albino, strains, for me they should still hold the values of the classic shape of the wild fish of the Amazon.

The last part of the statement, about 'even wild fish from a lfs'etc etc , again, rubbish. Wild strains will breed amongst themselves as nature has done throughout history. I would ask the poster to try to breed wild caught fish, and see just how hard it is to do in captivity.

Just my few penny's worth. Anyone can disagree with what I have said, but the poster is talking from hearsay and rumor I think. :roll:

H