awesome, so happy for ya.
love a good circular arguement

considering these fish evolved from pretty much one or two ancestors
and hybrids are found naturally in the lakes
espec Lake Victoria when the waters a bit murky
I fail to see the problem.

explosive radial evolution really should enter a new phase in aquarists
tanks
whether thru hybrids or geographic isolation
Yes it is important to preserve bloodlines in the big picture
but when people flip out about what others do in their tanks
to their fish
it just steps over a line.

Now I apologise if I was a bit blunt before
god knows you Poles have had a pretty rough time of it
And those of you left were either somehow smarter or better at hiding.
so kudos to you and your kin for that
But such a narrow viewpoint is just..... frustrating.

how can milking fish create weak young?
the pack is still gonna thin the herd any chance it gets
cichlids are good at that
why not do your best to begin with the the largest amount possible?
I have lost valuable mouthfuls to things like small bits of shellgrit,
hungry mums or horny males that could have been so easily avoided.
as to natural there really is no way to simulate some of the female cichlids
behaviour in a tank
many migrate on mass to spit

the fact is they are pets
and aquarists are the least natural things to select survival
I mean we don't even see the same markings most of the time
due to different vision spectrums
we cull to aesthetics not too traits that help avoid predators
or gather foods
to the average joe
what does it matter which fry survive
and how can one tell a healthy adult fish from a 10mm baby?
aside from obvious twin tails and curved spines anyway.

In all my time I have never seen any change in parenting ability
of fry depending on whether they were milked or spat
it's genetic not learned

yes if your whole mission is to create a biotype
to try 'study' your pets
then go for it
but if you just want to breed some of your pets then
milking offers a very easy alternative
that can be done with virtually no effort

using a pop top bottle to squirt water from the aquarium
into a fishes mouth and flush the fry out
into a bucket of aquarium water
takes 2 seconds, and 24 hours later the mother is swimming around normal

some fish are less suitable than others
my electric yellows I allow to go el 'natural as I get better results
but the rest face the squirt bottle.
I have been so successful with this method
that it deserves a bit of defence on my part.

I enjoy breeding fish
I enjoy having tanks of fry greet when I get home
If I have to use vet administered hormone injections to spawn catfish
that would normally need to school in the hundreds to trigger a spawn
I do it.
If I need to hang a light bulb 24 hours a day over baby clowns to stop them
battering themselves on tank walls I do it.
If I need to give rainbows 4 morning periods every 24 hours to cover my mops
in eggs I do it.

Those that choose to not, are welcome to not.
but theres no need to restrict yourself to one way
and no reason to parrot the same old same old
this hobby has enough weird rules and sayings that really don't help.

Mbuna for example crowd well
I defie anyone to prove that and overstocked over rocked tank full of mbuna
are unhappy if maintained well

I aslo fail to see how someone keeping a spawn of hybrids
can hurt anyone or any fish anywhere in the world.
Just irrational.

I also don't follow how producing quantity has anything to do with quality
and how a human can even pick quality 99% of the time.
A skilled aquarist can pump out quality and quantity with a good game plan.

Now I realise this conversation has no end point.
I also realise it probably looks to an outsider like a bitch session
But I ask you is it not better than the rest of the porno spam on here?

If only more people would have a convo.
You don't need to agree or disagree with anything
But we all learn from how others do things
otherwise I wouldn't be here wasting me time on usenet

as to whether it's worth milking common mbuna
whose holding skills are legendary
and breed just to spite you
I dunno
zebs, rustys and fullys are not going to die out anytime soon

On the other hand many big Utaka have ****house holding skills
and breeders of these do much better at milking
some mothers are prone to spitting early
or swallowing
and in these cases being able to milk
throw together a fry saver
and feed back up the mum
saves a hell of a lot of repeated dissappointment

A hybrid cichlid sporting it's vigour
makes the perfect tank cycler
and heck that rough mbuna cross may just well fit into a super aggro
south american display
that no other african could survive.

If I have learned one thing in life
it's that theres more than one way to skin a cat
translate that accross to picking up mines and it can save your life
translate it to fish, and it can lead to a stress free
and fun hobby
when we get set in our ways
we miss things.

If my comments are truely apprieciated by the purists here
I can just unsubscribe
I don't need to be right
I don't need to win
But I have had a lot of success breeding aquatic life
have thru trial and error or research or watching others
learnt many of the easier ways to do things

I have also had the satisfaction of flooding the market with the fry from my
favourite fish.
I have raised batches of hybrids to study them
to see something new to me
and learn how the traits are divided
At times I have tried to pass on things I have learnt
For to know is to teach
and to teach is to learn
many times these have caused feathers to rustle
so many times they blur to one.

there will always be new ways to do things
and always be people argueing about old ways that worked as well
the milking convo has gone on since
Egyptian mouthbrooders hit the scene
and that was a long long time ago
To say that any side has proved one method to be worse than the other
is silly
Its a see-saw

I say once you pass 20 tanks
you will be a milking convert
and then when ya go back to 1 tank
it will be a hard habit to break

as I said
circular convo with no end and no begining
just people with there own tanks doing what they want
ya can't make people do more frequent partial water changes
let alone kill their first spawn
all ya can do is educate them with your own experiences and let them choose
their own path

Takes all types and people like me
we stock shops
you breed **** fish no one buys them next time
you practise bad husbandry and the guy down the road makes you look bad
I like my fish alot
and I put the welfare of my charges above all else
If I thought milking was negatively effecting them
I would stop it straight away
But as it stands I am happy to defend milking/stripping


Swarvegorilla





PEACE FOREVER