Quote:
Originally Posted by llewellyn
Thanks for all the info.
This caught my attention. I was told and also personally noticed most breeding arowanas are skinny as bamboo because they are seldom fed. The reasons they give is fish too fat cannot/dont want to breed.
(I disagree). Wouldn't the fish be more willing to breed if there's abundant food?
Will their production actually increase (cost aside) if they feed their breeding stocks adequately (same fish, same water quality , environment) ?
|
What u felt and others have too... is not completely unfounded. Bamboo thin fish wants to breed can possibly be explained with a few reasons.
Mate choice we discussed.
Fish too fat dun breed unlikely. Water too dirty dun breed more likely, dun u think? Feed too much water dirty brood eggs also die what's the point? U would agree most of us keep aros in unnaturally restricted environments. No matter what sort of fantasies we portrayed ourselves to be we r just not that fantastic.
Dominance hierarchy. Have u come across people telling u they have super males... males that always hold eggs year in year out 3-4 times a year kinda alpha male? That's hierarchy. And I have heard enough from local farmers to realise that it may very well occur in those small little ponds of ours... be it 20 or 2000 cube meters. Well... this plays a huge role in mating behavior... and therefore mate choice too.
Survival as a species. When some living things are dying... or when they think they are going to die in a known projected time frame... they propagate... in order to ensure species survival. I'm not sure if all living things possess this survival mechanism... I will not be surprise if many do have it... when science as we know today is just a baby compared to ecological times. Will aro trigger spawn knowing they are going to die? Err... with a mother's last burst of energy to eject eggs and a father's last bit of liver fat to ensure eggs are properly brooded when release from his dying mouth hopefully some would survive eating mosquitoe larvae and from there wait for times to hopefully become better and better? We dun know enough.
On to ur last question... controlled starvation is not going to work as a business model simply becos u r just not fully optimizing ur time and space. Feed more get more... ofcos! But what happens after feeling more?... Water condition, space, hierarchy, survival as a species etc etc?...
More questions only right?... Haha...