Breeder Selection • Redfin Blue Maculatus

Featuring: Breeder Selection
Starring: Redfin Blue Maculatus
Goliad Farms Tropical Fish Hatchery

[@caewalker9276]

Fish always look better in the sun. Thanks again for all that you do.

[@goliadfarms7029]

There are many benefits of sunlight besides colors, but I agree. Charles

[@lohitkumar9369]

Wonderful colours!

[@goliadfarms7029]

I think it's a nice color combination. Charles

[@laurasutton4057]

Very pretty fish. Colors already pop.

[@goliadfarms7029]

It is a nice color combination. I look forward to adding lyretail and plumetail to this line in the future. Charles

[@timaitken2277]

Those sure are some pretty fish.

[@goliadfarms7029]

Thank you. I like them. Charles

[@COOPERSCICHILDS]

Your the master breeder salute 🙌👏🙏

[@goliadfarms7029]

A lot of being a good breeder is raising a lot of fish to select breeders from. Charles

[@COOPERSCICHILDS]

@@goliadfarms7029 truth

[@goliadfarms7029]

@@COOPERSCICHILDS I like to look for that one in a hundred great fish. The more hundreds you raise the better odds you'll get that fish. Charles

[@MasterPhotographer]

That’s going to be a very unique color combination. I’ll be looking forward to seeing how they progress.

[@goliadfarms7029]

It is a pleasing combination of colors. Once I get the population up, I'm going to add lyretail and plumetail. Charles

[@MasterPhotographer]

Charles, I’ll be waiting to see them.😁

[@fisherguy45]

The colour is already very impressive and the thickness of all your fish proves what a master breeder you are. Thank you again for all these videos and explanations.

[@goliadfarms7029]

Thank for your kind words. Charles

[@rocket5557]

I love all your fish but I am especially happy to see the livebearers getting some camera time also!

[@goliadfarms7029]

We processed the cichlids first, so they got all the earlier video exposure. We'll do lots more livebearers in a couple of months when we start processing the breeding colonies recently set up. Charles

[@SchutzReborn]

This explains so much as to why my siblings and I have such crooked spines. Thank you, good fish keeping.

[@goliadfarms7029]

I suspect you and your siblings have characteristics that more than offset your spines. Charles

[@FoxyFoxyShazam]

Nice looking fish already! Also, I’m giddy about hearing more about your goodieds! A. Splendins is a bucket list fish for me.

[@goliadfarms7029]

Well, we'll see how our four surviving Ameca do. Those four fish should impart some cold and ammonia resistance to their offspring. Charles

[@nrfishinman009]

Great looking fish Charles!

[@goliadfarms7029]

Thank you. This is a strain in progress. Charles

[@dirtyoldfarmhand3]

Wonderful.

[@goliadfarms7029]

They are pretty fish I think. Charles

[@brianleestafford3394]

Gorgeous live bearers I need a school of those

[@goliadfarms7029]

We will probably start offering this strain next year after a little more selection for uniformity. Charles

[@audrameyer9558]

Those are amazing! I love high fin platties. They are hearty and fun to breed.

[@goliadfarms7029]

I'm looking forward to adding lyretail and plumetail to this strain. Charles

[@douglasmarshall3273]

So interesting about inbreeding to select AGAINST a trait. That’s Cool!

[@goliadfarms7029]

Inbreeding is a great tool. Someday I'll do a video with a whiteboard and markers and show how you can remove a deleterious gene from a population using inbreeding. Charles

[@douglasmarshall3273]

@@goliadfarms7029 that would be amazing! I love this stuff.

[@goliadfarms7029]

@@douglasmarshall3273 I will do it! Charles

[@RobertKeeney]

I like these like they are.

[@goliadfarms7029]

I want a little more uniformity of color. I'd like to get rid of the metallic blue. Also, I plan to add lyretail and plumetail to the line. Charles

[@theGamingtrees]

I would love to see a video of the setup you breed these guys in

[@goliadfarms7029]

We will be processing the livebearer breeding colonies starting in August and will take the time to show the entire process from collection, cleaning, and set up. Charles

[@theGamingtrees]

@@goliadfarms7029 thank you sir I find what you've done very inspiring

[@PradoDiana]

That was so interesting! Beautiful fish! Thank you

[@goliadfarms7029]

Thank you. It's an interesting little fish. Charles

[@willieb66]

Wow, what a fish!

[@goliadfarms7029]

It is a nice fish. The strain needs a bit more work to be consistently good, but it'll get there. Charles

[@trishkcmo3683]

Nice platy.

[@goliadfarms7029]

Thank you. I like them. Charles

[@egyaquatic7348]

Nice

[@goliadfarms7029]

Thank you. I think I'm going like this strain after some improvements. Charles

[@petery4801]

👌👌👌❤❤❤

[@goliadfarms7029]

Thank you for watching. Charles

[@Exquailibur]

Those are some wonderful fish and I hope to see what comes of them. It is interesting though how inbreeding works, inbreeding and hybridization are major factors for speciation with certain fish having very small genetic sample sized, the most extreme example i know is the Devil's hole pupfish which only live in one water filled cavern in Arizona, they have such a small range that there are often less than a hundred breeding adults, from what I've read the adult population ranges from as few as 30 to as many as 500.

[@goliadfarms7029]

Inbreeding gets bad press, but is a very effective tool. The most inbred fish I know of is a line of Xiphophorus maculatus that has been brother/sister inbred for over 140 generations. The line was started by Dr. Myron Gordon and is being continued by the Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center at Texas State University. See this website for more information: www.xiphophorus.txstate.edu/resources/galleries/starsofthestockcenter.html Charles

[@foreverautumn2315]

I have some platys that are very similar to those... interesting thing I noticed is they don't breed well, the females never seem to have any young, and when they do they only have a few and those rarely survive, and the females are full grown fish. The red wag platys I had shipped from the same hatchery at the same time, they breed like crazy under the same conditions as the others. No idea why...

[@goliadfarms7029]

That's interesting. I've gotten fish that I suspected were treated to prevent reproduction, but since other fish from the same place are doing well, that probably isn't the problem. If you get any fry surviving to adulthood, try breeding from them. They may have not inherited whatever is causing the infertility of your adults. Charles

[@Poeseewi]

cool, I am working on a green body redfin platy

[@goliadfarms7029]

Nice. I'd like to see photos. You can email me at [e-mail] if you have any. Charles

[@johnalbernaz8960]

Hi Mr. Clappsaddle ,great video really enjoy the sub video. I have a question on inbreeding , doesn't to much inbreeding weaking geno. Please correct me . Thank you John Massachusetts

[@jefflittle8913]

Inbreeding weakens some of the immediate children. These weakened offspring have fewer children, so the grand children will be more related to the parents that don't even have one copy of the allele that weakens the fish. In other words, because the problems of bad alleles are forced into the open, selection works far better against the issues caused by these alleles. Of course this can become irrelevant if you are looking at fish that have already been inbred a lot (for example, if the population comes from an isolated pond).

[@goliadfarms7029]

Inbreeding allows for the concentration of beneficial genes if you practice careful breeder selection. Most of our domestic animals and plants are highly inbred. Without inbreeding modern farming and ranching wouldn't be nearly as productive. There is a line of Xiphophorus maculatus at the Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center at Texas State University that has been inbred by brother/sister matings for over 140 generations. They are healthy. Here's a link about that: www.xiphophorus.txstate.edu/resources/galleries/starsofthestockcenter.html Charles

[@ricodegallo3060]

👍

[@goliadfarms7029]

Thank you. I can't wait improve this strain. Charles

[@ricodegallo3060]

@@goliadfarms7029 they look great. I’m glad to see you bouncing back from the freeze.

[@elissajackson5140]

I can't wait until you have some for sale. How did this group make it through the cold?

[@goliadfarms7029]

The individual fish and strains that were more cold hardy survived. They had the genes that allowed them to tolerate not only the cold but also the ammonia spike due to all the decaying fish in the system. Charles

[@psychedelichippocampus6226]

💥💖

[@goliadfarms7029]

Thank you for watching. Charles

[@cadenceedmonds813]

I do wonder about their susceptibility to disease as a population with that degree of inbreeding, I remember it was a major issue discussed in my conversation genetics class. Have you noticed an impact on the hardiness of highly inbred strains?

[@Vinenz]

Id like to know too given how awful the deeply inbred Rams are.

[@goliadfarms7029]

There is always that risk. As a example, I once had large population of Limia perugiae that originated from six initial breeders. The population resulted from generations of breeding with colonies of about six males and 40 to 50 females. Later, we got some Limia vittata and after quarantine added them to our recirculating system. Within days the L. perugiae began dying. There were no symptoms except for death. All of the hundreds we had died within a couple of weeks. No other fish of any species were lost. The fish pathologist we sent the fish to couldn't find anything. A couple of years later we got some more L. perugiae. After they were quarantined, they were added to the system. I waited for problems, but there were none. I suspect the L. vittata had carried in a virus that didn't bother them or our other fish, but was deadly to the inbred L. perugiae. Apparently the second population of L. perugiae didn't have the genetic defect that caused the demise of the first population. Despite all of that, we have some highly inbred fish that are robust and hale. Inbreeding can also allow the concentration of genes for good health. Charles

[@goliadfarms7029]

Along with inbreeding, one must always carefully select breeders for health and form. Charles

[@iamgreg3834]

Do you have any tips for breeding lyretail swords? Starting to get a breeding stock put together with a few LT females. was hoping to crosse them with some different colored swords and platys.

[@goliadfarms7029]

I like to use the non-lyretail sons of the best lyretail females as breeders. I assume you know that lyretail males are functionally sterile. They produce sperm, they just can't deliver it due to their elongated ventral and anal fins. Poeciliidae females such as swords and platies complicate breeding programs because they store sperm from earlier matings. Therefore, once a female has been exposed to males, it is (absent genetic markers) to determine the male parent of her offspring. One solution is raising virgin females which is a tedious task. But I've found that new sperm tends to outcompete stored sperm, so keeping a previously mated female with a new male for a couple of breeding cycles tends to favor the sperm of the new male. Let's look at a couple of situations. First let's assume you have red lyretail swordtail females and want to create a redwag lyretail swordtail and you have some good redwag sword males. The wag pattern in swords and platies requires three different genes, but you don't really have to know that to be successful. Simply place your males with the lyretail females. Any fry with wag fathers will have a black bar or black stripes on the caudal. They won't be wags. Take any lyretail females with those black markings and mate them to a wag male. That mating will produce some redwag lyretails. Use the best redwag lyretail females as mates for the best of their redwag (non-lyretail) brothers. That mating will fix your redwag lyretail sword strain. To improve it always use the best lyretail females and the best non-lyretail sons of your fish. Next is the introduction of lyretail into platies. If you are starting with lyretail sword females, mate them with the your best male platy. Even ignoring any genetic color markers, the hybrids will be apparent since they will have body shapes intermediate to swords and platies. Take the best hybrid lyretail females and mate them to the best platy males. Depending on the color genes you are working with it might take several generations of backcrossing the lyretail females with the platy males to get what you want. I probably should do a video about this since it is easier to talk about than to write about. Charles

[@iamgreg3834]

@@goliadfarms7029 Some great info here! I am still in the very early stages and trying to get everything set up just right. A video on this would be wonderful! As I can probably use all the help i can get! :) All the best, and happy fish keeping! Greg

[@tmiller9099]

Are the Maculatus as cool tolerant as the Variatus type?

[@goliadfarms7029]

Judging from the results of the 2021 Texas Winter Storm, I'd say they are almost as cold hardy as variatus type xiphophorines. And, surprising to me, both the maculatus type and variatus type survived better than the swordtails. Charles

[@BicolBackyardAquaria]

One question though, what is the difference between maculatus and variatus type of platies?

[@goliadfarms7029]

Wild platies come in a variety of species in the genus Xiphophorus, which also includes swordtails. Two of those platy species are Xiphophorus maculatus and X. variatus. X. maculatus has a rounder body than X. variatus. X. variatus has more dorsal fin rays than X. maculatus. There are other differences that experienced breeders can recognize. Basically, Maculatus-type platies most resemble X. maculatus and Variatus-type platies most resemble X. variatus. That distinction isn't always easy to make. We use those terms rather than apply the scientific names since commercial platies are hybrids, primarily of X. maculatus, X. variatus, and X. hellerii (the green swordtail). Hybrids should never be given scientific names since they don't below to a species. Charles

[@Mutlap]

inbreeding from my experience transfer and build on desired characteristics . The problem is most breeders inbreed too much and destroy the line.

[@goliadfarms7029]

Inbreeding is a great tool if used judiciously. Breeder selection is critical. For an interesting inbreeding situation, go to www.xiphophorus.txstate.edu/resources/galleries/starsofthestockcenter.html and see how generations (over 100 generations of brother/sister matings) of inbreeding isn't detrimental. Charles