Re: NANFA-L-- Re: the aquarium hobby as conservator of

Mysteryman (bestfish-in-alaweb.com)
Fri, 12 May 2006 13:02:12 -0700

>... animals are often
> genetically more plastic than we give them credit for.
>
>Michael
>/
>

And even if they weren't, here's a question:
If tankraised fish can't be called wild anymore, and if they're not
suited for release, then what about their fry? What if very young fry
are released instead of adults? Those fry wouldn't have learned any any
bad behaviors from captivity, and would quickly start using their
instinct, wouldn't they? Fry can be cranked out in a lab by the
bajillions, yeilding a much higher number than if wild-hatched, and even
if only a relative few of those survive as normal, the sheer number of
them should result in a higher total number of surviving new adults,
shouldn't it? It would of course be very tempting to raise the fry a
little bit longer to get them past any critical risk stages, but is it
feasible to figure out how long they could be tanked before they started
to lose their wild hunting behavior?
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