Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I remember reading somewhere that all dogs were bred from wolves. Hence, wolves have all the genes of all dog breeds we know, but any one breed of dog is a narrower spectrum of those same wolf genes. I do not see why fish would be any different...but then again, I live in the south and may have picked up that thats-far-too-simple gene...

Hi EB,

I studied genetics at uni and you are basically correct. I small number of a species in an isolated gene pool means less diversity so any mutations will spread through out the gene pool. The environment will dictate if these mutations are benificial or detrimental for surival. If the isolated gene pool is extremely lucky and they have a series of benifical mutations then over time a new species may be created by the process of natural selection. The key is the environment dictating the characteristics of the new species.

This is just a theory of course, the other theory is that god just dun it all.

Makes sense to me.

I know with bacteria the scientists say "bacteria are everywhere, nature selects" . I think the theory goes that you would find bacteria in a drop of water here in Australia that is prevalent in yellow stone national park in America - but the environmental conditions don't suit it so it's not prevalent here. Hence the "nature selects". Also why we see AP systems cycle even when there is no starter bacteria added.

There was a show on dogs the other night ("The Secret Life of Dogs") - dogs share 98% of their genes with the wolf. In Russia they bred "Silver Foxes" selected for their nature towards humans and after 3 generations or 50 years they started seeing curly tails and strange markings. This is what they attributed to the variety of dog types - if you select for something that ISN'T what they select in nature then you get all sorts of whacky variation.

If you want to go serious in to it take the time to read this
http://www.cremm.es/ARTICULOS/Selection ... ulture.pdf

I rekon I could sneak this line into a research paper