What It Means To Be A True Breeder.

There are two types of people who breed. One is what I personally call a breeder and the other a person who breeds. Kung baga sa art, one is an artist while the other an artisan. In order for a person to be a true breeder, one criteria has to be met.

When one aspires to be a breeder one must have goals in mind, NOT breeder fish. A breeder starts with a clean slate, like an artist to a canvas. It is with a clean slate that one can realize ones goals. When you already have fish that you want to breed, you will be constrained with the genetics of what you have.

Picture in your mind what you want to produce. Based on that mental picture, choose your breeders carefully making sure that both parents have the traits you are looking for or at least a majority of the traits you need.

Once you breed this, you will have to grow a good cross sectional of these progeny to be able to see which traits expressed and from which parents. This will give you a basic idea of the dominance and recessiveness of the genetic pool that the parents have. If the progeny turns out to be close to your vision, success. If the progeny is nice but did not follow your mental picture of the breed you want to create, it is still a failed breeding (sinuwerte).

A breeder has to have weapons, and the best weapon you need is a minor background in genetics. I have seen and heard many times (even abroad) of people calling their fish F2 etc only to find out that the fish was back crossed to the parents. F means Filial, between siblings (sa magkakapatid in short). When you cross it back to either parents it is called BC or backcross.

Another term that is commonly used erroneously is inbreeding and line breeding. Inbreeding is when you closely breed parents to progeny or siblings (magkakapatid). When you breed around common lines (ie. cousins) that is called line breeding.

Strain is used a lot when people produce fish while crossing 2 unrelated fish. This is called strain creation and not a strain YET. When one does inbreeding or line breeding and have homogenized the traits of the progeny (pag magkakahawig na ang mga supling), that is the only time that you can say that it is already a strain.

I hope I was able to share what little I know to all of you. If you want any clarifications please feel free to add to this or ask me, a mature discussion is always welcome for all of us to learn, including myself.

God bless you all always.

Added Filipino portion for my brothers and sisters from the Philippines, I hope you all do not mind.

My Logical Examination Of The Zzml Name.

I have read a lot of articles and I just got to thinking about the names and all. One thing that sticks out in my mind is calling a zzml a cencu.

As some very intelligent logical thinking by some hobbyist went, mixing a white person and an asian constitutes it becoming a new breed. If per chance the offspring have the full expressions of a white person would we not normally call it a caucasian? and if the offspring had the full genetic expression of an asian, would we not call that offspring asian?

Likewise, in breeding zzml, could we not base the naming of the progeny based on a standard look? I do not see the logic when people say that a zzml is a cencu off the bat without seeing the fish. It is also the basis of me agreeing that having a strain, you may be able to get two strains off that.

Another logical way of thinking is when you cross a black angel fish with an albino, you will get a high percentage of blacks and mixes, and possibly a few albinos (of course a lot of those mixes are also heterozygous for albinism but that is another story). Would you consider those albinos still black angels? I highly doubt so, because the basis for us naming a fish is the physical expression of its genetic traits.

Why use the physical traits? Simply because flowerhorns are hybrids. If you were to take a DNA sample of a kamfa, a cencu, or a kamalau (shudder the thought) I can almost guarantee you that a high percentage of its DNA (80% or more) would be the same, just in different quantities. I mean seriously, how many species of central american cichlids were present in Malaysia during the time these were made, probably not more than 8. Hence, I concur with the way Indonesians and REAL Malaysian breeders ( as opposed to those merely selling) do their naming, BASED ON PHYSICAL EXPRESSIONS.

Breeders in Indonesia and I myself for that matter, have called our creations (country of origin) malau. This is to signify that there is kamalau blood in what we have created, and to note the country of origin. It is up to those that buy to see if the products are up to their standards. It is up to the creators of the breed to name them however way they see it fit. Only the person breeding the fish can claim the name, it is his right as well as it is his effort.

It is during a show that the judges and criterias are made. Currently, only the Indonesians have a comprehensive judging system and as such, I personally am using that. When the judges in Malaysia (Aquarama 09 here we come!) are back and active, everybody will see how the true judging criterias are set. We will not have to rely on old outdated books, hearsay, and personal agendas (passed on as facts) since everything will be set in black and white.

God bless you all always

Breeding Journal 10-06-08

Decided to make all of you a part of my breeding program. I hope to be able to update all of you on the successes and failures my breeding has encountered. Hope this is educational.















God bless you all always

Making Of A New Strain

I finally decided to start creating a new strain. I figured its time to add more things while my experiments are growing. My first pair met each other today, hopefully love is in the air.

Primo - Sample Of My Breeding

This is PRIMO my first born fish. Just breeding and hoping to make something nice. I hope you all like him. He is now 3 inches in size. Turned a bit dark after the camera flashed so I hope you don't mind him with the stress bars, he is a very shy fish.









God bless you all always