# Inbreeding?



## Uncle Rico (Sep 4, 2005)

My school of piranhas were bred from siblings (which had unrelated parents). They are very healthy and active, and are actually very brave for reds. I was wondering if allowing them to spawn in order to fill a 300 gallon tank would result in inferior offspring. I don't have much experience with or know much about the effects of inbreeding fish. I could cull the "bad fish" but I don't know if this will be enough. Would two generations of inbreeding be too much? Either way I would keep all the fish to myself (whether as pets or as culls) and never give them away or sell them.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Uncle Rico said:


> My school of piranhas were bred from siblings (which had unrelated parents). They are very healthy and active, and are actually very brave for reds. I was wondering if allowing them to spawn in order to fill a 300 gallon tank would result in inferior offspring. I don't have much experience with or know much about the effects of inbreeding fish. I could cull the "bad fish" but I don't know if this will be enough. Would two generations of inbreeding be too much? Either way I would keep all the fish to myself (whether as pets or as culls) and never give them away or sell them.


 I dont think it should be a probelem but new geners would always be best. If your getting abnormalities from inbreeding it would probably be from more then just 2 generations


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## Hogdog (Feb 1, 2010)

With species like Piranha they tend to carry very few 'bad genes' because natural selection is so hard on them in the wild. Abnormal ones get picked off pretty quickly so they should be able to withstand a fair amount of inbreeding. It may be many generations before you start seeing abnormalities...it's not just deformities you're looking for though - poor immune systems, size, infertility etc are all potential problems.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

^agreeed

One of the resons i dont care much about cannibilism is 1 i cant house 1000 babies and 2 the strong will remain


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## Pirambeba (Feb 1, 2010)

You can also try introducing a few extra fish from a different source and hopefully they will also breed with your current stock.


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## Sacrifice (Sep 24, 2006)

IMO you'll be fine. It should take more then 2 generations to see any significant deformaties. I had this same conversation with a biologist just a few weeks ago.


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## Parsa (Nov 12, 2008)

8 genereations is the limit


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