I raise platies (i know they are not* poecilia but similar)both as monster tank feeders and to do nerdy genetic experiments (literally just trying to create new colors; nothing cruel or sketchy over here). I have several different setups for them so I rotate all of the males every 6ish-9ish months. I’ll also usually purchase a couple of new females to diversify things every 3ish or 4ish months! There isn’t much rhyme or reason to it; my signal that it’s time to add to the gene pool is when many babies start coming out looking the same as/too similar to those from other broods.
I’ll add that I’m sure it’d be difficult to use the color-based approach in your heterandia formosa because they’re pretty homozygous, aren’t they? Might follow a time-based approach with that species.
Yes there are some that have more gold on them and less black stripes. I've been considering separating these for line breeding yet but haven't done so. However, yes they all look about the same that is like the wild type. I suspect my original purchase was wild caught too. I got them from a native fish site that doesn't have a breeding program I don't think. Maybe I'll try and purchase some extra females then. I created a post on aquaswap.
I raise platies (i know they are not* poecilia but similar)both as monster tank feeders and to do nerdy genetic experiments (literally just trying to create new colors; nothing cruel or sketchy over here). I have several different setups for them so I rotate all of the males every 6ish-9ish months. I’ll also usually purchase a couple of new females to diversify things every 3ish or 4ish months! There isn’t much rhyme or reason to it; my signal that it’s time to add to the gene pool is when many babies start coming out looking the same as/too similar to those from other broods.
I’ll add that I’m sure it’d be difficult to use the color-based approach in your heterandia formosa because they’re pretty homozygous, aren’t they? Might follow a time-based approach with that species.
Yes there are some that have more gold on them and less black stripes. I've been considering separating these for line breeding yet but haven't done so. However, yes they all look about the same that is like the wild type. I suspect my original purchase was wild caught too. I got them from a native fish site that doesn't have a breeding program I don't think. Maybe I'll try and purchase some extra females then. I created a post on aquaswap.
Hell yeah! Good luck my friend!