Fin development in young fish

[JamieB]

So my indoor fry are big enough I can see them very well, and I see 3 with shorter dorsal fins. One apparently has limited pectoral fin use, he’s just not shaped right, I think he may get culled. So out of just over 10 fry, to cull 3 as unfit for the pond, is that normal odds, or did I do something wrong during their development in the tank?

 

[sissy]

I think that would be hard to say when most of us just leave our fry in the pond and what the adult fish do not eat survive

 

[JamieB]

I’m trying to increase my population a bit! Free fish is good, but if the adults eat them first, it does me no good! They can eat them next year, and most of this years, I’d like to have at least a few that swim up making kissy faces begging for food when I go out! Bringing them in, I can adjust them to human activity, weed out the worst issues. Maybe see which ones will be colored nice.

 

[JamieB]

This ones tail is the worst. His tail is narrow, not the nice two smooth fans like the others. Almost no dorsal, minimal use of pectoral fins. It may become a tank fish for its life, there are two others that aren’t as bad. I’m wondering if the ph is effecting them, like as eggs. It’s high, 7.4-8. Something, hard to tell just how high as colors aren’t dead on match for the example on the chart. Pond is at like 7.6 right now from water I brought in to flush toilets with, at room temp.

 

[Dave 54]

I’m trying to increase my population a bit! Free fish is good, but if the adults eat them first, it does me no good! They can eat them next year, and most of this years, I’d like to have at least a few that swim up making kissy faces begging for food when I go out! Bringing them in, I can adjust them to human activity, weed out the worst issues. Maybe see which ones will be colored nice.

Natural selection i;e survival of the fittest over culling any day its far less cruel plus you know that only the strongest traits survive by doing it that way

Dave 54

 

[JamieB]

That’s what I figured, but that one is kinda cute, it followed my finger on the tank wall. I may turn it into a pet inside instead of a pond fish. If it survives, that is. It’s not as fat as the others, swimming slower and having to work harder to go half as far...

 

[MitchM]

I've seen baby fish with deformed fins turn out just fine.
The best chance they have for a healthy life is in an outdoor pond that has plenty of natural food and good water quality.