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[Sunfish89]

Hi! I Wonder if anyone have problem with inbreeding in elassoma evergladei colonies? I know most of you are from US and have to collect your own elassoma evergladei. I em i europ and purchased mine and to my knowleg no import of WC have happend in modern timme. I have noticed that a few young fish have deformed mouths. They dont seem to have a probem eating but the mouth is more to the left and not to th center of the head as in the normal fish.

[gerald]

I kept a breeding colony of E. gilberti for about 15 years, starting with 4 fish and adding a few new ones around the 6th year.  I did occasionally see a malformed jaw or fin, but they did not appear to increase over successive generations.  I think those were just random developmental errors, probably not genetic depression from inbreeding.  By the way, they never got any more "tame" over all those generations.  They remained timid and easily startled; if it sit still they'll come out and watch me, but if I'm moving around near their tank they usually hide.