03-24-2015, 09:42 PM
So I've been thinking for a while on how best to manage limited founders stock for more uncommon morphs. For me, this is Dendrobates tinctorius "Lorenzo" where there are currently only two consistent sources of froglets in North America - Understory Enterprises (2008 import) and Herpetologic (UE and "old line"). I have 1.3 from Sean (2013), 2.0 from UE (2009), and 0.0.4 from UE (2015). My current groupings are:
I plan on breaking up 2015C when the 0.0.4 from UE grow out and can be sexed. At that point I will group non-sibling animals and that should give me 4 pairs or groups of animals to work with. I thought that would be sufficient to get me to the point where I can sell groups of 4 non-sibling froglets to help get folks started in breeding Lorenzo on their own.
However, after doing more reading, I'm wondering if I should also consider rotating males year over year - I don't have amphibian references to cite, but in other breeding programs pairs were rotated to improve diversity. Am I over thinking this, or would some kind of rotation help strengthen the available genetics? Perhaps this is futile, but as a lay person and by no means a biologist I would like others input on managing severely limited lines of animals. I'd imagine this would be applicable to any population or species, I'm just using Lorenzo as an example.
- 2014A-1ss.2ss – 1.2 Stewart (UE x Gagliardo) broken up
- 2014B-2ue.1ss – 2.1 UE males with Stewart female broken up
- 2015C-1ss.1ss – original A group reduced to 1.1 Stewart animals
- 2015D-1ue.1ss – original B group reduced to 1.1 UE male with Stewart female
- 2015E-1ue.1ss – dominant UE male paired with dominant SS female
I plan on breaking up 2015C when the 0.0.4 from UE grow out and can be sexed. At that point I will group non-sibling animals and that should give me 4 pairs or groups of animals to work with. I thought that would be sufficient to get me to the point where I can sell groups of 4 non-sibling froglets to help get folks started in breeding Lorenzo on their own.
However, after doing more reading, I'm wondering if I should also consider rotating males year over year - I don't have amphibian references to cite, but in other breeding programs pairs were rotated to improve diversity. Am I over thinking this, or would some kind of rotation help strengthen the available genetics? Perhaps this is futile, but as a lay person and by no means a biologist I would like others input on managing severely limited lines of animals. I'd imagine this would be applicable to any population or species, I'm just using Lorenzo as an example.
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini