Are captive bred fish dumber?

cdness · May 2, 2012

I just read this interesting article on Advanced Aquarist which mentions the brain development differences between fry from captive bred parents and those from wild caught parents.

Cultured fish and boring environments make for stupid fish — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

With all the fish breeders on the forum, have you noticed any of this in your breeding endeavors?

Do you see a difference in activity or tendencies in your fry/babies from captive or wild parents?

Zoanthkid · May 2, 2012

I know captive bred clowns are a lot harder to get to host in a nem... I could see where they could lose certain instincts and attributes in a safer "boring" controlled tank environment for generation after generation...

cannon77 · May 4, 2012

I have noticed, the captive bred clowns seem to learn where their food comes from faster and learn to eat a variety of foods a lot better. I have never had any issue with a CB clown hosting a nem, I have had CB hosting in seconds. As for wild caught, I have had issues with accepting different foods, hosting and it seems to take them longer to learn who feeds them. By that, I mean when we feed 15 pairs of breeding clowns, the wild caught just act aggresive and want to attack, while the CB clowns bolt to the top of the tanks and wait for their food. I think you could ask this same question to 100 breeders and probably get about 80 different answers. Every fish, wether CB or WC will be different, just like humans, dogs or any other animal, they all have their own personality.

REEFKEEPER10 · May 4, 2012

My CB clowns took to my condy as soon as I put them in but they did love it to death. Literally. As far as being dumber I think you have to look at several generations to see a differents because even CB clowns know not to host tube nems. What is seen as bumb could just be adapting. CB is with out a doubt hardier so is it because they learned to deal with the stress of the aquariums. is it that what ever causes them to get sick so easily was breaded out of them. There is a lot of verbals to look at. IMO

revhtree · May 4, 2012

My Captive bred picassos clowns went straight to the new Ritteri I added to my tank and have not left it.

Of course they were already hosting other corals and anemones.

REEFKEEPER10 · May 4, 2012

I bet your frogspawn is happier rev. Lol

Trex · May 4, 2012

One big thing to consider about CB clowns not being hosted --- the 2 most common clowns bread are A. ocellaris and A. percula. Their natural host anemones are Gigs and Mags, which are 2 the hardest host anemones to keep. They are commonly paired with E. quadricolor, which isn't a natural host for either. The bigger issue is keeping clowns with non-natural hosts, and not that the clowns are CB or not.

Years ago I picked up a pair of CB A. polymnus, within minutes of being released into my tank, they were being hosted by an S. haddoni -- a natural host.
[h=3]http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/anemoneclownfishprofiles/p/prtruepclown.htm[/h]

Reef Breeders · May 4, 2012

They are not "dumb" at all, I have seen plenty host, breed, etc. just like WC. In fact, in aquarium terms, the WC ones are dumb, as they do not know how to take food right away, and some can even try to jump out, as they are not used to aquarium life.