Culling to Reduce Spawn Size.. Ethical or No?

[monroe0704]

Yes for this instance I did intend for that meaning. However it is good to point out that fact for other references :)

[FuulieQ]

I wouldn't. If I make a choice to breed a fish, I feel that I should be prepared to care for the life that results. I wouldn't kill a heathy fish that simply didn't live up to me standards.

[1fish2fish]

Think of it this way though... how do you go about finding homes for 100 fish? Sell some on AB (if they're good enough), give some away (if your lucky), give to petstores. What do you do if you don't have a reputable pet store around you? Is it better I give the fish I breed to my LFS who keeps their bettas in literally 1/3 cup of water or cull the ones I don't deem breeding worthy? Should I only spawn 1 spawn at a time and only do another spawn after I have gotten rid of all the fish I'm not keeping? How do you start a line that way?

[FuulieQ]

I'm not sure on the details of breeding betta, but when I was breeding my ADFs I started off with at least 100 tadpoles, and by the time they began to grow legs I had 12.

It doesn't make sense to me to breed fish if you can't find homes for the animals you produce. I'm not saying that you're a bad person for culling necessarily, but I wouldn't kill something because it's not pretty. It conflicts very sharply with my morals, even if it seems stupid to apply human morality to fish. I just don't have the guts to do something like that and feel okay about it afterwards.

[pdxBetta]

I knew a breeder that had a pair of oscars to do the dirty work for him. Is that really any different than feeding them goldfish?