Questions about using black mollies for detection

[ichthyogeek]

So something I haven't seen come up, is the concept of inherited immunity. Like, you have a male and a female molly, you acclimate them to salt, they get exposed to disease, you toss'em in a freshwater system, and then you have babies.

Do the fry inherit any immunity from the parent fish? Or is the next generation a clean slate?

Something not brought up, is that sometimes livebearers are raised in saline environments because saltwater is cheaper overseas. Do we just assume that mollies come in without prior exposure to saltwater diseases? Or are farms nowadays more diligent about raising euryhaline freshwater fish in freshwater?

 

[KenB]

@Humblefish might be able to help

 

[Humblefish]

I'm not sure if fish can benefit from inherited immunity. It's something I'll have to dig more into. A quick search on Google Scholar didn't turn up much information.

I believe most "cheap" freshwater fish are bred locally, due to International shipping costs. I typically only see African cichlids and more exotic freshwater fish on transshipping lists.

 

[ichthyogeek]

I think it depends. Like, I breed mollies yeah, but I don't breed them in amounts suited for fish stores I think. And when I asked, nobody was breeding mollies in Arkansas (might be due to the overly soft water), so the LFS had to get a group in for me.

 

[Humblefish]

I think it depends. Like, I breed mollies yeah, but I don't breed them in amounts suited for fish stores I think. And when I asked, nobody was breeding mollies in Arkansas (might be due to the overly soft water), so the LFS had to get a group in for me.

There are large commercial breeders (fish farms) which sell to wholesalers and then the fish make their way down the supply chain.

Segrest Farms is the largest freshwater fish distributor in the US, and they are located in Gibsonton, Florida near the heart of ornamental freshwater fish farming in the US. However, I do believe some of their freshwater fish also come from fish farms in Central and South America.