Whether Its Chicken or Endlers, They Need Picking
Back in the 1970's, there used to be a chicken meat commercial, with a family full of sneaky people. One by one, they'd sneak to the refrigerator, to pick off tasty cooked chunks from an irresistible chicken carcass. It had a chicken-y jingle that went "pick; pick piiiiiiick; pick; pick piiiiiiick... pick picka pick, pick, pick". Well, I guess you had to be there - it was very memorable.
Anywho, here at the nano fish farm, I spend my days pick; pick piiiiiicking through the Endlers tanks - not eating tiny little fish carcasses (they're all alive Thank God - no carcasses to pick at). Instead, I am picking the odd balls out of each tank. Some of these odd balls roll into the Project Nemo tank, for later rehoming. Others I find "striking" for one reason or another - stunning males that could be the start of a new line, for example. Sometimes, I'll find a genetic offshoot that has qualities I'd like to merge into another breed line, or mosh pit.
Sometimes, I'm looking for older females that have to be removed from a tank, so their sons don't breed with them. Sometimes, I'm hunting small Endlers virgin females, to reduce the specimen size of an existing fish breed line or to otherwise support a breeding project. Weeks later, I'll revisit these new project tanks and start picking away, once the fry have become young adults.
In this way, quality lines are maintained. It's a daily job, because you can't see every odd ball in just one weekly trip to the tank. There's also a fair amount of consideration in picking and placement, as to what the nano fish farm is trying to accomplish. At PK Endlers, there are breed lines to preserve, some to alter (specimen size, markings, colors, finnage), and some to create. I pick; pick piiiiiiick my way through the nano fish farm, creating tomorrow's Endlers future and fancy lines. And I don't eat any of them.
:)
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