planned parenthood

[rryyddeerr]

as she frequently does, Mswhatley has raised an interesting question. how diversified does a cuttle gene pool need to be? if someone has a pair that he got from pair X, is it in his best interest to get more from pair Y, so as to allow for the greatest genetic diversity in the line right away? or is cuttle incest not as detrimental or at least less socially frowned upon as it is in people?

 

[DWhatley]

I had similar concerns (I don't know if we can spot ceph retardation but longevity and egg viability will certainly come into play) with my O. mercatoris. I only bred one pair of sibblings so I never observed a point of issue (I did not continue the family due to lack of mating pairs, not a problem with the hatching). In the wild O. mercatoris is likely to be very inbred as they don't travel far from their hatching site and live in relative (compared to other octopuses) close proximity. When I asked the question, several people noted that the NRCC did not experience problems for many generations of S.officianalis but I don't recall the number (I am almost sure it was more than five and want to say 9 but I am hoping someone has notes on the correct number). Hopefully you can get Thales' attention as he has likely more breeding experience with bandensis than anyone else you can find (here or elsewhere).