Eliminating Predation via Selective Breeding

[Liberato]

Greetings. I'm not sure this is the right section to post this, but if not correct, I would ask that the mods relocate.

A well-known breeder claims that he has, "bred all predatory fry eating, out of his female guppies, through a few generations of selective breeding."

I'm no scientist, but from what I remember from my introduction to evolutionary biology, what has taken hundreds of thousands of years, at a minimum, to be genetically coded as a survival mechanism (big fish eat little fish), could hardly be wiped clean in a year of selective breeding at most.

Is this claim as erroneous as I interpret it to be or do I need to audit a few courses in my old age? lol.

I appreciate the fact that this does not rise to the level of most questions, here, but in our little world of livebearing tropical fish enthusiasts, a claim like this can set a breeding program back by years.

Any comments will be much appreciated.

Cheers. - Liberato

[skeptic]

It may be possible. I am not a fish breeder, but behavioural changes have been made in a few generations in other species. The example that comes to mind is the breeding of tameness into the silver fox.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox

[JackBean]

the time doesn't matter. If you were breeding elephants, even 20 years wouldn't be enough, but with mice 1 year could do it The important thing is number of generations Thus if he had some fishes, which breed in 2 months, he could have about 5 generations in 1 year and that could be enough for some change.
However, question is, whether his trait can be selected like that.

[mith]

The proof is in the pudding

[Liberato]

Saying that you have accomplished something is quite meaningless. I thought that "science" dealt with "proving" things to be factual - or, not.

I was in my kitchen, today, making pudding. Guess, what? When I was finished I had a pot o' gold. Really. - Liberato.

[mith]

All I'm saying is, if he can perform such a feat, let us see his goods. That's the best "proof".