SUGGESTIONS



As you perform your experiments and explore the possibilities in Darwin Pond, you may come up with a few questions pertaining to breeding swimmers.  Here are a few pointers:



LET IT BE

Want to breed a super race?  The Number One rule for getting a race of super swimmers is this: HANDS OFF!  Start a Garden of Eden running, go out for pizza, take your time.  Let Mother Nature do the hardest part of the job.  This is what she is good at.  Now, this doesn't mean you can't help out - you just have to be smart about it.  A tweak here, a tweak there, most of it will take care of itself.  



TURNING SWIMMERS INTO COUCH POTATOES

You might be inclined to lavishly feed a nice-looking cluster of swimmers, thinking that if they are well-fed they might take it upon themselves to go out and get to work evolving.  Not so.  In fact, the more food a group of swimmers have at their disposal, the less motivated they are to venture out.  They become couch-potatoes, basically.  Remember, give them a little challenge.  



NOT A GREAT SURVIVOR BUT A HELL OF A DANCER

Of course, if your goal is to breed a swimmer that just looks really cool, that's another thing.  You have a number of options: You could use the "engineer swimmer tool" to "design" a swimmer.  Or you could start up a Garden of Eden, and intervene as the population evolves, cloning those swimmers that meet your aesthetic criteria, and killing off the ugly ones.  This may require lots of feeding on your behalf, since you are in fact breeding according to looks, not self-sufficiency.  The race of swimmers you breed will be more to your liking, but you'll find that it will probably need constant care in order to stay that way.  