Is the zebrafish generation time a drawback?

[Christopher G Winter]

I am a graduate student considering studying zebrafish for a post-doc.
One thing that concerns me, though, is the fact that it apparently takes 
10-12 weeks for embryos to reach sexual maturity. Is this a significant 
impediment to classical genetic studies a la drosophila and c. elegans?

I would be grateful for any information on this, as well as other 
thoughts about the utiltity of the zebrafish for genetic and molecular 
genetic studies of development.

Also, I am interested in knowing about groups working on neural function
(e.g. learning and memory ) in the zebrafish community.

Thanks,

Christopher Winter
grad. student
Columbia University