Unpopular Opinions - Hybrid Cichlids
- Thread starter xenacanth9
- Start date
Sloppy and random mutts are a stupid waste of time.
Some hybrid enthusiasts fall for the most ridiculous consumer crazes, like they've never kept any other cichlids prior to hybrids.
The worst thing about hybrids is some of the people who keep them or feel the need to comment on them without knowing anything. All the newbie stuff like anything with a bit of "flower line" or black spotting must be a cross of this x that because the black spots. Nearly all cichlids will throw these spots. Anything shortbody must be a parrot or parrot cross, yet fish that are quite obviously parrot crosses are always called vieja crosses or unknown. The permanent housing of flowerhorn in tanks with no substrate or enrichment is horrible.
Some hybrid enthusiasts fall for the most ridiculous consumer crazes, like they've never kept any other cichlids prior to hybrids.
The worst thing about hybrids is some of the people who keep them or feel the need to comment on them without knowing anything. All the newbie stuff like anything with a bit of "flower line" or black spotting must be a cross of this x that because the black spots. Nearly all cichlids will throw these spots. Anything shortbody must be a parrot or parrot cross, yet fish that are quite obviously parrot crosses are always called vieja crosses or unknown. The permanent housing of flowerhorn in tanks with no substrate or enrichment is horrible.
Hybrid Cichlids are always a surprise. From the last thing I came across in the Internet.
There’s some good looking ones out there, and there’s plenty of abominations. Do what you want but don’t go and muddy up other species by selling them as something they’re not.
I used to not be a huge parrot fan, but after getting mine my heart melted on them.
I used to not be a huge parrot fan, but after getting mine my heart melted on them.
I don’t see a problem with hybrid fish as long as they are sold as such. People often forget that fish and other creatures hybridize in the wild as well.
A few hot takes 
Hybrid cichlids are just fancy fish... and fancy fish have formed the foundation of the aquarium hobby since like 1100 AD when people started selectively breeding carp for color, finnage and other man-desired characteristics. Take away fancy fish and the aquarium hobby dies.
The good old days were just blissful ignorance. Many of the earliest African cichlids in the hobby were hybrids as people bred "Pseudotropheus zebra" and Aulonacara-complex fish willy nilly, mixed females and didn't think twice about it. Same with new world fish. It was all "Cichlasoma" back in the day without much regard, if any, for collection locations, populations, etc.
The "outrage" over Flowerhorns and the like has roots in xenophobia, douche-baggery and grouchy old men not liking new entrants into "their" hobby.
Trying to split hairs differentiating between line bred and hybrid fancy fish is both futile and pointless. A natural mutation that has been selectively bred to accentuate man-desired characteristics, one that results from two geographic variants of a species (that may or may not be two different species in the future) and two species that are closely related enough to hybridize all produce fish that are different than what is found in nature.
There are irresponsible and stupid people, grifters and charlatans on both the fancy and wild-type sides of the aquarium hobby. Keep the fish you like and keep them well. If you want "pure" fish, source them from the small, small segment of the hobby that knows or cares about provenance.
Hybrid cichlids are just fancy fish... and fancy fish have formed the foundation of the aquarium hobby since like 1100 AD when people started selectively breeding carp for color, finnage and other man-desired characteristics. Take away fancy fish and the aquarium hobby dies.
The good old days were just blissful ignorance. Many of the earliest African cichlids in the hobby were hybrids as people bred "Pseudotropheus zebra" and Aulonacara-complex fish willy nilly, mixed females and didn't think twice about it. Same with new world fish. It was all "Cichlasoma" back in the day without much regard, if any, for collection locations, populations, etc.
The "outrage" over Flowerhorns and the like has roots in xenophobia, douche-baggery and grouchy old men not liking new entrants into "their" hobby.
Trying to split hairs differentiating between line bred and hybrid fancy fish is both futile and pointless. A natural mutation that has been selectively bred to accentuate man-desired characteristics, one that results from two geographic variants of a species (that may or may not be two different species in the future) and two species that are closely related enough to hybridize all produce fish that are different than what is found in nature.
There are irresponsible and stupid people, grifters and charlatans on both the fancy and wild-type sides of the aquarium hobby. Keep the fish you like and keep them well. If you want "pure" fish, source them from the small, small segment of the hobby that knows or cares about provenance.
I know I am late, but agreed 1000%.
When rehoming some fish, I got an offer from someone who wanted to put them with their blood parrots. Even though I said in my ad that the fish being rehomed should not live with cichlids, what made me decline that offer wasn't the fact that they had cichlids. It was the fact that they had those ugly blood parrots.
Also have seen some dyed ones at the pet store not too long ago. Whether they ordered dyed ones on purpose or not I don't know, but I think it safe to say they were selling nothing less than abominations by selling dyed blood parrots.
FWIW if you are going to put any small fish with a bigger cichlid, blood parrot is one of the better options as their screwed up mouth makes them pretty useless predators compared to their parent species.
