good. I look forward to peathenster weighing in, for one ;-) since he's all about geos. and I'd like to hear from several qualified ppl... beyond the masses of confused guessers.
;-)
A riddle for the Geophagus lovers
- Thread starter GT3000
- Start date
;-)
This is a great question and it might be one of those questions where there is no right or wrong answer.. One thing that you are correct about is that yes, tons off people do mix geos and still, we VERY rarely see hybridization occur.
One thing you need to think about is the male/female ration that you have in the tank. People do mix geophagus all the time like you said, but do they have mix of both males and females of the same species? In my experience with geos and breeding them, there is a really high male ratio. One example i can give is I bought a group of 6 red head tapajos a few years back. I had 5 males and 1 female, which brings me back to the point you made about people mixing geos. I'm not saying this is the case always, but most of the when people are mixing 3-4 different species in 1 tank, they USUALLY do not have many of each. Maybe 1, 2 or 3 max of each species. I'm sure a good amount of them are going to be males.
Maybe a female thrown in there. But just because you have a female in there doesn't mean that shes going to want to breed. I had a group of 5 geo altifrons and ha 4 males 1 females and they could never win the females heart so they never bred. It's like people, we are not going to just breed with anyone
Another thing that could be possible in another case could be that the dominant male in the tank just so happens to be the same species. Or maybe if the female would prefer to spawn with the same species so if you want to hybridized then maybe you should not add a male of the same species in the tank and add males of different species?
Also being over crowded will prevent geos to spawn on some occasions and also poor water quality Ect..
I could go on and on about possibilities but those are just some examples in my experience
Alon may I ask what the tank mates where while these 2 spawned? Also if you know if each fish is a male or female? I'm curious.
orinocensus1, I get your point, but there are great numbers commonly kept of mixed geos with mixed sexes & groups obtained so they can pair off & spawn in same tank. I have never heard of any hybrids before this.
In fact one big advantage is the breeding safety within those mixed tanks: you can observe variety & still obtain pure offspring.
In fact one big advantage is the breeding safety within those mixed tanks: you can observe variety & still obtain pure offspring.
Has anyone ever read about or seen a documented hybridization with Geos before? Does your friend have more fry from this spawning, and does he have pictures or videos of the pair spawning? I'm not saying it's not possible but I always choose to be skeptical. I'm also skeptical of that "sevict" (convict + severum) that everyone keeps posting pictures of.
My guess is that, if true, the female was ready to breed but had no male of her species available, and she was able to attract one of the other species instead. The non-mouthbrooding severums can all interbreed (H. notatus to H. efasciatus, for example) so it's not completely unheard of in South American cichlids for species within a genus to hybridize. It definitely seems like a rare occurrence, though.
My guess is that, if true, the female was ready to breed but had no male of her species available, and she was able to attract one of the other species instead. The non-mouthbrooding severums can all interbreed (H. notatus to H. efasciatus, for example) so it's not completely unheard of in South American cichlids for species within a genus to hybridize. It definitely seems like a rare occurrence, though.
if cross-fertilization CAN happen, then the possibility of males doing a drive-by squirting is what comes to mind for me, in mixed tanks. LOL.
within same species, I have had females switch males they spawned with & the rejected male drops his tube & persists at attempting to join her along with the new male.
within same species, I have had females switch males they spawned with & the rejected male drops his tube & persists at attempting to join her along with the new male.
Yes it's one of those things that maybe no one knows the true reasons on why hybridizing is so hard. I can say 1 thing though, My friend had the opportunity to talk to the eartheater king himself, Thomas Weidner months back and he touched upon many subjects and eartheater hybridizing is one of them.
I asked my friend to ask about hybridizing and he said that it does occur in the wild (but didn't touch upon hybridizing in captivity) And that many new and undescribed geos that pop up now a days are most likely hybrids. So it's pretty common in the wild.
But what triggers the 2 different species to spawn in captivity is a mystery still.
I understand that you said that you know people that kept multiple sexes of the same species in 1 tank but that might not work. Maybe if you have a male of the same species then the female will pick that one to spawn with instead of a male of another species or the other way around.
Reason why I say that is because when ever I watch my tanks, I noticed that my group of geophagus Argyrostictus fight and court with each other, all my red heads fight and court with each other and they never court or fight geos of a different species.
And the person that I seem spawn altifrons and winemilleri hybrid had 1 male winemilleri and 2 altifrons female and that's it for geos. There wasn't a winemilleri female or altifrons male to mess with the process..
Again just my 2 cents
I'd like to figure the mystery out..Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Speak for yourself...we are not going to just breed with anyone
The fish were kept in a tank about 300 liter.
There was 2 Tapajos and 2 Brachybranchus.
Now, I know for a fact that the Brachybranchus were a couple that stopped workink for some reason, and my friend left the male Tapajos with the female Brachybranchus.
I agree with you that you're being skeptical, me too, but 3 things:
1. I have better things to do with my life then to lie to you all.
2. I never saw anything like this before, thats why I started this thread.
3. My friend don't have pics or video, but I choose to believe him. He wont bull**** me coz he does'nt sell them, he was surprised too.
that sounds plausible. I wonder if people will try to attempt this on purpose. although it seems like eartheater keepers generally think more like purists.
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