Any interesting African hybrids?
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So either these aren't interesting or no one in this area has expertise or is willing to take a guess on these. The father of these hybrids came to me from a friend who had two different Hap species breed in his tank. He gave me a few males for my mixed cichlid tank to add some color. I also had a different group of a hap species I was growing up with hopes to breed them and over time lost all of them except a lone female. The female was put in the mixed tank because I didn't really feel like selling her and had thoughts to buy an adult male for her. In the mean time, she bred with the hybrid male and I thought it would be interested to raise some of these to see what they look like. Both mom & dad have long since passed, but mom had a very strong influence in the outcome - you really can't see much of the fathers genes being expressed. I have about 40 adults of this mix I use as dithers with my American cichlids. The funny thing is there are several males (~6" long) that have staked out breeding territories in my 400 gallon (8' x 4' x 22") and are able to defend it from the likes my 9" male Mayan (who is breeding with a Mayan x Midevil female), a 12" male Dovii, and many other large CA/SA aggressive cichlids. I have never sold any of these but have given some away to friends for their tanks.
I found most African hybrids boring. They all share similar body shape and color,with nothing to stand out. CA hydrids have more variation in body shape and color, and designer fish like Flowerhorns, Thai Silk and Red Texas have certain designed traits(big hump, high body, intense blue, red or gold color) to stand out. Most African hybrids are just random accidental bastards.
Pretty much like every random hybrid. I don't think it is unique to Africans. There has been a lot of time and effort put into flowerhorns and even then only a small percentage looks good (thai silk excluded as they have them breeding true from what I understand).
Except central American hybrids have completely different body shapes and color patterns than African hybrids.
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This all comes from the basic fish genetics. There is much less variability in body shapes for Africans than for CA's that have been involved in the hybrids to date.
The only good thing they can get our of African hybrids are red color. A mixed CA/SA tank has a lot of diversity in shape, color and pattern. A mixed hap tank is just a bunch of blue fish with similar shape and pattern swimming around. Throwing in a few hybrid OB and fire red peacocks can introduce constrasting red and orange color that are lacking in an all haps tank.
I like African's colors but there is not a large variety in body shape. Another thing that I dont like about them is that most females and sub-dominant males dont have nice colors.
No offense Auratum but those don't really stand out to me.
I guess Central's are king of the hybrids.
No offense Auratum but those don't really stand out to me.
I guess Central's are king of the hybrids.