Please ID my HYBRID fish?

[markstrimaran]

Their is no better way to Id, cichlids than to line breed it. Then selectivly breed the traits you desire back in.

Reminds me of the very rare and expensive " Golden border collie " recessive gene's that pop out randomly.

 

[RD.]

The best way to ID a cichlid, is to have provenance back to the original collection location.

Short of that, all bets are off. Especially when buying random fish out of "mixed African" tanks at big box stores.

 

[markstrimaran]

How much is a full blood Yellow lab. Straight from Africa. I have never seen one for sale.

 

[RD.]

Years ago when I was first keeping them a wild caught L. caeruleus from Lion's Cove sold for approx. $125 a piece. Not because they were rare (which many believed), but because they are found deep, 75+ feet below the surface, and are difficult to catch.

 

[RD.]

2019 bump seems to be needed …...…..

 

[Kashif314]

Nice thread. There are some people who don't have access to dedicated tanks at their local stores. They have two choices. They can buy what they like and re home if it doesn't work out or they can just stick with the fish which are proven to be not hybrids. With later they have very limited choices. They could have a tank full of yellow labs with few other proven fish and that ll be all.

I am not against hybrids. A parrot fish is a hybrid, a flower horn is a hybrid. Both look stunningly beautiful. I never buy a dyed fish because that's cruel. But a normal hybrid I would definitely buy if it looks beautiful.

I won't throw a fish if it is a result of a cross breed. Cichlids can interbreed and I don't understand what's the big deal about it. However the breeder or store must mention that on such tanks for such fish that its a hybrid. Also they must make sure to have dedicated tank to different species but what to do where they don't do such practice? We buyers protest by refusing to buy them? It would be our loss and not theirs because such fish gonna be sold anyways.

A little demo of how things are here at pet stores near me. They send me videos when they have new fish in stock.

These are the choices few people like me have.

 

[RD.]

Please quit acting like everything that I post is somehow a personal attack on you & your fish. It's not. I have no issue with hybrids when kept & bred responsibly. I have owned several flowerhorn over the years, and currently have a KKP in one of my tanks. She's one of my all time favorite fish. Very intelligent, very interactive, and very sexy. lol

Having said that, that fact has absolutely NOTHING to do with this thread.

 

[Kashif314]

Please quit acting like everything that I post is somehow a personal attack on you & your fish. It's not. I have no issue with hybrids when kept & bred responsibly. I have owned several flowerhorn over the years, and currently have a KKP in one of my tanks. She's one of my all time favorite fish. Very intelligent, very interactive, and very sexy. lol

Having said that, that fact has absolutely NOTHING to do with this thread.

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I mean some of us having issues regarding id a fish even after searching for links regardless its a hybrid or not.

Your parrot fish is gorgeous. I had a parrot fish only tank so many years ago. Love them so much.

 

[RD.]

I get it, ID'ing fish is not always easy, it comes with time, and hands on experience. The point of this thread that I started 5 yrs ago, was to assist members who were constantly asking questions, that had no definitive answer. Most of the topics at that time were about fish similar to yours, all purchased from mixed African tanks. If the fish work, and you are happy, that's all that matters. Who cares what anyone else thinks? But getting an accurate ID on most African cichlids with this kind of background is next to impossible. Even if the fish is 80-90% pure, it will essentially still be a hybrid. Many people that jump into the hobby don't understand this. This thread was my attempt at helping explain what takes place with many vendors, in the hopes of educating, not harassing.

 

[neutrino]

Rule # 5 of African cichlid keeping:
Expecting a pure Malawi species from a lfs "mixed" African cichlid tank is a contradiction in terms.

100% impossible? Maybe not, maybe a decent lfs with limited tank space tells its distributor send me a species mix for my Malawi tank, but they label what's in the tank or someone in the store knows enough to tell you what you're looking at or if that guy's not around at least they've got a distributor list for what they sent.

Sure, some lfs 'mixed African' tanks have the ubiquitous yellow labs, electric blue fryeri, etc., and I'll leave each to their opinion of the purity of these fish without provenance or pedigree, but you can't expect a non-descript mbuna or a 'peacock' with muddy flank color, fin coloring that may be this or may be that, and a head and jaw that's not quite right from a "mixed African" tank to be anything more than the label implies.