Yellow Lab parents

[LunarValkyrie]

Hey folks,
I got a couple yellow labs from a friend. They are good size now and suddenly I have babies.
My question is this.....could this be a male with no black? The babies only look about 7-8 days along so that would mean it almost has to be, but you experts tell me. She dropped the eggs so I picked up what I could and they are in a tumbler now. I took these two because it emptied her tank, but I am thrilled to get babies, don't get me wrong. I just expected to see black on a male. I do see an egg spot, but his eye/head shape is different from the female. (I know that isn't always dependable ) I managed to save around 25 babies, so maybe I will get better marked males.

 

[LunarValkyrie]

Pardon the home-made tumbler. My good one is in use at the moment so this is the emergency tumbler, lol. How old do these look to you folks?

 

[james99]

Hybrids, all yellow labs should have black edges on their fins, male and female.

 

[RD.]

Yep, what James said. I'm afraid what you have are hybrids, not a pure strain of Labidochromis caeruleus.

 

[LunarValkyrie]

ok, thanks. Do you think that is a male hybrid then?? My friend keeps all her growouts together, could this female have been bred by a true Lab? Do the fry look right so far? I have checked all over youtube for vids and they do look good. The female here does have some black on her dorsal. I was thinking I might keep back some of my brood to put her with to make a second harem. Or should I just place them elsewhere and start from scratch? Thx!

 

[james99]

The problem with hybrids is they can come out looking just like one of the parents, a mix of both or completely different.

 

[RD.]

Personally I would not breed them, and would cull all of the fry.

 

[LunarValkyrie]

What I meant was.....I have a brood of pure Labs right now as well as these. I could keep some of them and put her with them and then just put him in my male only tank. The questionable brood will be given to friends or traded back to the LFS as hybrids if they want them.

 

[BIG-G]

What I meant was.....I have a brood of pure Labs right now as well as these. I could keep some of them and put her with them and then just put him in my male only tank. The questionable brood will be given to friends or traded back to the LFS as hybrids if they want them.

I would just keep them or cull them.
This is how the hobby gets flooded with fish that no one knows what they are.
You’re posting because you don’t know what these fishes genetics are and people are basically guessing. Then you stated you’re going to trade back to LFS as hybrids for them to sell to someone else that will have no clue what these are.
This is not a personal attack against you, because I know this goes on all the time.

 

[LunarValkyrie]

I understand. My LFS has a tank specifically for these type of fish that they label correctly and sell cheap for people that want "Cichlids" but don't want to, or can't pay the prices of pure strains. It's a locally owned, single store, that the owner is a cichlid breeder herself. I am not trying to cheat anyone, or take advantage. I also don't plan to flood anything with bad fish. This was a surprise batch. I have my pure Labs, that I bought online well separated to ensure they stay pure. I have worked too hard to get them and build them up to mess them up. Thanks for the opinion. I will work it out.