All Your Parachromis Are Belong To Us...

[terd ferguson]

I never saw them as Loisellei, more like Freddy, but certainly different. Race, species, whatever.........nice fish! Keep them separate!

My fishes don't racemix. I guess you could call them racist. I have a lot of Parachromis together. They breed often. But, even with all these together, they don't interbreed and do a good job of keeping their fry seperate until they get to around an inch. It's at this time the parents abandon them to be on their own. Usually, it's because the parents' attention is focused on newer fry.

Now that I know I have two males, I really need to trade one out for a female so that I can contribute to proliferating these into the hobby. It's possible that I can get a female from the guy I got these from, now that I know how to sex them and if he has one. Failing that, I'm sure Ken can help me out.

 

[D-Train]

Ken aren't the La Ceiba the same fish as the ones that can be collected in Rio Danto?

 

[terd ferguson]

Ken aren't the La Ceiba the same fish as the ones that can be collected in Rio Danto?

I thought La Ceiba was a town in Honduras and the Rio Danto flows through/near it. I'm unsure of the exact collection location of Ken's fish though. I seem to recall them coming from a pond/lake?

 

[D-Train]

I thought La Ceiba was a town in Honduras and the Rio Danto flows through/near it. I'm unsure of the exact collection location of Ken's fish though. I seem to recall them coming from a pond/lake?

Yeah the pond they originally collected from was destroyed and a hotel was built on top of it. Then they found more in the Rio Danto, but their habitat was being over run by invading Managuense introduced into the area... I think haha

 

[terd ferguson]

Yeah the pond they originally collected from was destroyed and a hotel was built on top of it. Then they found more in the Rio Danto, but their habitat was being over run by invading Managuense introduced into the area... I think haha

If more have been found in another location, chances are they're in more places as well. I'm still very interested in seeing some DNA results to find out if these really are a new species. I'd like to think they are.

 

[fishfarm]

This stoy has it's own life, Warren Van Varrick has caught a grand total of 7 adult Parachromis sp. La Ceiba in a small isolated lagoon about 3 miles north of La Ceiba, Honduras, It has now been destroyed. Only 5 wild fish exist in the hobby, My pair, Rusty Wessel's pair and a male Warren kept. That's it, if others claim to have wild fish, they are full of sh*t. According to Rusty Wessel they caught a similar Parachromis species in the Rio Danto 15-20 years ago, it was never bred and is not in the hobby, the Rio Danto is about 5 miles north of where this fish was actually collected, they are not from there. He told Jeff Rapps to call the fry he raised from his pair P. loisellei "Rio Danto", Jeff sold a bunch under this name, which is incorrect and Jeff now sells them as P. fredrichstalli La ceiba. I have always thought these were a new species. Mo got some F1, fry from Rusty raised them up and took some of his spectacular pictures of them. Juan Miguel needed pictures of P. loisellei for cichlidae.com so Mo sent the pictures, Juan looked at them, knew they were not loisellei and ID'ed them as Fredrichstalli from the pictures, I then sent pictures of my pair, Rusty's pair and the biggest wild male Warren caught (Which was released, pic below) to Dr. Paul Loiselle and just asked what he thought. He said not loisellei, closer to fredichstalli, but different from both. No DNA or counts have been done on this fish to correctly ID it, it's all conjecture, but by some very knowlegeable people. Thus I sell them as Parachromis sp La Ceiba Yellow Head, which I hope anyone who breeds the F1 will call them also. I fear some will be crossed with domestic loisellei and fredrichstalli because of all the name mix-ups, they should be kept pure. Ken

 

[terd ferguson]

This stoy has it's own life, Warren Van Varrick has caught a grand total of 7 adult Parachromis sp. La Ceiba in a small isolated lagoon about 3 miles north of La Ceiba, Honduras, It has now been destroyed. Only 5 wild fish exist in the hobby, My pair, Rusty Wessel's pair and a male Warren kept. That's it, if others claim to have wild fish, they are full of sh*t. According to Rusty Wessel they caught a similar Parachromis species in the Rio Danto 15-20 years ago, it was never bred and is not in the hobby, the Rio Danto is about 5 miles north of where this fish was actually collected, they are not from there. He told Jeff Rapps to call the fry he raised from his pair P. loisellei "Rio Danto", Jeff sold a bunch under this name, which is incorrect and Jeff now sells them as P. fredrichstalli La ceiba. I have always thought these were a new species. Mo got some F1, fry from Rusty raised them up and took some of his spectacular pictures of them. Juan Miguel needed pictures of P. loisellei for cichlidae.com so Mo sent the pictures, Juan looked at them, knew they were not loisellei and ID'ed them as Fredrichstalli from the pictures, I then sent pictures of my pair, Rusty's pair and the biggest wild male Warren caught (Which was released, pic below) to Dr. Paul Loiselle and just asked what he thought. He said not loisellei, closer to fredichstalli, but different from both. No DNA or counts have been done on this fish to correctly ID it, it's all conjecture, but by some very knowlegeable people. Thus I sell them as Parachromis sp La Ceiba Yellow Head, which I hope anyone who breeds the F1 will call them also. I fear some will be crossed with domestic loisellei and fredrichstalli because of all the name mix-ups, they should be kept pure. Ken

Straight from the source settles it for me. When I get a female, you can count on me to keep them pure. I'll ID them as you say to anyone that asks and when I post on different forums.

I know life gets in the way sometimes, but why not do DNA and settle it once and for all?

 

[terd ferguson]

And what about an attempt to reintroduce them nearby to where they were collected from?

 

[fishfarm]

Sounds good in theary, but Honduras is one big dump, they are better off in our tanks. The main reason this fish was so rare to start with is introduced managuese are everywhere, and they out compete (and out breed) the La ceiba Fish. Plus being so close to moderate size city with terrible sanitation practices, just would not work. I believe this fish would be extinct now had we not caught them when we did. Ken

 

[D-Train]

Thanks Ken I completely agree with you. Its a shame there will no longer be anymore of these magnificent fish caught.

Now when people breed yours and Rusty's F1 fry, are you worried about inbreeding from people who don't want to order from both sources, or can't?

And Terd I dont think there would be enough fish to sustain a population without detrimental amounts of inv=breeding, which would eventually lead to their demise anyways.