Can I breed Starry Night and Frontosa?

[Cfremont23]

That's a brilliant summary. And yes, the amount of threads started by hobbyists who want an ID on a drab little juvenile are numerous. It's not until they develop and colour up that you can usually get a positive ID. And in some cases, like you allude to, they don't develop into anything like they were supposed to do, because they are indeed mutts. It's hardly surprising purists such as yourself pour scorn upon such breeding activity.

I bought a 2" chocolate cichlid recently, very drab and a million miles away from the spectacular adult he/she will develop into....that's assuming i've got a true bred chocolate cichlid! All you can do is hope your LFS have a reputable supplier.

Well i bought what was called a "platinum balloon severum" which turned out to be a platinum convict. Which I'm assuming didn't come from an actual fish supplier and probably a rookie fish breeder who didn't know what they had bred.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

Well i bought what was called a "platinum balloon severum" which turned out to be a platinum convict. Which I'm assuming didn't come from an actual fish supplier and probably a rookie fish breeder who didn't know what they had bred.

It's a coin term ppl use to make more $ off of a fish that is relatively cheap to mass produce. Same as the "polar blue parrot", it's just a regular convict that is just a short body.

So I hate to say it but someone knowingly ripped ya off just to make a lil extra cash.

 

[Cfremont23]

It's a coin term ppl use to make more $ off of a fish that is relatively cheap to mass produce. Same as the "polar blue parrot", it's just a regular convict that is just a short body.

So I hate to say it but someone knowingly ripped ya off just to make a lil extra cash.

trust me i know. I've stopped going to that LFS and started going to a way better, more honest one

 

[Magnus_Bane]

This is true, I do consider any attempt at hybridization as heresy punishable with extreme predudice.
But even worse, with the fragile state of many Madagascan species, the attempt at mutt-izing them, is even more ridiculous
I must be getting soft in my old age, trying to use facts. As with every other aspect of life, science and facts seems of little use these days.

Personally I don't mind hybrids as long as it's done right. Meaning that they do so with the goal of selling them as a hybrid of A specie x B specie, and not selling them as one or the other. Granted I will agree that selling hybrids as one specie or the other is definitely a bad business practice, not only is the buyer getting something that they didn't want but the seller also loses the trust of any potential buyer in the future due to rightfully being labeled a scammer.

Generally I won't hold a grudge against big chain pet store just due to most of the employees not really understanding what they are doing/talking about. They are only taught some very basic knowledge and nothing else. So for a big chain store to sell hybrids without proper labeling is atleast understandable to some degree. As for mom-n-pop shops tho it's a completely different story. For them to sell all of these exotic/rare fish they do need to have some prior knowledge about the species they are selling. So to see them sell a hybrid without proper labeling is not understandable in the least, it's just a blatant disregard for ethics all just to make a sale.