Costa Rican & Nicaraguan Dovii trying to spawn

[Cichlaholics Anonymous]

I wouldn'y breed them, as a lot of the geographical variants are at some point possibly species of their own.

 

[hailmike]

let 'em do their thing, give some fry to some friends if they want them and use the rest as feeders. i personally wouldn't give them to a lfs.

 

[VRWC]

Thanks for the opinions and input.

I wouldn'y breed them, as a lot of the geographical variants are at some point possibly species of their own.

I was thinking the same thing, mainly from the difference of appearance of the 2.

As of this morning, I dont know if they are going to be able to do it anyways. They cant seem to find a spot they can defend against the bigger fish in the tank, especially the Trimac.

Funny thing is, I have a male Costa Rican that I thought she had bonded with, but when I put them in my big tank together, she started ignoring him and took a liking to the Nic. I might just take the Nic out and see what happens.

 

[twhittle]

Hmmm? That is a really interesting question I haven't thought about before. I wouldn't view them as a hybrid in the sense I view a flowerhorn or Midas/Devil. They are still both Dovii. It would be the same as any other pure cichlid of the same type from other regions hooking up. I don't know. I guess all humans are hybrids if you get down to it. Anthroplogists say that all humans come from 3 original racial groups: Mongoloid, Negroid, and Caucazoid. I doubt there are very many if any people in this world that are purely any of these. Are all humans hybrids? Whatever the dictionary says, I wouldn't classify them the same as I would a flowerhorn.

 

[darth pike]

Honestly I'm not as worried about them being geographical hybrids as I am the potenial that the two dovii might eventually end up differant species, making the mix just like a rd/midas.

 

[twhittle]

Isn't a red devil and midas a totally different kind of fish though? Whereas the Costa Rican and Nic dovii a different variant of the same fish. I would imagine there are many examples of common cichlids from different parts of the world breeding.

 

[Jakob]

What ever you do, if you get fry, dont give any to an lfs. They could spread out, or releast into the wild and ruin the whole dovii species in a few years, give them to someone who will not breed them.

 

[darth pike]

Isn't a red devil and midas a totally different kind of fish though? Whereas the Costa Rican and Nic dovii a different variant of the same fish. I would imagine there are many examples of common cichlids from different parts of the world breeding.

They are now yes, but once were consider the same species. Hence part of the problem. Same with convicts. DNA testing is splitting more and more 'geographical varients' into their own species. I'm not saying it will happen with the two dovii, but it might. It's why Killie keepers and west african krib keepers keep all their geographical races seperate, many the last few years have been broken off into new species.

 

[BC in SK]

Of course such a cross would be hybrids. They come from seperate populations that would not be able to cross with each other in the wild . They would be a hybrid of strains, but not a hybrid of different species ( unless of course they end up being classified as seperate species in the future, which is very possible given the current popular trend in classifying geographical variants as seperatre species based on the tiniest of differences!).

A hybrid of strains is no big deal to me or to many others who keep cichlids, as they wouldn't be any different then MOST aquarium strain cichlids available today at an LFS. Just don't sell them as an F something and expect to get the same value for them as they are no longer pure from a particular locale but are 'merely' aquarium strain.

 

[D-Train]

I really dont think any of this matters because you wil not be diluting the "pure" gene pool. You let them do their thing because in the long run it will NOT affect wild populations of Dovii.