How are all your RTC/paroon's doing?

[Zeke]

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Well.....I'll be dipped!!! Found some pictures of the hybrid catfish from a MFK post in 2008. I absolutely can't believe that they have been around since then and I've never heard about it or seen what they look like...

It is not surprising that you have never seen them or heard of them (see below).

Man-made hybrid catfish is a controversial topic. There is a supporter camp and an opposition camp. Some as e.g. Necrocanis make them their focus. I pay attention to them as to the evil that's already out there and cannot be ignored.

Anyhoo, biologists around the world have tried thousands of catfish spp combos, from the same genus or different, from the same family or different. Primarily with the fish farming needs as a goal. Very few produced offspring. Out of these very few produced viable offspring.

Please correct or add, anyone, as you see fit:

TSNxRTC = viable
TSNxLeiarius marmoratus = viable
TSNxDoradid (m.b. Oxydoras niger) = does not look viable, as in easily surviving into adulthood (I think)
RTCxLeiarius marmoratus = does not look viable, as in easily surviving into adulthood (for sure)
RTCxLeiarius pictus = same as above
RTCxparoon = does not look viable, as in easily surviving into adulthood (I think)

TSNxDoradid and RTCxparoon are the first (?) examples of man-made hybrids that live produced from two distinct animal families.

Necrocanis could give us a lecture, a real lecture as he collaborates with Dr. John G. Lundberg on the topic and has a library of production notes from fish farms, etc., but he's been off the radar largely for the last year or more.