is it possible?

[i8a224u]

hi, i have a cichlid tank with a giraffe, electric yellow, p.arutus, keni, compressips, and a red tailed black shark (catfish). I have bred cichlids in the past and i am very familiar with thier mouthbrooding. Right now there are no 2 of the same species in that tank and there havent been for a while, but the electric yellow is acting like its mouthbrooding. it is hiding in a hole in a piece of driftwood and its mouth is kept tightly closed and its cheeks are kind of bulging like its holdong something in its mouth. it stopped comming out to feed but is still healthy looking and nothing in the tank shows any sighn of disease. I just want to know if its possible for 2 different species to interbreed, and if so, should i remove the fish to its own tank and see what happens? i appreciate your input.
thanks for your time
kevin

 

[Malawinut]

hi, i have a cichlid tank with a giraffe, electric yellow, p.arutus, keni, compressips, and a red tailed black shark (catfish). I have bred cichlids in the past and i am very familiar with thier mouthbrooding. Right now there are no 2 of the same species in that tank and there havent been for a while, but the electric yellow is acting like its mouthbrooding. it is hiding in a hole in a piece of driftwood and its mouth is kept tightly closed and its cheeks are kind of bulging like its holdong something in its mouth. it stopped comming out to feed but is still healthy looking and nothing in the tank shows any sighn of disease. I just want to know if its possible for 2 different species to interbreed, and if so, should i remove the fish to its own tank and see what happens? i appreciate your input.
thanks for your time
kevin

There was a recent thread I wrote about hybridization. Your collection of fish would seem to be one of low risk of hybridization but still possible. First, from your trade/slang names if giraffe is Nimbochromis venustus and "compressips" is Dimidiochromis compressiceps then I've seen these both cross. If your "electric yellow" is holding then the father would most likely be the Pseudotrophes lombardoi (aka kenyii) or the Melanochromis auratus. If it does turn out to be a hybridization, then please do the responsible thing and not spread the hybrids into the hobby. They would make a nice snack for your predators .

 

[straitjacketstar]

Hybridization is a definite possibility and almost impossible to avoid in tanks where you have fish of both sexes but none of the same species. Given the choice mbuna will stick to mbuna and haps will stick to haps but mbuna/hap crosses are also possible.
Another possibility is that the female, unable to find a male of her own species, went through the breeding process all on her own. In this case the eggs would be infertile and she would gradually eat them.

 

[i8a224u]

I dont believe in hybrids either, but i wouldnt kill them just for being born. If any are born I will round them up and put them in a seperate tank.

 

[Honda12]

Yeah it is very possible. I had a male P. demesoni and a female yellow lab spawn together and she produced fry. They are totally different in coloration and they got it on so, anything is possible.

 

[Malawinut]

I dont believe in hybrids either, but i wouldnt kill them just for being born. If any are born I will round them up and put them in a seperate tank.

Let's say hypothetically that you would keep having hybrids. What will you eventually do with them? Will you put more tanks up to hold the hybrids? This is also assuming that most of the fry survive all the adults. The improper planning and irresponsible choices of many are what just keeps degrading the hobby. A person has hybrids, won't do anything ethical towards his lil fishies , puts them in a tank all by themselves since they have rightsies too. Then gets overloaded with mutts/looses interest in them, gets the GREAT IDEA to trade/sell those fish to the lfs and gollie miss mollie we got people getting cheated by hybrid purchases. The hobby is full of idiots who start out as not bad people planning on doing bad things, but because they are irresponsible, turn into people that infect the hobby with this disease.
Some think I'm overboard and all doomsday. Let's see there was a thread (another site) about how expensive some L-species plecos were now. Why? because it is now ILLEGAL to collect them or export them from the wild. There is talk on soon doing that with our beloved clown loaches. People think that many of these fish have been available for decades and will continue to be available so they don't give a hoot about making moral or intelligent choices. It's sad, but IMO within our lifetime there will be more huge changes affecting the availability of africans. This will be worsened by the majority of domestic strains not being pure thanks to all the idiots out there. Their response will be "Huh, what did I do?"

 

[Scotty]

Ps demasomi is already extremely hard to find in the Lake . A couple of other species are going the same way. Apparently some of the illegal divers catch fish in an area then ditch them in another area . This is just as bad as allowing hybridization. It seems as though the caeruleus are bad at cross-breeding.

 

[willysfish]

Yes, but everyone will tell you don't do it. Try very hard to get the same kind of fish in one tank. Good luck
Sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[i8a224u]

you sure have your opinions. I can take my money and buy whatever fish I want and flush them down the toilet if I want to. If I want a tank full of different fish and they decide to go ahead and get it on with each other fine with me. I dont spend thousands trying to make hybrids for sale, and I dont think it is at all responsible to kill hybrids just because some people dont like them. Hitler didnt like the Jews. Some people dont like mixed human babies. If God didnt intend for this to happen then it would not be possible to happen. I think a cross between a electric yellow and a kenyi would be pretty cool looking, I will sell them just to piss off people that dont like them.
ha.
ha-ha.

 

[Malawinut]

you sure have your opinions. I can take my money and buy whatever fish I want and flush them down the toilet if I want to. If I want a tank full of different fish and they decide to go ahead and get it on with each other fine with me. I dont spend thousands trying to make hybrids for sale, and I dont think it is at all responsible to kill hybrids just because some people dont like them. Hitler didnt like the Jews. Some people dont like mixed human babies. If God didnt intend for this to happen then it would not be possible to happen. I think a cross between a electric yellow and a kenyi would be pretty cool looking, I will sell them just to piss off people that dont like them.
ha.
ha-ha.

Why would you ask questions if you don't want INTELLIGENT and FACTUAL responses? Do you just want everyone to say "cool dude". Your response showed not only your reading comprehension level but probably your age too. You are saying that pretty much all the leading scientist, authors, and advanced members of the hobby are wrong and that they all can go "float a boat". Your analogies with Hilter and bi-racial babies have been said before and as always are not logical. An intelligent response would have been "geesh I didn't realize that thanks." I challenge you to make an intelligent response on how african cichlid hybrids can benefit the hobby and your fellow fishkeepers. Lastly, again I ask you why would you ask ANY questions if you already are a know-it-all, gonna-do-it-my-way, screw-society, type of person that doesn't want intelligent and factual responses. If other newbies learn from this posting then it isn't a waste then.
On the God topic, so you are saying if God didn't intend for Hitler to kill all the Jews then it would not be possible to happen. Your words...just not well thought out.