New To Cichlids / My Hybrid Projects

[MCE]

I would have put this in the intro section, but I didn't want to offend anyone not partial to creating hybrids. So yeah, I'm Mike and I'm new to breeding Cichlids! Have kept some when I was a kid, but nothing serious. Been breeding designer Leopard Geckos for about eight years and was fortunate to hatch out my own dominant mutation the Funky Jungle. Finally took a leap into a hobby that I'd been wanting to get into for years, got a tank, got some fish, and now I want to make some hybrids. We have the same debate in Leopard Geckos and I agree with both sides. To me, as long as you are responsible and represent your animals for what they are, crosses, then creating hybrids should be left to the discretion of the keeper. To further lesson the potential harm to the hobby I will be culling/feeding out any offspring that even slightly resemble either parent species.

I am a big fan of Convicts, but wish they were a little bigger so I'm focusing all of my efforts on Convict crosses with some of the larger CA Cichlids. Right now I'm growing out some young fish hoping I get a female from each species. While highly improbable, only have one of each except for festae, I remain optomistic that I will at least get a few; festae are my favorite so I bought three. My Convict male has babies with a Pink Convict right now and there's a male Pink Convict as well. Along with the CA Cichlids I also have an Oscar, GT, S. Daemon, Marbled Sailfin Pleco and a shoal of twelve Silver Dollars in the 125 grow out tank. The three SAs will be going as the CAs grow out. The Silver Dollars I hope to keep, but we will see. Having them all in the tank has a very good thing going on in the tank right now. As male CAs appear they will be taken to the LFS or a friend. The adult hybrid take will either be a 300 or 500 depending on what I can afford next year.

Besides the three Convicts here are the CAs I'm hoping to cross with my Convict male:

x1 - Amphilophus citrinellum "Midas Cichlid" - 2"
x3 - exCichlasoma festae "Red Terror" - 1"
x1 - Herichthys carpinte "Green Texas Cichlid" "Escondido" - 1.5"
x1 - Parachromis managuense 2"
x1 - Parachromis motaguense "Red Tiger" - 1"
x1 - Vieja argentea - 1.5"
x1 - Vieja regani - 2"
x1 - Vieja maculicauda "Black Belt" - 2.5"

... and some pics. Sorry they are so hard to get pics of and these are the best I got so not all fish are seen.



...and some Funky Jungles!

Funky Jungle


Funky Jungle + 1 gene


Funky Jungle + 1 gene


Funky Jungle + 2 genes


Funky Jungle + 3 genes


Funky Jungle + 4 genes


Funky Jungle + 5 genes


Very happy to be here!

 

[Azedenkae]

Very interesting. You have obviously done your research.

Many people would say that there's not much to get out of crossing Convicts, but I disagree. Whilst the Convict itself is a rather 'simple' cichlid, there are value in crossing it to add Convict traits to well, whatever fish. One of the most interesting crosses would be the Flowercon, and the example in the big example thread really caught me by surprise - I am normally not that great of a fan of Flowerhorns, but if I saw that cross I'd have snapped it right away. Prolly the only two really 'meh' Convict crosses seen was the Texas x Convict and Firemouth x Convict, the rest I at least liked.

With that said, I think you've chosen some very interesting partners. Not too sure about Festaes tho, coz they already have bars and are already crazy. Could turn out really, really well tho.

Here is the KKP x Marbled Convict project headed by shenzenluohan, and here's the Ellioti x Convict project headed by yours truly, if you want to see some other projects currently ongoing.

 

[MCE]

Thanks for the comment! This You tube vid might turn people onto Convict x Red Terror!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCKcR8LnUoM

 

[shenzhenluohan]

Very cool geckos, I wish you luck on your hybrid endeavors, kep us posted.

 

[MCE]

Thanks a lot!

 

[Azedenkae]

Pretty cool Festae x Convict, actually, even if it hasn't shown lotsa colors yet.

I notice btw that for a lot of the Convict crosses, the bars don't really extend to the fins so much, bar the bar that extends from the spot 2/3rds of so down the body, which extends into a little dorsal spot of sorts. Seems so anyways.

 

[MCE]

The fry are free swimming!



...and a pretty Jewel from one of our other tanks.

 

[Chrisplosion]

Those fish from Wet Spot by chance?

 

[MCE]

Yes! They are ALL so healthy and vibrant! Anthony was a pleasure to deal with as well!