Please ID my HYBRID fish?

[boldtogether]

yeah RD its getting pretty sad out there compared to the old day's

With petco and petsmart taking out most of the LFS's like CVS did to the pharmacies it getting harder and harder to find good fish you can count on.

The hobbyist is left with what's available and most new hobbyists are not going to order online and IMO is killing the industry...

These chain stores cannot even order very many specific species and are left to assorted African's.

Even if your experienced and know what you got you can't tell if it's pure or not! and no pairs available...



Steve

I wonder, and you make a good point, when does one know or recognize the gene pool issue? Buying from breeders exclusively is fine and I see why many do, but how do you, even as a breeder recognize sibling breeding?
The old days of collecting wild seems to be hampered more and more by political unrest in many of the country's where wild collection is done and professional breeders, I would imagine, have to rely on locals collecting for them. Maybe not as big an issue as cross hybridization, but even an advertized F1 may be something it isn't...

 

[RD.]

2017 bump

 

[The Morning]

How does one ensure that even a wild caught cichlid has not been cross bred at some point in the past?

 

[RD.]

Short of a proper DNA analysis, you can't. But typically wild fish live and breed among their own kind, unlike the unnatural conditions in a home aquarium, where fish are forced to live and breed among a selected pool of tank mates. In the latter scenario the odds are stacked for cross breeding, not against, as they are in the wild.

 

[The Morning]

I was thinking DNA testing might be the only way to confirm.
So the breeder that you knew with the Fryeri, do you know if his pair was wild caught or did he know the lineage?

I’m trying to wrap my brain around the possibility that just about every “pure” fish may very well be a hybrid. I am guessing if he raised 1000s of fry from that pair many did not stay in his personal collection.

 

[RD.]

No, not wild as far as I recall, and I assume that he sold many of the offspring. While the hobby is full of hybrid fish, I don't see any reason to believe that every fish sold as pure, is a hybrid. Clearly that isn't the case. The point of this thread was really to wake a few folks up that are posting pics of whatever, of African Cichlids purchased often at big box stores, with no provenance. That certainly is a scenario where one can easily end up with a hybrid, and posting pics here isn't going to help. It looks like, it might be, the store said, whatever .......

 

[J. H.]

Yeah, it's nigh on impossible to get true anythings. My lfs won't even name their mbuna, it's that bad. But I don't think it's so bad for SA/CA. Last time I was in my lfs, they had 3 tanks, one for A. citronellus, one for A. Labiatus, and one for midevils. They even had a really cool female Labiatus with black splotches all over separate in their Texases. They are a little pricey, but great, and claim only to sell CB FW (They've had altums and redtail barracuda, and some metynnis so I don't know.) The Tanganiyakans seem to be pretty pure as well.
Good luck getting any pure Poecillia or Xiphophorus. My lfs can't even order them.

 

[RD.]

Getting quality stock isn't an issue, you just have to choose your sources carefully. Some LFS order direct from collectors/exporters, some sell junk and are happy doing so.

 

[aardvark1134]

I have a similar but different problem. I bought most of my peacocks as small as I could and still tell they were male. And while I have a list of exactly what I got from a good breeder...they don't have enough color in them yet to be able to tell apart. Young male peacock with a hint of this or that vs another young male peacock with some of this and that...even with a list of exactly what I have its hard right now to match up to which one in the tank it is. I can only imagine trying to guess what they are with no list to go by let alone if they are crosses. I should have taken pics as he pulled them out of their species only tanks. The good news is my problem will solve itself here in a couple months.

 

[RD.]

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