How would I go about sexing Texas/Convict cichlids???? They have the typical Convict stripes and Texas black spot and greenishblue speckling.... outside of that I have no clue here!!! Is there a certain size I should wait for them to get b4 I can I.D.??
Sexing Texas/Convict cichlid hybrids
- Thread starter beanmanes
- Start date
Aye, with hybrids it is really hard to tell, each strain can vary greatly. With specific strains there can be telltale signs as people breed them, but if you're just taking two fish and putting them together, especially if one of the fish is a hybrid already, there's no definite rule.
Although F1 from two pures tend to show similar characteristics to each other, especially when the pures are inbred (which a lot of them in the hobby are). This is because in such a case of heavy in-/line-/selective breeding, the fish would be homozygous for most of its traits, which would mean that the resultant F1 offsprings basically are very similar to each other, with basically identical alleles.
In theory therefore a F1 Texas x Convict in Minnesota can have pretty much the exact same traits as one in California, especially in terms of the defining traits (bars, pearlings, etc.) but yeah still there is quite a lot of variety nonetheless so... someone with experience with this particular cross can only give a suggestion, but will not definitely apply to your fish.
Although F1 from two pures tend to show similar characteristics to each other, especially when the pures are inbred (which a lot of them in the hobby are). This is because in such a case of heavy in-/line-/selective breeding, the fish would be homozygous for most of its traits, which would mean that the resultant F1 offsprings basically are very similar to each other, with basically identical alleles.
In theory therefore a F1 Texas x Convict in Minnesota can have pretty much the exact same traits as one in California, especially in terms of the defining traits (bars, pearlings, etc.) but yeah still there is quite a lot of variety nonetheless so... someone with experience with this particular cross can only give a suggestion, but will not definitely apply to your fish.
right on..thanks for the insight. guess I'll let you know in about 4-6 months, LOL. they are about the size of a 50cent piece right now. any explaination on why pure bred convicts would come out pink wouthout stripes. Non- albino. the eyes are black.
Mhm, hoping that's the case. I'm waiting for my Ellicons (Ellioti x Convict) fries to grow larger to see if that's indeed the case. I already picked out some possible females from the batch (based on a dorsal dot reminiscent of females of some Ellioti strains), but have yet to see any pink. They're like 1.5 inches though, a bit less, so not surprised. Would be cool if Convict hybrids do indeed exhibit such a trait. Would make it much easier to sex the hybrids. 