Why is my severum trying to breed with my vieja

[LukeOscar]

I was under the impression that severums and vieja can't hybrid. But apparently these two don't know that LOL

 

[Deadeye]

Cichlids are weird, it’s not impossible for strange pairs to form. I wouldn’t expect any offspring from it though.

 

[LukeOscar]

Cichlids are weird, it’s not impossible for strange pairs to form. I wouldn’t expect any offspring from it though.

oh i know lol. i was making a joke. most of the eggs have already grown fungus.

 

[duanes]

If you consider that the ancestors of Vieja, may be from the Heros line the migrated north, when the land gap between north and south America was filled in in Panama umpteen million years ago by volcanic action, and with the teutonic plates colliding providing a bridge, It doesn't seem that far fetched, that the two genera would see each other as distant cousins, although quite removed.
I have a theory running thru my head, that the cichlid Isthmoheros tuyrense of the Darian gap, (thought to be once a part of the genus Vieja) is the missing link between the genera of once separate continents.
One of the reasons I moved to Panama was to explore the species stalled in that land gap.
The first I studied was Andinoacara coerleopunctatus, the only Andinoacara to migrate into both Central America, and still retain its genus status.

I caught this one recently in a river in Panama.