Cichlid Hybridization?

[Unforgiven]

Will Cichlids hybridize? I was thinking about trying to get my Female Red Devil to breed with my Jack Dempsy, (they get along smashingly) but I'm not sure if cichlids can hybridize....anyone know?

[kevkoi]

The short answer is that yes the 2 cichlids u mention will hybridise if you have a male and a female.
.... if you want the LOOOOOOOONG answer, ask the same question on:
http://pub80.ezboard.com/bthesydneycichlidpageforums

.... and be prepared for a tongue lashing. :P

[Unforgiven]

heh...don't need a long answer Just want to try a little genetics experiment.

[Blue Dempsey]

a friend of mine had a breeding pair of a female pink convict, and a male texas cichlid. they bread and reared their young a few times.
he eventually had a bach of a dozen or so hybrid fishes that looked like the body of a convict, with the head and coloration of a texas cichlid.
blue speckled convicts thats what they looked like.

he had them for 3 years, they attained about the size of a convict adult 4-5 inches they tried to breed on several occasions but were sterile and no babies were ever born. breeding coloration was the same of a texas.
beautiful fish. its a shame they were sterile

[Real Cichlid]

Originally Posted by Blue Dempsey

a friend of mine had a breeding pair of a female pink convict, and a male texas cichlid. they bread and reared their young a few times.
he eventually had a bach of a dozen or so hybrid fishes that looked like the body of a convict, with the head and coloration of a texas cichlid.
blue speckled convicts thats what they looked like.

he had them for 3 years, they attained about the size of a convict adult 4-5 inches they tried to breed on several occasions but were sterile and no babies were ever born. breeding coloration was the same of a texas.
beautiful fish. its a shame they were sterile

! Er ! Er ! It's not encouraged !!

[Blue Dempsey]

ok its not encuraged ?

please explain why

[kevkoi]

There's been lotsa controversy about cichlid hybridisation in the Aquarium hobby.

Most 'purist' cichlid enthusiast frown upon the idea of hybrid cichlids because the hybrid species is neither here nor there and in some cases the hybrid produces fertile offspring.

While in the wild, a texas and a convict cichlid would be geographically too far apart to breed (Thus no naturally occuring hybrid of these 2 fish could ever occur), this isn't the case in the aquarium. Basically, the idea is that hybrid off-spring could look very much like either parent and be mistaken for a particular species. This hybrid fish could then be used to breed with other pure blood cichlid and taint the pure species.... If this were to go on unchecked, we could eventually end up with cichlids that could not be identified. (Neither Texas nor Convict cichlids but a mismatch.)

To put it more bluntly, hybrid's are like a forced mix of 2 distinct species (don't confuse this with distinct races... a race is not a species.). A hybrid cichlid is somewhat like a man and chimpanzee mix. Both are primates (same genus), but distinctly different 'species'. Would we frown upon a man/chimp hybrid?

This is the argument put forward by cichlid purist and hence why many cichlid hybrids such as the 'flowerhorn', Angelfish and Discus are frowned upon by the purist cichlid enthusiast.

...... I could stand on both sides of the fence and debate this till the cows come home, but I'll leave it at that.

[Real Cichlid]

Kev,

Very well put. Couldn't have said it better !
IMO, there are already so many species available in the trade why and why do we have to continously breed something that maybe non ocurring in true nature !!!

[KaNine]

if u go to Aquarium BB18 near Zoo Negara, they managed to breed Silver Dollars with Bloody Parrots. Totally different species. I oso confused cos how can u breed horse with cat? BUT GOT WOR! u all go and see la. The fishes look so WEIRD. Like KARTOON la! So cute but cost RM30. Too expensive liao. If 10 bucks arrr, I buy oredi!