Cross-Breeding question

[chriscook]

So I am trying to stock a 240 gallon display tank and was wondering if the species I have selected will cross breed cause I don't want to have to fish out the mutts.  I am going with some demasoni's, yellow labs, t. duboisi, and red zebra's, and some synodontis!  I know some may say this is a bad mix but I feel the tank is big enough and I am going to go with it and try my luck.  Is there any other species anyone would recomend also?  I just don't want cross-breeding going on!  Thanks for any input you can give!

Chris

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Cross-Breeding question

Welcome to the box!


The tank sounds amazing when it's done! I think you should be fine as far as crossbreeding goes.

[geoff_tropheus]

Re: Cross-Breeding question

I have mixed Tropheus with mbuna before and not had issues.

The only slight possible issues are, what kind of syno's do you have? Some are bad fry eaters, and some are "cockoo" spawners.

The cockoo spawners are where the catfish will make mouthbrooding cichlids hold their spawns.  The only problem with this is, the catfish mature more quickly and eat the cichlid fry while in side the mothers mouth.

Otherwise, beautiful tank, cannot wait to see photos.

Take care,

Geoff

[chriscook]

Re: Cross-Breeding question

They syno's I have are petricola.

[hecpilot]

Re: Cross-Breeding question

Petricola are egg scatterers.  Although I have read reports of them being cukoo spawners, the consensus seems to be with the scattering technique.

[kyalib]

Re: Cross-Breeding question

On a somewhat related note...

I recently (6mo. ago) set up and stocked a 100 gal at work.  The inhabitants are red zebras, Ps. elongatus, Ps. acei, and a lone female yellow Lab.  Oh, and theres also a female convict who was a cycling fish and refuses to be caught.  So I notice about 2 weeks ago, the lab is holding?!

Okay, any guesses who she crossbred with?

My money is on the female convict  

BTW, The Ps. Acei cant be the culprits, they weren't added until last week (HAS auction) and she was already holding.

[geoff_tropheus]

Re: Cross-Breeding question

They may not be fertile, but why would she be go thru the motion of holding her own eggs?

This is weird...

I'd say Elongatus, if you keep the fry post a pic.

[kyalib]

Re: Cross-Breeding question

Yeah, I thought the same thing, surely she wouldn't be holding infertile eggs for the past 2 weeks.  

I'm not going to make any efforts to keep the fry, but if they survive when she releases them, I'll take a picture.  I'd thinking she'll probably release them next week.

These fish aren't ever going to leave the tank, so I guess they can crossbreed all they want.

[Tiapan]

Re: Cross-Breeding question

would be interesting to see what they look like, some people are highly against crossbreeding fish, but its done all the time for a variety of reasons, first of all if they can do it in a tank they can in the wild ,probably where most of the different color varients come from in more species.(like all the julies) also its done to help fish survive, hybrid perch are used to stock ponds for fishing, large Texas Bass are used to breed with bass from oter states to increase the size of thier fish for recreational purposes, we breed albino fish because they look good, why not hybrids, as long as its kept in the hobby it hurts no one, and yes there are those that want to keep species from crossing, well its simple dont keep ones that can. i try not too. but thats just me. P.S. i still wouldnt rule out the convict, she could just be using the yellow lab like a wet nurse  

[kyalib]

Re: Cross-Breeding question

Well I couldn't help it, I wanted to see what the little guys would look like and...

They're yellow. or orange.

And I dont see any stripes.  So I think we likely have a yellow lab/red zebra cross.  I should have guessed that.  

If you ever go to Memorial Herman southeast (or was it southwest?) look at their tanks. There's one in particular right in front of you when you get off the elevator.  If I remember correctly, there are tanks with labs and cobalt zebras and all kinds of blue and yellow hybrids.  So at least I'm not the first to accidentally play Dr. Frankenstein.  :)

I'll post a picture if I can catch them in the open.