weird question...

I think you need to narrow down the term "cichlid". There are WAY too many cichlids out there to be making these assumptions. Are you thinking of a particular type of cichlid?

Some cichlids are very docile.
Some cichlids do not protect thier young.
Do sunfish really look like all cichlids? Thats weird, because the cichlid family has some mean variation.
Some cichlids school, and some dont.

So you cant really make these comparisons with the very general term cichlids. Maybe you are to narrow it down to "large SA cichlids" or something like that.


-Diana

Bluegills are in the sunfish family or Centrarchidae.

one problem you may have if technically compared to cichlids, we commonly know, the sunfish may be considered a cold water species. they prefer water temp of 60-70 degrees as opposed to many cichlids 74-86 degrees.

I doubt they would find the habitat comfortable. :look:

I am reading that you are asking if the species could intermix??

if you know it, then you also know the in all likelyhood it's a mating that is not expected to happen.

Nature has already set the boundaires. if you look at the range of the sunfish compared to the cichlids you will notice that the breeding characteristics of the water naturally prevent the mix from happening.
I do believe there is something that is preventing the species from intermixing naturally.That boundary is not a physical boundary like mountains but more probably water characteristics. Many of the sunfish(bluefills are found in the north as well as to the east and west ..however, the speices range seems to hit a barrier around mexico.

that being said there is something about the fish that naturally prevent species from doing much breeding outside their perspective classes(there has been some documentation of sunfish interbreeding.)

this is not to say that it can't happen, but for all intensive purposes it doesn't.

Generally, the species are to dis-similar to breed.
but with all this said..this is not to say that in a fixed environment it can't happen...but this mix may not be a good thing and the subspecies will most likely be sterile.

Also not all cichilds are solitary and some are found in schools (Discus).

If two fish inhabit the same region, then nature has gone to even greater extents to prevent hybridization between the two species.

Look at the Malawi cichlids, which all inhabit the same lake. Sure, they can hybridize in a fixed environment, but in the wild it very rarely if ever happens. And that is between two species of cichlids, and not fish from another family.

-Diana

Thank you Diana :thm:

again this is largely due to the species being to dis-similar to cross breed.

Kind of like getting a largemouth bass to breed with bluegills.