hybrids

[peifc]

Originally posted by dave76
She has only nipped him a few times since I got her, and the violent squabbles have always been over food. I think she is getting the point that he doesnt want her. But she sure does want him. The strange thing about the whole deal is that I could swear she is starting to get a hump.... I didnt know that females could do this. Is this whats happening or am I crazy?

Nah, you are not crazy. However, not all female has that. Very rarely that I have seen a female has hump. How big is your Con?

Observe the GT's behavior at all time. If the GT said no...pretty much a no. But if see any changes on the behavior...like GT is following the Con...then time to divide.

 

[dave76]

Shes about 1.5", he is about 4 times her size. I do watch them constantly and I have noticed no such behavior. He never displays any aggressive behavior to any fish in the tank, except for the catfish. He got into a brawl with my striped raphael last night, but that is just a territorial battle for a tree stump.

 

[peifc]

Hmm....too soon to have a hump. Let's hope that she didn't bump her head jk

Joking aside, maybe your Con is one of the rarity of female Con. My female Con is 2" and got a smooth top. However, my male Con at 2" has started to develop a little hump.

My GT is like yours. He doesn't chase or bite other fish unless it is fighting over food. Apparently, my GT was starved in the past. Now he just can't get enough of food. My GT picks on the Pleco whenever he finds that fish in his cave. He feels like a king in that tank without the Male Con. Hope he will feel this way still when I put that Con back in that tank.

Here is a site maybe will put you at ease about your female Con.

It did mention about the hump on female.

http://cichlidresearch.com/sexingcichlids.html

 

[dave76]

firemouth with bloat?

disregard this post

 

[Harry Tolen]

Just to go back to the Blue Dempsey point for a moment, in the interests of clarity. Blue Dempseys are indeed a mutation and not a hybrid, but are almost always minimally fertile when bred to each other. To produce more Blue Dempseys, they are bred back to standard Dempseys, which produces a generation of fish that look like standard Dempseys but carry the recessive Blue Dempsey gene. Then those fish are bred to each other, producing approximately 25% Blue Dempseys.

 

[ChilDawg]

I think that the usage of "cross-breeding" was valid in this case.

"Cross-breeding" is used to describe having a sire of one breed and a dam of another, when it comes to dogs. All domestic dogs are Canis familiaris, so these aren't hybrids!

Hybrids and "cross-breeds" are different...one refers to an INTERspecific mating and the latter is used to denote an INTRAspecific mating.

 

[Monglor]

I found out that Texas Cichlid and Carpinte are the same group, yet they don't breed together.

Thats not entirely true. I've kept Texas cichlids with carpintes many times. They will breed quite readily. Its happened to me on several occasions. These are my 2 favorite cichlids. I've been keeping them for 16 years now. I've had both sexes of the 2 fish in the same tank and they will breed with whoever is willing.

 

[peifc]

Wrong choice of words on my side. I know they can breed together, but it really depends on the fish. However, rarely in wild that they will breed because both came from different Rivers.

I didn't say I have experienced in Texas Cichlids. If you have...that's great, but for me, I rather like to keep them apart...let them breed within their own. What I stated about Texas Cichlid and Carpinte, I learned that from Paul Loiselle. I never...ever said that I SAID SO. Your Texas Cichlid and Carpinte breed together is rare...according to him...not many chances that they actually will.

 

[ChilDawg]

If I'm not mistaken, what Dr. Loiselle said was that it was rare in the wild when they overlap habitats. It is possible in captivity, and very likely as many of the former Cichlasoma spp., especially those still held in the same genera as each other, are not yet divergent enough to avoid hybridization in captivity.

 

[peifc]

Actually, in his article about Herichthys cyanoguttatus (Texas Cichlid) comparing with H. Carpintis, "In a free choice situation, these two fish will not hybridize. Indeed, I suspect that even forced hybridization of these two cichlids might prove extremely difficult to effect. I have seen a widowed, obviously very ripe female green Texas actively courting a male C. salvini while totally ignoring the overtures of a male H. cyanoguttatus living in the same aquarium."

As for in the wild...it is almost impossible because these fish don't live together in the same river unless someone released an aquarium Carpinte into Texas Cichlid area, northeastern Mexico. Even than, I don't know if the Texas Cichlid in the wild really know what to expect of the Carpinte.