wild discus

Can I ask a quick question? I am still new to this, but why are hybrids okay with discus and not with cichlids? Sorry if I come across as jacking this post, it's just that I am new to all of this and this post just made me wonder.
 
Well the only hybrid discus are those that are crossed with a Heckle. Greens,Browns,and blues are all the same species, just different wild color variations. The heckle is a separate species, they also have several color morphs, but what sets them apart is three pronounced stress bars, the eybar,mid body bar, and the tail bar. Crossing with heckles usually doesn't occur, though occasionally it does. Its accepted within the discus community because essentially the fish are about as close genetically as you can get without being the same species.
 
NatakuTseng said:
Well the only hybrid discus are those that are crossed with a Heckle. Greens,Browns,and blues are all the same species, just different wild color variations. The heckle is a separate species, they also have several color morphs, but what sets them apart is three pronounced stress bars, the eybar,mid body bar, and the tail bar. Crossing with heckles usually doesn't occur, though occasionally it does. Its accepted within the discus community because essentially the fish are about as close genetically as you can get without being the same species.
Click to expand...

Do the Greens,Browns,and blues cross breed in the wild?
 
There are only two recognized species in the wild right now, they may be creating more species in the near future however. As of right now the two species are, Symphysodon aequifasciatus and Symphysodon discus. The aequifasciatus species is where the browns,blues, and greens fall into, now they do cross, but they tend to only produce those same color strains with the crosses. Discus genetics are a little bit different than other fish. For example, if I took one domestic strain, the snakeskin, and bred a male and female snakeskin together, I would not end up with 100% snakeskin young. 10-20% of the fry may carry the snakeskin genetics (12+ stress bars, generally 14 is considered a true snake) but that remaining 80-90% of the fry will be what we call 9 bar throw backs, so what you end up with in those remaining fish would be either a red or blue turqoise strain. There are color crosses like that in the wild, so you can end up with other color strains, but the ones that we have listed are considered to be the base color strains. Every discus of the aquifasciatus specie can be classified as either a brown,blue,or green because they will trace their origin back to those fish. Another example for you, San Merahs, Alenquer super reds, and the turqoises all are considered browns. Any fish you see with very fine red spotting on it, that is not of a pigeonblood genetic line, will have come from wild greens with red spotting that occur in natural green populations.

Heckles do have some wild variants. A regular heckle, bluefaced heckles, and pineapple heckles are the most common ones. You won't see captive bred heckle variants like you do with the aquifasciatus species because they are extremely difficult to breed in captivity. There have only been a few successful spawns of true heckles that I am aware of in captivity. Heckles will and do cross with aquifasciatus, male heckles in captivity will pair with female aquifasciatus, but female heckles will rarely lay eggs with either species. Here is a link to one of the wild crosses that occurs, this picture is from Alberto at aquatechnics, he recently was able to get a sucessful spawn out of a pair of F0 heckles, and is one of the premiere wild discus importers in the country.
http://www.aquatechnics.net/images/wb14.jpg
That is a result of a heckle and blue strain discus cross under wild and natural conditions.

Sorry for that getting kind of wordy, but its not exactly the most simple subject.

Hope it helpled a little bit anyway,
Brian
 
They are discus produced through selective breeding and are the same specie as browns, blues, and greens; at least for the most part.
 
Heiko Bleher in his fantastick book explains that there are :
1. Heckel discus
2. Brown and blue belonging to the same species
3. The green discus may it be just green or Tefe green Red spotted. Tefe is an area near the lake tefe in Amazonia.
Some natural hybredisation no daught occures but the species are these.
IMO the most beautiful and true discus. Perhaps I have some high set standards but the hybredised discus have lost the beauty of the original fish and it doesn't resemble the fish they have all originated from. Having seen all the pathetic colours and patterns I regret to say that we are drifting apart from what nature has created. The man made hybreds sure seem unusual but I am the old fashioned naturelover. Hybreds trhough years of geneticaly working on different traits ( colour, body shape, high fin etc) have made a fiasco out of the most beautiful FW fish.

Nature created for me is the best!

Best regards,
Sokoly
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom