CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

I have been thinking a lot about this and i understand the concept of course, however, why should it matter if i keep same color opposite sex types and they cross breed?? the tank is for my own pleasure, i wouldnt run to the pet shop and sell the fish trying to pass them off as pure. I would probably just leave them in the tank to be eaten or survive. What are your thoughts on cross breeding, and in the wild wouldnt these fish all cross breed anyhow??

Just go down the local LFS and get a bunch of mongrels there like so called mixed africans which are hybrid to the crapper lol.

Seriously though no serious hobbiest would deliberatly want to cross breed as much as this habit of flowerhorns,parrots etc are slipping into australia which I hang my head in shame over

Is it true though that the majority of fish wont cross breed anyhow?? One thing i can see that would be a problem though, is by cross breeding and then taking them to the fish store we will end up breeding out some gorgeous fish that we can only get in limited amounts here in Oz. But, as i am new at Cichlids i was getting very worried about which fish i should be keeping, colors, male femal ratios ect... when in fact, as i am keeping them purely for my own pleasure i dont see the problem. I am not going to run off and sell anything to the pet shop, any breeding done outside the original couple wont matter because they will end up consumed as fish food.

I do think it is wrong to cross breed then take them to the pet shop and sell them, and i think pet shops that take fish like that are wrong for taking them.

Is it true though that the majority of fish wont cross breed anyhow??

Yes in general however there are many exceptions to the rule. Lake malawi cihchlids for example seem to be the worst affected due to simularitys in a very heavily vast amount of species still being discovered. People cross breed these then sell them to pet shops here then people are charged a lot of money for crap. I got caught out paying $70 for a sulphar crested peacock that turned out to be a mongrel and it really pissed me off. Then onto the american cichlids,, you cant or its very hard to get a pure red devil, midas, green terrors these days etc etc because someone wanted colour or didnt give a crap.

Cross breeding in the wild does happen but nothing to the extent that man can do. Breeders will cull thousands of fish to get that right fry or even sell the rubbish they cant get good money for as a lower grade as in the cases of Flowerhorns, blood parrots(a lot of these fish are dyed too, very cruel)

You would really have to get advise from someone on what to cross breed and how to do it and depending on tank size,, you can make a colourfull colllection , just not like a neon,guppy type setup colour wise with wall to wall fish.

ANyway mate if you really wanna have mongrels in your tank and treat them just as humanly as other fish(Im not one for cruely keeping any fish) then I guess thats up to,, I wont condone it ever though

I dont particularly want to have a tank full of cross breeds at all, that isnt what i am getting at. I want the fish that i want, for example, i have an electric yellow and i want a mate for it however my johanni has turned out to be a female and is therefore yellow. I will get a male Johanni as well but how can i stop the yellows breeding with the johanni if she is yellow also?? my point is, i want my johanni and my yellow and i dont feel i should remove one or the other from the tank for fear of cross breeding. The fry if it did ever happen would end up as fish food i spose.