Hybrid Fish....... Love 'em, Hate 'em, or Dont Care

So, its been awhile since I last posted a good discussion to get some heated responses from the members.... figured I would start with this one..... Hybrid, love 'em, Hate 'em, or dont care? and why??

I personally consider myself more of a purist in the hobby. I like to have a tank lake specific, and only put fish you would find in that lake. I also try to keep species seperate that will breed with eachother.... Cause I hate culling fish just cause there hybrid...... Its hard when there are sooo many different gorgeous variants of peacock, and tropheus, and other fish that will cross, but you want them in your tank!

I have a love/hate relationship with hybrid fish though, for example the flowerhorn.... I honestly think there gorgeous, I dont know why... just one of those things that are so ugly there cute??? the large nochual hump, the bright colors, the crazy temperament.... but, they are defiantly a fish that would never have existed without man messing with stuff.

So this is why I bring up this little debate.... Im torn.... I love the purist way, and keeping the fish genes as close to where there suppost to be.... but I am kinda grossly drawn to a few hybrids, and may even consider owning one some day. What does everyone else think..... lets make it a poll!!!??! if you want to vote anonymously I understand, but I really want to hear explanations.

honestly people can breed what they like in there tanks..

as long as they are responsible enough to sell them as what they are x/x so people know.

I hate on forums when people scream and freak out over someone who purposely or accidentally breed fish together...its not YOUR tank,,just like its not YOUR cat or dog..so really who is it any ones business what someone breeds?

It tells me what kind of a person someone is when they are screaming a me on a forum telling me or someone to kill all of there fry just because they are "hybrids".....it angers me so much...YES kill 50+ fish do it ! KILL THEM ALLLLLLL!!!

i had some trolls try to tell me to cull my tailless convict or to NEVER breed her ...it would be" irresponsible/.......well they can shove it..i bred her and if any fry do happen to come out tailless i will sell them.

If people don't like what I do to MY tanks with MY fish who are healthy and happy than they can go bite there own back sides for all I care.

^_^....just my thoughts

When it comes to crossing 2 different specie, I dont agree, and I am OK with it. If you plan on keeping 1 or 2 for yourself to raise and see how they turn out, thats cool. But when you cross them and then start giving them away or selling them as one of the specie, that is a big NO in my book.

That is why we have such a huge issue with true Midas and true Red Devils. So many people cross breed and then distribute. The same thing is being done between the Freddies, Loisellei, and the RTM's. And the peacocks. I ask why, keep it pure.

Now when it comes to crossing the same fish from different locals, I am all in favor of that. For instance, I am trying to spawn a WC white/org Devil with a barred blue Devil. Still keeping them Devils just changing up the colors. I also have about 200 fry from my white Xilo and my reddish blue barred Xilo.

So basically I am against the hybrids. If it happens and the owner keeps, more power to them. If they try to distribute, then all hybrids need to be executed.

Yes it would be cool to cross Rubin peacocks with Jacobs to get different colored peacocks. But it is not right. I hate even looking at those bright red hybrid pieces of crap peacocks that are going around. Kill them all.

Kaosu wrote:honestly people can breed what they like in there tanks..

as long as they are responsible enough to sell them as what they are x/x so people know.

I hate on forums when people scream and freak out over someone who purposely or accidentally breed fish together...its not YOUR tank,,just like its not YOUR cat or dog..so really who is it any ones business what someone breeds?

It tells me what kind of a person someone is when they are screaming a me on a forum telling me or someone to kill all of there fry just because they are "hybrids".....it angers me so much...YES kill 50+ fish do it ! KILL THEM ALLLLLLL!!!

i had some trolls try to tell me to cull my tailless convict or to NEVER breed her ...it would be" irresponsible/.......well they can shove it..i bred her and if any fry do happen to come out tailless i will sell them.

If people don't like what I do to MY tanks with MY fish who are healthy and happy than they can go bite there own back sides for all I care.

^_^....just my thoughts

Hybrids are fine if you keep them. Say you sell them as x/x fish and those 100 fish move on as x/x, and then move on as, oops what was it, oh ya it was an x. Now this person breeds it with another x, and sells them as pure. WRONG, THEY ARE NOT PURE. See where this can lead? Yes hybrid breeding in your home is fine. But keep it in your home. Again, that is why we have midevils, and nobody really has a clue what they are buying. Petsmart sells as RedDevils, when they are all but Red Devils. It starts with you then all the fish soon become hybrid/pure because nobody remembers and the screwed up new hybrid continues to spawn and hybridize.

the trimac should have something to say on this matter as its darn near impossible to find a true trimac outside reputable vendors. im not a fan nor will i purposely hybridize unless i breed any midas/type amphilophus according to some crack pot theorists lol. its still a choice made by the fish so if they wanna do the do then fine by me but i do have a problem with selling fry from hybrids and espescially when they are not labled correctly which happens much too much cause it will ruin the pure bred species. espescially in fish that arent as prevalent in the wild or gone in the wild. species like lyonsi and la ceiba freidrichsthalli need to to bred responsibly as there arent too many out there to begin with.

I am not crazy about hybrids, but there are some that are allowable:

Dragonblood peacocks
OB peacocks
Rubisen peacocks
Albino peacocks

The kind I don't allow is two unknown peacocks breeding.. like mixing a sunshine peacock with a blue regal peacock. I have seen way more hybrids like these, including one LFS store doing it, these are absolutely trash and should not be allowed to be spread around.

Customers want fishes like they find in the books that Ad Konings took pics of..

woah... no one so far loves hybrids.... 1 hates em, 3 for dont care..... there isnt a flowerhorn breeder, or dragonblood breeder in here that is gonna vote cause his hobby would be turned upside down if these species werent allowd.... obviously he would be a lover!

I almost want to vote I love them just cause of the two species I named... but, I have never purchased one and put in one of my tanks.... so I cant really say I love them then.. lol.....

I like to hear all the different opinions guys... thanks for posting... lets get some more posts... no one will judge you. thats not allowd!

My buddy owned the Texas/Jag hybrid thats in Sierra's show tank(currently not for sale). That fish is one hellllluva stunner. I wish I had my own..

I'm a hater! [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

They are freaks!

My opinion...

Whatever you do in your own tanks is up to you, but once they leave your tanks it's a definite no-no.

I used to like to try and cross cichlids in my tanks and see what i'd get, but i would always keep a couple and let the others be feeders.. I never sold any or gave any away because i never wanted to put mutts out on the street..lol
Now i'm pretty much just into pure species.. So everything i have is either F0 or F1 now..

hybrids suck. Everytime I see a parrot cichlid I want to pee in the tank.

lol... I was gonna pee in my own tank to cycle it....

I cant believe not 1 person like hybrids on this site..... Seriously... not one!???!?!?!?!! Are people just trying to fit in with the crowd?

Big Dave wrote:Everytime I see a parrot cichlid I want to pee in the tank.

I do think red texas are pretty neat though.

Hybrids are garbage, accidental crossing means food for other fish. I am 110% anti hybrid.

wow, what strong opinions!

I don't particularly care about them as it doesn't effect me much. Though I agree very much with Kasou's & Madness' opinions on the matter. If it's for your own personal tank - whatever floats your boat. But remember and clearly identify it's lineage if you're trying to share your hybrid with others. Shiesty fish-peddlers are a giant NO in my book.

Zerc wrote:

Big Dave wrote:Everytime I see a parrot cichlid I want to pee in the tank.

I do think red texas are pretty neat though.

I dont know this for sure, but I thought that the Red Texas is a natural fish, kind of like EBJD. It just happens. But I could be completely wrong, but will do research to be sure.

I thought it was another product of SE asia like the flowerhorn, too expensive to buy though.

if its not i might get one!

Just found my answer:

Red Texas Cichlid.

The red Texas cichlid is a hybrid and is not present in the wild. It is believed to be a cross between a Flowerhorn cichlid and a Texas cichlid which is why the red Texas cichlid often is sold as a Flowerhorn cichlid rather than a red Texas cichlid.
Red Texas Cichlid Price
The prices of red Texas cichlid differs greatly and can be everything from 10$ to 1000$+. There are two main reasons for the large price span. The first and less important one is that these fish still are quite rare and the store therefore can charge they price they want for them. The other more important reason is that the quality of fish in different price ranges. Only very few fish grows to very red show specimens while most specimens turn out to be of much lower quality. High quality specimens are very rare and as such expensive. Buying red Texas cichlids as fry are somewhat of a gamble since only a very low number of them will grow out to be really red. Most fish will never develop the red or will have a large number of black spots on their body making them more black than red.

Red Texas Cichlid Setup and Care.
Red Texas cichlids are considerable more aggressive than other Texas cichlids and should be thought about as flowerhorns rather than as Texas cichlids. They should only be kept with other large robust and aggressive fish. They require a large aquarium if you are going to be able to house them with other cichlids and are otherwise best kept alone.

The red Texas cichlid is easy to care for and will accept most types of food. They produce large amounts of waste which means that large frequent water changes and good filtration is a most.

bleh.

For me in my own tanks its gotta be pure 100% and I don't waver on how I feel about that.
Yeah I do have lots of different species but am very careful about who goes in with who, this has worked for many years for me without any hybrids. Some of my stock is getting up there in years so to speak thus I'll bring in some new wild blood to add to those colonys from a reputible source.

The Lake Victorians that I have they are tanked literally no where near each other so there's absolutely no chance of one jumping into a tank next door for a midnight interlude.

Now I know there are people out there who love their hybrids, they take superb care of them which is okay with me but if they want a big bad arse fish there are some awesome ones out of SA & CA I wish they would have taken the passion for instead.

OK, OK. Speaking of hybrids. Like I stated earlier, " I am not apposed to cross breeding, as long as it doesnt go any where".

With that said, my female Istlanum looks like that she is going to spawn with my male Trimac. Let me show you pics of both.

Male AMPHILOPHUS Trimac:
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Female EX CICHLISOMA Istlanum
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Makes you kinda go,

I was picking up a 2 gallon tank for my daughter's betta today in everett, the guy had a tank full of Red Devil x Convict crosses... wtf?

My RD would eat my cons if it could catch them.

madness wrote:my female Istlanum looks like that she is going to spawn with my male Trimac.

The beginning of a new flowerhorn, Aquarium Paradise will buy the fry off you.

DMD123 wrote:

madness wrote:my female Istlanum looks like that she is going to spawn with my male Trimac.

The beginning of a new flowerhorn, Aquarium Paradise will buy the fry off you.

Na. That was almost 3 weeks ago. Looks like they are just buddies. Plus, I dont distribute hybrids. But, it could be a pretty cool FH.

Its cool that your an enthusiast and all but the reason why so many posts have the title "what is this fish" or something along those lines is because people breed hybrids out of curiosity and then sell them as whatever trying to make a quick buck because they think they look cool. There are hybrids that occur in the wild like assorted africans but only because they can not because they have to... and they don't end up like the poor blood parrot or other deformed fish... although I love my blood parrot to pieces, I don't think we need to have the same mistake to happen again. So by all means if you must hybridize, do some research, pick closely related and similar genus, and know what your doing... A pair of breeders can turn into an unstable, and uncontrollable tank with hundreds of babies very quickly!

I love hybrids! My red texas is a beast and grows a melon when he is in the humping mood! I can see why people get pissy about them but I don't think its a wide spread problem, I think it gets blown out of proportion. Things like deformities happen when fish start getting inbred multiple times.
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I used to be a purist. Now I'm bored. Going to try to produce some Blue Galaxy cichlids, someone's name for Texas x Dempsey...