Hybrid fish

I hope this time i found a topic that has not recently been covered otherwise its back to the drawing board

Hybrid Fish, Fish whose parents are not the same species what would you do.

Cull them they are mungrels and they taint the blood lines.
Keep them they look good and you like them in your tank.
Trade them advise people they are hybrids and not of pure breed.

Please allow that if this thread has any interest people will have differant views and they are perfectly intiteled to them,no personal attacks

Regards

This has been a topic of debate that I am happy to chat upon for ages.
It has been discussed to quite big extent in the reptile world.

Firstly, maybe, we would need to be clear on what we define a hybrid as.
There are different types of hybrids, and maybe any type of hybrid is the topic of discussion here (eg interspecific or intergeneric hybrids, or maybe even inter-morphotype hybrids).

There are natural hybrids, but that could be part of the natural order of things.
The natural hybrid will be subjected to selective pressures; if it survives then it may well develop into its own distinct species.

But, that may be things coming full cycle as the original parent species may have once been a divergence from a single archaic species.
Eg most of the cichlid fish in Lake Malawi.

There have been some benefits in hybrid production, but to my mind they have only been seen in plants; I’ve not seen any true advantage in animals.

The Nectarine is a superb example of a plant hybrid; most of the Orchids you will see for sale in shops are hybrids (we have lost count of the number of species of orchids, but the number of hybrids is in the hundreds of thousands). Many of those plants do show hybrid vigour.

Orchids, for one example, have a surperb ability to produce viable young even when the young have certain chromosomal aberration (eg Aneuploidy). In humans, where it is of greatest interest to us, this causes major disadvantages to the individual.

Some people quote a term called ‘Heterosis’ (=Hybrid Vigour)….but that is often a misconception.
From it, there is a belief that all hybrids are ‘better than the parents’, but that is not necessarily true.

Some people will argue strongly that the ‘Liger’ (a lion x tiger cross) shows hybrid vigour…..absolute rubbish!!
I may be bigger than the parents, but it is a disease prone runt that cannot even breed for itself. How is that ‘better than the parents’?

There is a big difference between inter-breeding a species (ie unrelated breeding) and inter-species hybrid breeding.

But in relation to fish….. I am not a fan of hybrids (ie hybrids proper).
But we are not necessarily talking about selective breeding of a strain here though.

The case with Discus fish is a difficult one because of the still uncertain taxonomic state of Discus (eg I believe that there are only 2 species, and load of geographical morphotypes…. Other people would think differently).
If we cross-breed the different geographical locales then is that ‘hybridisation’?
Most of the Discus in shops is of this sort.

The major problem with Discus is that they are poorly selected for breeding.

The same may go for Betta splendens…..different colour morphotypes and selective breeding has produced some stunning fish. They are on the questionable side of which type of hybrid are we talking.

But, the likes of man-made hybrid killifish, cichlids or whatever…. I am not in agreement with.

Another item that then comes into play is that if these are hybrids are viable to breed, then to keep that hybrid going would require in-breeding….with all of it’s negative aspects.

Ian

this topic gets fewer and fewer people posting so don't beat yourself up that it gets no hits, it is a good topic that should be brought up every now and then for newer members

my views are dont encourage it but hey if you do it, wat will the vigilante fish brigade come knocking at the door?, your tank, your home, your rules.

why not try make a useful super hybrid and mate a toaster wit a gourami and make a super cool transforming fish that makes pop tarts. Ian could you draw me up a genetic blueprint for such a design?

Ill add my two cents and please note this is my personal view

I feel that Hybrid fish should be culled or kept not traded,
If the fish are traded you run the risk of them being passed further on and the fact that they are hybrid fish will soon be forgotten and people will think they are getting a full breed fish and possibly try breeding them under false ilusion,
If you keep the fish which would be the individuals choice you run the risk of cross breeding in the future which can only lead to a negative outcome.

Dar please leave the toaster alone.

What about the "fancy" goldfish varieties, surely these were hybridised at some stage.

christyg wrote:

What about the "fancy" goldfish varieties, surely these were hybridised at some stage.

More than likely what are your views on that

Goldfish are not really hybrids as such, they are selectively bred 'sports' or mutations.

David wrote:

christyg wrote:

What about the "fancy" goldfish varieties, surely these were hybridised at some stage.

More than likely what are your views on that

Love the 'natural' types, common, comet, and shubunkins; hate the 'fancies', I think they're unnatural looking

The natural goldfish is olive green.
Even the 'gold' goldfish is a mutant.

The globe type goldfish can potentially suffer a few internal problems because of their shape (a foot long fishes guts crammed into a 6 inch body I guess).

However, I do have a strange soft-spot for the fancy goldfish even though I am a bit of a purist.

Ok slightly of topic hear

I did a search on goldfish Hybrid and i have to say god there are some awfull looking fish
If they were in my tank i am sorry to say i know what i would do

all of the coloured swordtails in the hobby are supposed to be hybrids with the closely related platy. the story was that the wild swordtails such as catemeco were plain greenish fish and they were crossed with the smaller and more coloured variatus or maculatus platy to get the reddish colour and then the other colours were developed over the years. the modern swortails all seem to breed true without any further crossing with other species.

David wrote:

Hybrid Fish, Fish whose parents are not the same species what would you do.

Regards

Suppose if you go back far enough, all species have been hybridised as some stage. I think that if hybrids are not able to reproduce successfully, its Mother Natures way of telling them its not on.

You'll never beat mother nature!!!!

Hey David; you shlda ask for a poll there= answer either A;B;C or other.

I vote A.

Hi,
in my opinion there are enough shapes,colours,sizes....availiable in the fish world.So no need for hybrids.When it happens scull them or keep them for yourself-there are enough hybrids been imported through wholesalers known or unknown.Regards,Tim

i love my flowerhorns
what more can i say
each to their own with their own tanks