hybrid fish in the hobby
whats your thoughts ?
have you got any ?
is there any you would like ?
just wondering what every ones views are on the subject of hybrid fish and if you think they are worthwile or not

GREAT topic!

I'm bound to get yelled at by someone for this, but whatever. It's 95% playing devil's advocate anyway - just to get things started.

As I'm not a "fish snob" I'm not so worried about it. Here's why..

Unless you're genetically manipulating fish in a petri dish, you're really not screwing up nature in any way. Fish in the wild cross-breed I'm sure. I don't think that in africa there is a "Yellow Lab" lake and a "Blue Ahli" lake etc. (Although that would be kind of cool!)

And..if the creator gave certain fish the ability to cross-breed, what's the big deal?

I personally don't have any hybrids. Not by choice but by coincidence. My only concern would be that by too much crossbreeding that it's possible to evenually completely water down the original bloodline. That would bother me.

Ok...there's the devil's advocate point....who has the counter-point?

think about it you have more than you realise (will come back to that remark later) but come on people let us here your views

I'd never thought about in anyway until joining Planet Catfish late last year. And was surprised at how strong the emotions run with the topic.

Personally, I've no ambitions to cross-breed any fish. Nor would I impede any fish from doing so, should one (or two) in my tank find themselves in that position.

I find the whole aspect of evolution quite fasinating, including the geographical element. One side where some individuals who can't make it with the habitat, don't pass on their genes. The other side, where one population seperates, and then evolves seperately, until they are classed by 'man' as a seperate species.

Biologically speaking, if two fish can 'cross-breed', then they likely were the same species once anyway. And I feel, if anyone wants to get upset about the damage that cross-breeding would do to those species, perhaps they should think about the damage being done by placing millions of these same species, in glass tanks all around the world.

Well for starters, every discus except for the original four basic types (Brown - Symposium aequifaciatus axelrodi, Blue - S.a. haraldi, Heckel S. discus, and Green S.a. aequifaciatus) is a hybrid/subspecies.

And if I were really really motivated and spent today looking it up, I'm sure I could find more. BN's maybe. Not sure. I'm guessing that almost anything in my tanks could be technically - KOI angels, german rams. I don't know for sure. I suppose many plecs could be, too. Just don't wager on me doing the research right now.

Like I said - I was just starting a conversation. Not much of a fish snob like the guys Kana was referring to at PC who get all bent over it.

So...which ones are you referring to?

i just wanted to start a discusion to see what peoples thoughts were and to see if they had actually thought about it as there are a lot more hybrids in the hobby than a lot of people realise plus if you think about it there is more than one way of hybriding a fish such as colour morphs, body shapes and of course cross breeding two different species but then i suppose you could say that most of your "fancy fishes" are the result of this, yes your correct about there only being four species of discus think also guppys do you honestly think they are found in the wild like that ? but then would you call that geneticaly modified ?

If you hadn't brought up Guppies, I would have.

However, I don't fully agree with how you're using the word 'Hybrid'. In my mind, it is the product of bringing together of two different, but compatible strains. And does not relate to the occurance of trait diversity, through natural, or artificial means.

Yes, Guppies are selectively bred for particular traits. This is not genetic modification, as those genes, and traits are carried naturally. It's just bad luck, that in the wild, the bright yellow fantail Guppy tends to stick out from the crowd, and ends up as breakfast.

Only laboratory tampering at the sub-cellular level would be genetic modification.

I have nothing against selective breeding. I believe that every single fish that ends up in the Aquarium Trade, has become part of a global selective breeding regime. It is only those that remain wild that escape it.

But do they? Depleting the native gene pool, essentially renders that genetic environment toward selective breeding, as we've reduced the possibilities of genetic diversity.

Hadn't even thought of guppies...geez.

The main reason Guppies get in on something like this, so well, is because of their high reproduction rate. For anyone even remotely interested in an observational experiment in genetics, they're a boon.

ah but kana this is just my oppinion and so therefore my interperation of genetical modification think ballon mollies just because its not done in a petri dish but by selective breeding does not mean its not geneticaly changing a fish or does it ?
this is a hybrid


but do you know what it is ?

Your twin, that your Mother has kept hidden in the cellar for all these years?

Some type of red Tail?